. Now you can see they've really taken shape.
I'm very happy with the way they turned out. I designed everything as far as the dimensions of the shelves, the divided shelves on the top 2 rows, the cubby holes above the window and still to come, the bench and cabinet below the window.
Can you see the detail here? There are 4 little rosettes above 4 pieces of vertical grooved trim on either side and either side of the window.
They left here around 2:30 pm because they ran out of materials. So the one guy has to return to do the seat and cabinet below the window.
I can't wait to fill these shelves up with stuff, but I will have to prime and paint it first, which will probably take forever. I already researched paints and knew that plain latex would NOT be a good choice because when I used it on my 2 entry doors, despite having a lengthy time to dry, the paint lifted right off when I closed and then opened it.
Oil paints smell too much but I think I found something that doesn't have the tackiness of latex paint. It's called a waterborne enamel.
I'll be doing a white semi-gloss to match all my other trim. I am still thinking about whether I should paint the back of each shelf in a pale turquoise color to match my repainting of the risers on the main staircase which is close to the dining room. I got an idea from Better Home & Garden where you paint each riser, (or every 2 risers) starting from the bottom successively lighter shades of the same color. To make sure the colors match, you just go to the paint store and pick your favorite colors from one of those sample color strips. So you would use maybe 3 or 4 shades of the same color and my favorite color is turquoise.
I would use the palest shade of turquoise for the back wall of the shelves to tie that room in with the staircase, since the staircase is open on both sides, to the dining room at the right and the living room to the left.
I still don't know the status of my contract job situation. Am supposed to hear today when or if I'm to come in on Monday. If I do start Monday, I may have to wait til the following Saturday to have carpenter back to do the bench/cabinet. Which is ok, but I just don't want this to drag on too long.
Otherwise, if I don't start that contract job, he can come back on Monday to finish.
So here's the dollars and cents part of it. I gave the first carpenter $500 cash, and a day or two later, another $200 cash, for materials. I have the receipts so I now he spent about $550, leaving $143 left over which he kept when he left here so abruptly.
However, I kept track of his time spent and I calculated that I still owe him $250 in addition to the $143 he kept. For the life of me I can't understand why he thinks he's been paid in full. He's not the kind of person to be charitable and I can't imagine he miscalculated.
So to date I've spent a total of $1227 on the bookshelves; I'm hoping when he comes back (I assume without his helper tho I will check) that he could finish the bench in 4 hours or less, so total not including a few extra materials would be $1447, which I'm happy with. There are also a few pieces of molding/trim that weren't used, so I will bring back for a refund.
NOW look at the bookshelves!
May 4th, 2017 at 07:43 pm
May 4th, 2017 at 08:30 pm 1493929837
May 4th, 2017 at 09:35 pm 1493933729
Your contractor probably feels shame for his behavior and that's why he's not contacted you. I had to have part of my sidewalk redone several years ago after a sewer pipe failed. The deal with my contractor was that I gave him half the money ($450) plus a $50 fee to pay City Hall the permit up front, and I would pay him the other $450 when the City Inspector approved the completed job.
He did a good job, but when the City Inspector came by, he told me that the $50 permit had never been paid by the Contractor. I called the contractor, told him that I would not pay him the second half of his fee until the City received the $50 permit fee. He never paid it, and eventually I paid it directly to the City--and I never did pay the Contractor the other half of his fee. He also left half a dozen traffic cones up around the site while the sidewalk dried. For months, I called him and said, "they're on my porch, just come and pick them up while I'm at work," but he never did. So for $550 (rather than the $950 I was expecting), I had two sidewalk panels redone and got six traffic cones to boot (I use one occasionally when we have snow since I have no driveway, but that's it).
I hope everything works out with the contract job.
May 4th, 2017 at 09:43 pm 1493934194
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May 11th, 2017 at 02:43 am 1494470588