Painting in Progress

I first began this process in February, got a few quotes in March, but ultimately decided to go with my trusted Jesus, who wasn'’t going to be available to start for several months, as he was on a big project in Santa Barbara. Which was a referral from a referral of mine. I'’m happy that he'’s doing well, driving a new red truck and all, but it'’s increasingly difficult to get into his schedule if you'’re not prepared to wait in line.

Now, Jesus and I go way back. He was on my foundation crew, working for Sinai Construction back in the summer of 1999 when I bought the house. After that he went out on his own and he'’d stop by occasionally and say Hi and chat and see if there was anything he could do for me. I had a few odd jobs on occasion but it wasn'’t until my corner tenant moved out and Will moved in that I called him to open up the rental unit to the rest of the house, making it our library, and renovating the bathroom.

He did it all in two weeks with his helper, Victor. Demo'’d the stove gas line, cabinets, relocated the electrical switch and light fixture, put up new drywall, and tiled the bathroom, moved plumbing and installed a new sink, molding, trimmed out the door, installed a ceiling fan and painted the entire space, including ceilings. The whole thing in two weeks. And he pays attention to the details and he does good honest work.

So I waited for his schedule to open up, which began last week, with Victor here on his own for the first few days prepping. As he sanded away the old layers of paint I was surprised that there weren'’t more coats. It looks like under the top coat is a creamy color, over a grey (probably a primer), over a hunter green.

Now Victor and Jorge are at it and color is going up, fast. I'’m very excited to see it all done. I'’ll post a few shots as it progresses.

Part of what I've want to do is restore the knee braces. I have all the horizontal pieces, but the diagonal braces have been removed. It would have been nice if they had just tossed them in the basement, but they are long gone from the premises. After much searching of the itnernets I did find knee braces, but they are expensive, and I only need the diagonal piece, and I need 19 of them.

So I thought a less expensive solution would be to use the existing projection, have the workers cut a 6x6 angle piece then "cap" it with a decorative molding. I found a very reasonable manufacturer and ordered a few diferent styles to sample, then Jesus and Victor worked out the measurements and angles and installed a piece to see how it looked. When it's all caulked and painted it'll look like one stunning piece.

I made my choice and ordered the other 17. However, the manufacturer is in Cananda, and they were running behind in their production and wouldn't be shipping my order until mid-July. I replied that's fine as my project won't be starting until about mid-July, and the timeframe would work out fine.

When the first week of August passed and I still hadn't received my order I shot them an email. I got the reply that my order shipped 08/01/06 by DHL. Well countless emails and excuses later informing me it's all DHLs fault, of lost packages, hazardous spills in the DHL facility, getting held up in customs, and finally that I should have delivery by Monday (yeah, we'll see).

I guess eventually they'll un-burry themselves from whatever stories they have manufactured to cover the delays and actually get my order produced and shipped to me. And hopefully they'll arrive before my worker's go on to their next project and I have to wait another 5 months to finish this one.