Cement Work

 In the course of building our home, there were more than a few tense exchanges with our builder, despite the fact that we really quite liked him.  We never guessed; however, that one of the most heated debates would take place after the house had closed.  Sadly, though, that ended up being the case.  Closing, in my mind, was supposed to be a celebration!  A time when you finally saw the fruits of your months of hard labor.  The house should finally be finished, and more so, be the picture of perfection--just the way you had dreamed about it.  With this expectation in mind, our closing, and the three months after closing, proved to be somewhat of a disappointment.  This was largely our own fault because we foolishly allowed a few things to go unfinished at closing, and soon reaped the consequences of our good will.  

The first thing on our list that went undone was the front door casing.  Because our cabinet maker got so far behind while piecing together our library, after it was finally finished, he begged us to let him come back in a month or so to finish the front door casing.  He had another home that had to be done before the parade of homes, and since we knew it was the library that had set him back, we agreed to go without the casing until the parade was over.  It was a little embarrassing to have such a beautiful, but unfinished entryway, but we loved Mike so much we consented.  Plus, we knew without a doubt he would return and do a wonderful job, not to mention compensate us financially.

Second on our list was our kitchen backsplash.  We happened to be out of town the week our granite arrived, and upon returning home, we were initially shocked at what had been installed.  The kitchen granite was so much whiter than the sample we had picked that I simply sat down on the kitchen floor and cried.  It was supposed to be a taupe color that tied in with the Italian tiles we had put on the floor, but instead it was practically white with only small taupe flecks.  I was devastated.  It was the first thing that had gone in that I wanted to change.  And furthermore, it wouldn't work with the backsplash we had picked at all.  We immediately canceled the backsplash order, took a credit for the materials and labor, and said we'd pick a new one sometime in the Spring when we were less burned out.  Little did we know that this would prove to be such a daunting task.  With almost three months under our belt, we're still no closer to getting a backsplash than we were on closing day.

And third on our list, and the source of much contention with our builder, was our sidewalk.  For whatever strange reason, the sidewalk between our front porch and our driveway never got poured in the Fall when the driveway got poured.  We were confused at the time, but figured the builder knew what he was doing.  Then, as winter arrived, and the temperatures plummeted, we started to get concerned.  No one could access our front door without a sidewalk there.  In the wintertime it was a treacherous, slippery mess, and in the Spring, we knew it would melt into a giant mud puddle.  With these things in mind, we told the builder quite plainly that despite the cold weather and frozen ground, we did not want to close without a sidewalk.  He assured us it would be done and we assumed, once again, that he would keep his word.

As the week of closing arrived; however, we still had no sidewalk poured.  Day after day, we brought it up, but day after day, it went undone.  Finally, I pulled the builder and the foreman aside and demanded an explanation.  I knew it would get put off until the Spring if we let them off the hook before closing, and I had no intention of going without a sidewalk that long.  Finally, during that confrontation, I got the explanation I wanted.  The ground was in fact too frozen to pour--BUT, they would bring in a ground thawer so that they could complete the job and everything would be fine.  That seemed to make sense to me, but to my great dismay, on closing day, it was still undone.  I was ready to cancel closing, but the foreman begged and pleaded and assured me that the thawer was just finishing at another home and would be there the next week.  I was hesitant, but in the end, believed the out-pouring of promises and we closed without the sidewalk.

And, surprise surprise--a week later, the thawer idea got the can and the builder decided we would wait til Spring to pour! Is it any wonder builders have such a bad reputation!  I was furious!  And I got more furious as every day passed.  People couldn't get to our front door when they came to visit.  The mail delivery services wouldn't deliver.  And, the biggest problem of all, the piano company policy required that the sidewalk be in before they would deliver our beautiful instrument!  Having the piano wasn't really urgent, but our interior decorator wanted the piano in before she would finalize our living room furniture order.  We much agreed, and so, with no sidewalk, were also left with no living room furniture. It was a head ache that was renewed each day as I sat on the old love seat and chair--the lone pieces of furniture on the main floor.

The winter seemed to last forever, and then even when Spring came, the builder shocked us by pouring the cement on his parade homes before making it to our sidewalk, despite more promises that we would be first on his list.  It was about as much frustration and deceit as I could handle.  Eventually, however, it finally got done. 

And then re-done.  And then re-done again.  It was like the sidewalk was cursed.  Three was a charm though, and after the third pouring it was finally able to cure just the way we wanted it.  Hooray!!

In addition, with the cement guys at our house so frequently, we managed to talk them into pouring us a slab next to our garage as well.  

 

 

Nick needed a place to drive his riding lawnmower onto when he pulled it out of the garage, and I needed a place for this:

A little memento of our family's blood, sweat, and tears that have gone into getting this house done.