Halloween (boo!)

Fred calls around 1pm... he's heading to the house... there's an issue: we short on tile. He's going to investigate and will call me back. When he does around 1:30, he explains that we forgot to take into account the shower floors when calculating the tile. Damn. He's calling Marie at the tile place and she'll call me back with the damage. Great.

On the irony-free great side, however, he says we need to come by today. The house looks great, and he's now happy with the progress (Dad had gone by earlier and told me that the final coat of stucco was being applied; Joni was at home for lunch and gave me the same update); I told him I'd come by with Lisa around 2:15. He says he'll wait.

And when we get there, the application is in progress. So this is what stucco looks like before it's applied to the walls:


And it looks great on the wall as well:

Fred says that the color will soften a little as it dries. I think it looks good now, but if it does fade a little, it'll be great... even better.

So I cruise around the house--those portions stucco'ed--and take pics (they're up on the flash viewer... I won't bore you with the pics).

Fred then takes us through the house... the very light coat of "orange peel" texture has been applied downstairs

(and there's the air compressor that assists in the application and here's the applicator itself)


It's pretty cool. Once again, I take some pics (but won't take up the space here... use the viewer, man!

It's pretty nice. He breaks the news to us about the tile. That's a drag, there's no getting around it... and by visit's end, I've spoken to Marie the tile lady over Fred's phone and there goes another eleven hundred... (catch those benjamins as they fly out of my ass!). The toilets and bathroom sinks we bought last weekend arrived without a hitch, and they sit in the garage, awaiting installation:


Now Fred gives us some not-due-quite-yet homework: think about wall paint colors and kitchen sinks (we've started on both, though I think Lisa doesn't want to make a decision on colors yet... that makes this all permanent [like 6K on granite didn't...]). We're on it.

As we leave, we're pretty happy with the house. The stucco should be done in the next day or two. Then the roof can be finished.

Then the outside will be done (except for the lights, which Fred says we can begin to think about as well... He suggests we get at least one more fixture than we need... in case we have to replace one, and the style has gone out of production)

Fred thinks the kitchen cabinets (and the bathroom vanities since we've made the order with Cathy and the pieces are in stock) should begin to be installed sometime Saturday or Monday at the latest. He is now happy with progress. If he's happy, I think we're supposed to be, as well. It's always good to see progress being made. [Standing in the living room, looking into the downstairs bath and seeing tile where we had never had tile before was pretty damn exciting, I have to admit.]

Fred hasn't said a word about my website proposal. That's OK... though with more outlay for flooring and tile, I really need to barter for something of value...

But tomorrow is another month. And we're hopefully only two months away from moving back into our home.

-------------------

UPDATE: by the time we got to the Coreys' for Halloween candy distribution, the front was done, too...


Pretty cool...

Another Month Gone (or close enough at least to write it)

Today's the 30th. Except for tomorrow (Halloween), month number four is now in the books. According to "plans," we're two-thirds done (especially since last week Fred had used the term "two months").

Yesterday, Cathy the cabinet lady finally sent the drawings. They look OK. Lisa left her a message last night, asking about color (we could go white in all baths, if it cuts costs at all... or we could go with the light colored wood... the granite will match either)... we'll get a response today, I figure.

Last night, on the way to water polo, we dropped by the house. They've been sanding the drywall smooth... it's dusty everywhere (no wonder Fred wants no part of this part of the process).

The kitchen drywall is complete

(I guess they'll cut the hole for the vent later...)

The guest bath (Dad's) is in a holding pattern

the tile is still only halfway across the floor (but the bath looks great)

The master bath shower

and the boys'

have both been sealed. Cool.

And the boys can't wait to get into their home

Jack (and Kyle--not pictured) loves running up and down and jumping off the stairs.

Day after tomorrow is the first of the penultimate month.
Tomorrow is Halloween.
And tonight we see Bruce in concert. Exactly 27 years ago, I saw him for the first time. I have incredible memories from that show (the night before Halloween, he came out on stage in a coffin, sliding the neck of his Esquire out to roaring applause, then his head peeking, then jumping out to kick off the show with an old rockabilly number "Haunted House"... later he performed "Independence Day" and it brought me to tears... before "I Wanna Marry You" he said, "This is a song about unrequited love" and when the crowd "ahh"-ed, he shot back with a grin, "Ah, you don't even know what that means." [but every high school senior does, and I did, and I cheered]... introducing "Ramrod" he told a Halloween story of the "headless car-man"...). I can only hope Jack and Kyle will have memories of tonight three decades from now... and hopefully, it will be a great distraction from all of that keeps us up at night.

Cabinets (or lack thereof)

Cruised by the house yesterday afternoon, after the workday was done.

No cabinets (even though kitchen stuff was to be delivered yesterday). Half the guest bath floor was tiled, though... as was all of the floor in the laundry room. It looks like they had some kind of explosion/leak when creating the new fridge ice maker water source... there was a pretty large wet spot in the kitchen.

This morning Cathy the cabinet lady called with a quote for the three baths: $2100 total. That's about $400 over what was budgeted. I asked for a breakdown by cabinet. She said she'd call me back, and when she did she said that it wouldn't "benefit" me to do separate purchases (need for side fillers, back plywood, blah blah blah), and refused to give me a piece-by-piece breakdown. If we "fell in love" with a piece for a specific room, she could give us the pricing for the remaining room/rooms at that point. Then she mentioned that she'd like to do all the cabinets at once, and that she was by the house yesterday and the kitchen wasn't yet ready for her... she said it looked like a week before they'd be ready for kitchen cabinets... so if we could let her know ASAP about bathroom stuff, she could deliver all the materials in one shot.

I told her that I'd talk to Lisa about it over the weekend... Cathy's sending JPEGs of the cabinet configurations later today, so we'll have something to discuss.

I don't know what to think. I'm just tired and bored with all this (especially looking at a budget sheet that is never "on-the-money"...

Meeting

Met with Fred. (Lisa) Voiced our concerns. He listened. But I don't think anything changed.

We discussed stuff. Stuff in the plans not going according to plan... or seemingly costining us when we thought they were included (all finish is ours... so those desks in the boys' rooms will be built in on our dime). Bathroom vanities (the boys' bath needs to be one full bank [not broken up]). The mold (it'll get sprayed if it's mildew or replaced if it's mold). The alarm box (it'll be removed). Flooring (we're going wood throughout the first floor... no tile in the kitchen). Kitchen cabinets (installation is supposed to begin tomorrow). Bath grout (off white). Shower enclosure doors (they're being reduced in width from their custom sizes to the standard 5 feet... so we can economize). The upstairs deck materials issue (Fred will correct Frank... again).

And Fred thinks he can get us back in in two months. That would be before Christmas... my hopes for the end of the year are rekindled. [I know I don't sound thrilled, but I'm reasonably happy]

Fred's been hinting to me that he'd like me to rebuild his web site... that maybe we could barter some stuff. So I put together a proposal (using some concepts I've learned in a new programming interface Flex)... so I gave that to him today. He seemed to like it (though I think he could be a real pain in the ass to work with design-wise...). We'll see... I'd love to get the deck back (or maybe the boys' desks) back in exchange.

We'll see.

Quick Hit

Cruised by the house with Lisa and the boys yesterday afternoon (to put up little markers on the doors, marking some as doors and some as "wrap" [meaning no door needed], but more on that later).

Tile work has begun!

Looks good... just wish that window was bigger. (think BIG picture, Bill, BIG picture)

They've built the frame for the shower bench in the master bath

and that looks cool.

What doesn't, however, is the master closet:

Is that mold in the corner? Hope not... we'll talk to Fred about that. (more on that later)

And as we leave, we see the back-hoe/front-loader prepping to tear up the street... looks like the experiment to "pull" the water line to the meter didn't work.

Damn. There's $3200. It was too much to wish for: Callegas waives the $2500 fee, and the water line costs $6800. One step up, two steps back.

Notice, too, the weird look of the sky (and of the light coming in from the bathroom window in the first pic): that's a result of the local wildfires that have been ravaging Southern California. And this has been the clearest day since the start of the fires on Sunday (that day, the smoke was so thick in downtown Oxnard that the afternoon sky looked like twilight).

We meet with Fred today. We need to discuss this whole "plan" thing. Yesterday, Frank calls wanting to know about doors and (what really pissed me off) the deck. What's the materials for the deck. I could only get out "It's in the plans." Didn't want to get pissed. But come on, people. Are Lisa and I the only ones who know the plans.

Anyway we meet with Fred in a little over an hour. It's 96 degrees, and we're hoping the meeting doesn't get hotter.

Some Good News (or at least not bad)

Callegas just called. They're waiving the $2.5K fee for extra water use.

The Tile guys are in and are working on Dad's bathroom... I'll cruise by with the camera later (probably when I pick up Jack) and take some pics. When I opened up the gate for him, it looked like the water contractors were there to begin work.

Our meeting with Fred was postponed yesterday due to traffic (the freeways have been hell because of the fires)... we'll meet tomorrow. The fires also canceled last night's water polo practice for Kyle, so we took advantage of the time to look at some bathroom vanities. We're still waiting to hear from Cathy the cabinet lady re: costs for custom-built bathroom cabinets, but for the moment it looks like we're going to go a cheaper route and get pre-fab vanities form Home Depot and Lowe's (though we may still go with Cathy for the master bedroom... it all depends on prices).

No Report

Sorry for the lack of blogs... busy and kinda bored with the remodel thing right now. Not much happening.

Fred called Friday. Left wood flooring and tile samples. We'll meet with him tomorrow after school. We looked at bathroom vanities Friday night. This is going to go overbudget as well, I think.

This is why I'm not making entries... it's just not fun right now.

Cabinets Redux

Emailed Coastline the docs with comments. Fred just called. We're going to trim a foot from each end (one with the microwave [that one was 36 inches wide... our micro is only 19], the other with the drawer [from 36 to 24]) to accommodate the cabinet at each end... he wants to raise it about 8 inches so that we can have the dual level counter (the bar on the living room-facing side of the island) wrap around the edges... sounds good to me.

All other cabinet questions were non-issues: soffit and hood are good.

Cabinets and Stuff

Met with Fred briefly today. He had the plans for the cabinets. After going over them with Lisa, there's a couple of issues we need to address. The plans still aren't clear on the wall hood (as opposed to an under-mount model). Also, the island calls for a built-in microwave, whereas the plans call for (and we want) a simple cabinet with an electrical outlet in it to hide the microwave... we don't want to have to pay for the facing that's necessary for the built in model. Also, the island plans don't address the cabinets that are supposed to cap the ends (since we're losing the full structure).

He seemed also to forget that we wanted wood flooring throughout the first floor (as he asked if we were going to carpet the bedrooms)... he also mentioned cost overruns in the wood flooring... that's something else that we'll need to address.

He says he'll have tile and wood samples in the next two days. The color / finish coat of stucco should go up late next week. Sanding the interior in prep for finish work should happen sometime this week, if the high humidity dies off.

He's concerned about the wetness in both the master bath and dad's room (I hadn't noticed the latter yesterday). He says he understands the bath issue (as it's under the not yet fully waterproofed upstairs deck), the but the bedroom issue bothers him.

He wants to start two finish crews next week, to push the pace to finish.

Let's hope it works out...

No Enthusiasm

Been nearly a week since the last dispatch.

Thursday, I cruised by the house to drop off the check with Fred. He seemed in quite the funk. Never saw him smoke before. He confided in me that the reason he had to take the 20-minute phone call during our granite excursion last Monday is that he needed to talk to his dad in Israel. Fred's decided to leave his synagogue... he's had a philosophical difference of opinion with his rabbi. So he seemed in a funk.

I know how he feels. I just haven't felt like blogging lately. The doc thinks I have sleep apnea so my ass is dragging; I've been off the anti-anxiety meds for nearly a month, and last week was so hectic that I missed a couple of days of anti-depressants... so that may have an effect ... as might yesterday's being Mom's birthday (who knows... and honestly, right now, who cares... I know that it's hard for me to build up any enthusiasm right about now).

ANYway... Cruised by the house yesterday to show it off to visiting family (yep, Becky, that means you!). The locks are still not installed (hellooooo, Frank?). There seemed to be some wetness in the master bath (it rained over the weekend)... I'm a little concerned about that... I'll need to cruise by and check that today.

Today's the 15th... Fred wants to begin indoor finish work sometime this week to have a shot at getting into the house by the end of the year.

Here's knocking on wood.

Dispatches

Yesterday, Dana called to deliver the final price for the granite: $5905. Good. She also needs the $18K for windows (the last $18K [a little over a week ago], it turns out, was for plumbing). Man. Then, she also asked if Lisa and I would be interested in appearing in Coastline's Ventura County TV ad. I told her I wanted to confer with Lisa first.

Nuh-uh. No way. Even if I wasn't leaning toward unhappiness in all this, I'm not sure I would appear in an ad. Lisa said she didn't want to be on TV at all (unless we can get her on "Don't Forget the Lyrics"... win a mil... and not worry about our budget AT ALL!).

Last night we picked up the rest of the door locks (we needed to return some mismatched ones)... good thing, too. Neighbor Linda called last night to tell us, her dog Sid barked and scared off some people lurking around in the middle of the night a few days back.

So today, I dropped off the locks, called Frank to let him know the locks were at the house, called Dana to decline the TV offer (yeah, right), and to let her know we'd be around the next few days to pass off the checks.

Excursion

Yesterday went pretty well after a rocky start.

Fred called at 10 to 10, asking where we were. He was under the assumption that we were meeting at 10, not 11 (as scheduled).

We got there at 11 (since Kyle had a tooth extracted at 9 and we had to get him and Jack to Dad before we could head out).

We picked out cabinets in Simi: though we leaned toward shaker-style, both Fred and Cathy (the cabinet lady) felt that with the curve and size of the island, we should go with something a little less angular. It worked for Lisa (and I really didn't care), so there you go. Fred was amazed that we made a decision so quickly: just 10 minutes (doesn't he know us by now).

Then we went down into the valley to pick out tile. Again quick decisions. The tile for the boys' and dad's baths was easy: something clean and versatile, so that cabinet colors and granite colors could coordinate... [good thing I remembered to bring the cell phone for pix]


The tile for the master bath was only slightly less easy: more earthy, more natural (sandy), something that we could build a nature motif around:


We left kitchen tile for later (as Fred has some tile that he thinks would be perfect... he'll bring samples later this week)... but just for the baths (and the laundry room ... which will be the lighter tile) it's a whopping $3800 (and we budgeted only $2K ... though I thinking I budgeted the shower enclosures much higher than necessary to take into account shower tile costs).

At this point, we're feeling pretty good: Lisa and I are in agreement on everything. We've talked to Fred about some things (hood vent, kitchen reconfig [we'll be moving the fridge from the right to the left side... the $500 to move the electrical and plumbing are the "last freebies" according to Fred... I let this go for now... he's in the midst of major tooth/gum infection, and I don't want to get embroiled in discussion that Lisa had wanted to broach today: the off-plan "abuse" she's (we've) been feeling... we figure we can do this later)], and we feel good about the progress we're making today.

Then it was across town for granite. When we enter the place, he tells us not to settle or compromise on granite. He also says that this place's prices can feel high, but that they've got the best quality granite he's seen (which much be why we didn't even look at the granite at either the cabinet place or the place next door to the tile place). We go in and we see granite that we love immediately (dark, almost black, but blue as well). He stops us. Look at ALL the granite he tells us. And so we do. Midway through our viewing, the woman who will be handling the sale arrives back from lunch (a lunch we haven't had yet), and she shows us through the rest of the warehouse and to the outside selections as well. While outside, we find a funky green granite with huge blocks of color. It was neat, and fun, and still "natural." We started to think about it for the boys' bath. (a partial slab had a price of $250... which was a slight relief... as I had budgeted $7K for kitchen granite and $250 each for the boys' and dad's bathroom vanity tops, and an additional $600 for the master bath vanity top.)

By the time we head back into the warehouse, Lisa's warming so much to this fun green granite, that she's thinking it could work for ALL the baths, ours included. We look at the slab:

The large chunks of color allow for coordination with both the off-white tiling of the two baths (with either white or dark gray cabinetry), as well was the sandier tile for the master bath (with either brown or green cabinetry). (you really can't tell from the pic, but it's much greener and mossier than it appears... damn the lighting in the warehouse!)

The slab of granite that should be able to cover all the bathroom needs is usually $1600, but given Fred's history and relationship with the vendor, we can get it for $900 plus tax. Excellent.

So back to the kitchen stuff. We get it narrowed to three (then because one of them is not blue as we had thought but green, and then because of pricing of another one) then to one:

[this pic doesn't do the slab justice: it's much darker and bluer and richer than it appears (again, the light in the warehouse wrecked havoc with the pic)]

Of course we'll need between four and five slabs to do the counters and the island. We've ordered five slabs, but we'll only take possession of four.

When all is said and done, the granite order is $6K. This is great: I had budgeted just over $8K for kitchen granite and the bath vanity tops. This offsets the $1800 over budget for the tile. (Of course, we still have kitchen tile to go... but I think we'll be OK)

So the excursion ends, and Fred heads off to the dentist and we head back to the county. Exhausted (so much so that I couldn't write this last night).

We're feeling a bit better about all this. Even though we didn't get to talk to Fred about some of our issues, the fact that we've now made decisions about finishes makes us feel that we're closer to getting this finished and moving back into our home.

And this is a good thing. (especially as the paint on the bathtub [and just who the heck PAINTS a BATHTUB?] is peeling most atrociously in this Santa Ana dryness)

Nook Windows

Cruised by the house... the nook windows are in...

and it looks good from the inside as well...


There's also stucco around the fire sprinkler opening (and it's boxed...)

Sandblasting and Stucco

As I noted yesterday, the sandblasters arrived yesterday morning...

And so I took one last picture of a "yellow" garage:


By the time I swung back around last night, the garage was no longer yellow (or lumpy):

though the alarm box that we wanted removed (since it hadn't worked in the 13 and a half years since we moved in)... is still there...


Kinda cool how the new stucco's base layer is rougher than the existing garage's blasted-down layer...


So this is what the base layer looks like:


They've left a hole in the wall for fire sprinkler control access:


I headed around the house to check out the stucco work:











Where's that hood vent???





So the house does look different... can't wait for color:


So I headed inside and took lots of high res pics of the drywall (low-res versions are in Sunday's entry... the ones Lisa sent to me when I was in Chicago)... I've posted them up in the Photo/Progress Viewer... but here are a couple of note:

The entry and breakfast nook look really cool side-by-side:


They've started work on the kitchen soffit

(but not the hood vent)

The breakfast nook is shaping up

Lisa and I have been prepping ourselves to not have the built-in nook, and just move a small table into the area (who knows if this will save money or not be covered by "Fred's plans"... who knows, indeed)

The rooms looks so cool with walls (check out that Photo Viewer!)

The deck is looking cool with the solid walls to the west (the eastern portion will have a railing):


It looks like there's been another deviation from the plan:

The attic ceiling access was supposed to be behind the mini-wall-structure unit (where it would be hidden), but here it is in the family room itself. Oh, well.

I'm loving the built-in soffits above the boys' desks

They look really cool.


As do the closets:


If I sound just a little reserved in my enthusiasm, it's because all of this is taking a toll. On my patience, on what had been pretty solid agreement between Lisa and me on how we view the progress (she's still looking at the positives, where I can only see deviations now), on restful sleep, on communication between us concerning the project (I think neither one of us is excited to bring up the topic in conversation anymore). Look, I'm not usually a cheery guy to begin with... and of late, our interaction with Fred (or in my mind, his interaction with the plans) ain't helpin'... Hopefully, we can get some of this resolved (and if not resolved, at least, spoken) in our meeting with Fred Monday.

Stress, More Anger and Unhappiness, and Scattered Thoughts

Back in Hueneme.

Yesterday at the airport, talked to both Dad and Lisa. Dad has concerns about the vent for the kitchen hood (not yet installed)... he also mentioned something about the refrigerator needing to be moved. This was news. Lisa said that yes this was a possibility raised at Monday's meeting. The window is about three to six inches away from the refrigerator... the contractor wants to put a half wall (which by the way is NOT in the plans) up from the counter to the overhead soffit to "hide" the fridge, but then that's up against the window. SO they want to move the fridge to the other end of the counter... but they think this will cut into the pantry. More lost space. Lisa seems OK with this, but I don't. The more lost space is killing me... I hate clutter, and I see this turning into a clutterfuck. Plus, I'm none too pleased that Lisa didn't tell me this on Monday.

She said she didn't want to add to my stress and anger. Well, that's fine, but she should know by now--after knowing each other for over two and a half decades and 17 years of marriage, that my anger grows exponentially with each new piece of bad news... so I'd rather be informed of bad news immediately, all at once, instead of having it dribble in, during which with each new piece I relive each old piece and they snowball quickly. By the end of the call, Lisa's in tears, I'm pissed, and sorry, and angry at myself, and fuming at Fred, that he's putting us through this (look, man, at this point, I could give two shits about a solution, I just want someone to blame).

So by call's end, I ask if there's anything else. Nothing. Except that she found a new fridge... two hundred dollars more than the old. And that the oven we want (in black) isn't available... backordered big time. Great. But other that that nothing else looms on the horizon.

Except this morning, she tells me that she bought new locks for the doors (since the gold stuff we had before doesn't match the gunmetal lines of the glass front door and side light)... and they cost more than expected. $360. That wasn't in our budget since we were going to use the existing locks (which were all keyed to the same key... I'm willing to bet these new locks aren't... so we'll need to get that done... any guesses as to how much that'll cost?).

And when we get into the car for me to drive Kyle to the bus stop and Lisa and Jack to school, the damn tire light comes on (after I had taken the car in last week). Oh, yeah, that light came on earlier in the week. Gee, I need to take care of that now. Great.

So after I drop off Lisa and Jack, I cruise by the house. Most of the south and east facing walls have been stuccoed (no visible external vent for the kitchen hood... whatever... if they have to, they'll have to cut into the wall and repair it later... because DAMNIT that vent is going in there). I don't inspect any closer because the sandblaster is there ready to work on the garage... there's no stucco on the west wall at all. I take a couple of pics but my heart really isn't into it (I think I'm getting depressed... hmm, movement from anger to depression... is this a good thing? does this mean I'm moving on?) ... I'll post them later today.

But for now there's too much to do (car, City water stuff, client stuff for work). I need to breathe. What I really need to do is ride. But I won't have time for that today. Maybe tomorrow.

Maybe...

The Morning After (Effect and Cause)

Couldn't fall asleep until nearly 2... it's just after seven now... it's going to be a very long day. Will need caffeine (too bad I don't drink coffee).

Anger and Unhappiness

[NOTE: Lisa doesn't share my feelings. She probably hates that I'm even writing this. Too bad. Got to let the monster out. She can skip reading this entry.]

Lisa sent me a text message with a pic of the front door during her meeting with Fred:

It looks great.

She said that Fred was unhappy with Frank over his discussion of money last week (re: the sandblasting of the garage); Frank, according to Fred, spoke out of turn... the sandblasting is included. That's great.

But now there are other issues...

Seems like all that redwood that has been stacked and covered in the backyard was ordered "by accident." If we pay for it (three grand, a "really good price" according to Fred), they'll build the deck.

Uh, what? Wait a minute. Wasn't the deck in the plans? And how the hell is the redwood an "accident"... and why would we need to pay for it?

The bank of high glass cabinets, suspended by two tall column cabinets that cap the ends of the island in the kitchen... well, that needs to go. Fred had a kitchen planner there today, and they said that it was stupid to have the structure there in the kitchen, now that we've opened it up; it messes with the sight lines. Even though the cabinets are glass, and that the supporting cabinets (not glass) are eleven freaking feet apart.

Lisa has never been a fan of this structure; she could never picture it (not even with the elevation). I could and I thought it was cool. If we lose it now, my concern is all the lost cabinet space. Without the tall columns cabinets at the ends of the island, we lose A LOT of storage space (the high horizontal glass pieces were always for me decorative and not functional)... the kitchen planner's replacement idea of low cabinets (to the height of the island) will buy back some, but not nearly half of the storage space. Whatever. Lisa didn't like the structure, so I can live with losing it. What I hate is the (underlying) rationale of Fred's: expense. The cabinet structure would run (according to Lisa's conveyance of Fred's estimate) nearly 60K.

BUT GEE... WASN'T
IT

IN


THE



FUCKING



PLANS?

Breathe.

So we're supposed to meet with the kitchen planner next Monday, to finalize that cabinet issue (which, we believe, IS covered by our contract), to pick out vanities for the bathrooms (NOT covered, but we knew that), and to pick out tile and granite (again NOT covered, but we knew that, too)... IF we can fit that all in on one day.

Like I really want to be part of that trip right about now.

Lisa hates to tell me these things because this is how I react. I get pissed (which is unpleasant for her), or I want to bail (which is no help to her). But my take is that anger is the only rational response to getting put over a barrel and reamed. And if she doesn't want me to display that anger to Fred, then I don't want to be a part of any meeting... it's safer that way. So Lisa's in a bind because she wants me there (but pleasant). I'm in a bind because I want to help Lisa, but I'm too pissed to "just play nice."

I know that rationally I don't want to blow up at Fred because he has us in a very precarious situation. We piss him off, and he can prolong this to the end of the full contract (mid-February)... I want back in the house by the end of the year, and I know our only shot at this is to keep him happy.

But him happy at what cost to us? And I mean that both emotionally and financially.

Sure, he's had to build soffits to house plumbing, ducting and the laundry chute because of architectural drawing deficiencies (of course, that laundry chute issue was caused because they altered the plan to line up the roofline to align it with the garage, forcing it over and down where the laundry chute should be, making it impossible to put in a low door for the chute, blah blah blah). Soffits. Quite frankly, I don't give a flying fuck about soffits. Do the soffits cost more than the east window in the stairwell? or the window over the mirror in the master bath? And you can't tell me that the soffits cost more than that "60K" cabinet structure in the kitchen?

WHAT THE FUCK WILL BE NEXT? can't be the deck... that's in the plans, but seemingly not in Fred's plans. Maybe the breakfast nook?... maybe that doesn't get built in. Or maybe the desks in the boys' rooms? (Lisa says that would be too much even for her... but I don't want to see it go that far)

My take is Fred's just lost any recommendations from me. Lisa doesn't want to go that far. She wants a good relationship with him when all this is done. Well, as far as I'm concerned until "all this is done" ACCORDING TO THE FUCKING PLANS, my recommendation is in my heart and mind and mouth... and not coming out any time soon.

In my anger, I asked Lisa is it too much to ask that people just do what the fuck they're expected to do (like build a structure according to the god damned blueprints... silly freaking me... I thought blueprints were supposed to--I don't know--DRIVE THE FREAKING CONSTRUCTION, not be a "wouldn't it have been nice if we could have done it that way, but that way was way too much trouble or way too expensive" exercise is mutual monetary masturbation).

OK... I've got it out of my system. Maybe I can sleep now in Chicago. I'm sorry Lisa had to meet with Fred alone... but I thought it was just going to be the handover of a ridiculously large check... not a descent into a quagmire of contractor-ly bullshit. I'm sorry Lisa had to deliver bad news to me. I'm sorry I'm too much of a dick to say, "It's OK, dear, 'cause I'm focused on the 'big picture' and all this is just stupid details, until our family is together living under one roof in a house that is our dream home." No, I just couldn't bite my tongue. And I'm sorry she had to hear me rant and rave. No question about it: I'm a prick.

But the only question left is: Can I play nice?

I have to... I want to get out from over this barrel, and move back into my house sometime in the next three months.