Sarah's House discouragement

[chachp]

Electrician

 

<span style="font-family: 'American Typewriter', serif;">Sarah,</span>

<span style="font-family: 'American Typewriter', serif;"> </span>

<span style="font-family: 'American Typewriter', serif;">The house really looks nice with some paint on it.</span>

<span style="font-family: 'American Typewriter', serif;"> </span>

<span style="font-family: 'American Typewriter', serif;">I have a similar story to yours on the electrician cutting the hole.  Years ago my best friend was redoing a kitchen in a warehouse he was turning into a home for himself.  He wanted an industrial kitchen so he went commercial on everything including under counter refrigerators and stainless counters like you would have in an restaurant kitchen.  The backsplash was a custom made stamped stainless steel in a diamond pattern that he waited months for.  The counters had cutouts for the plugs and switches so nothing needed to be attached to the backsplash.  </span>

<span style="font-family: 'American Typewriter', serif;"> </span>

<span style="font-family: 'American Typewriter', serif;">Because he had a huge commercial stove, he had to have one of the restaurant exhausts installed to meet code.  He left specific instructions which of the cutouts in the counter to use for the switch and confirmed the electrician understood what he wanted.  It was even written into the work order they both signed.  He was out of town when the work was done and when he got home there was conduit across the stamped backsplash from one end to the other with holes drilled to attach it and a big switch under the exhaust.  He went nuts as you can imagine.  The contractor had to replace all the backsplash to make it right.</span>

<span style="font-family: 'American Typewriter', serif;"> </span>

<span style="font-family: 'American Typewriter', serif;">I hope yours can be patched.  It looks like beautiful wood.</span>

 

[sarahperdue]

Chandeliers and patches

I'll keep y'all posted on the paneling patches. If anyone can fix it, Jerry can. 

 

Meanwhile, I've fallen in love with a pretty dang expensive light fixture for the foyer, and it kind of ties the cool turquoise from the kitchen into the warmer colors of the rest of the house--or maybe I'm just imagining that because I'm, be still my heart, in love with this fixture.

 

S

https://www.ebay.com/itm/255381380047

 

[sarahperdue]

The patch

Jerry is amazing. Here are pictures of the patch. Check out how carefully he matched the wood grain. A little golden shellac, and no one will be able to tell.

 

[sarahperdue]

Getting better

Here are some recent pictures of the house. It’s hard to believe the difference paint makes. And I adore the little house that remained after I tore out the bedroom.

 

[sarahperdue]

Sadness of the bees

We salvaged siding from a house in the back pasture. There was a wild beehive in the walls. I told the contractors not to kill them because I would find a beekeeper to relocate them. They killed the bees and lied about it. By the time the beekeeper and I got there, the hive was dead and all the honey spoiled. The beekeeper said he’d never seen such a large hive, and the bees were a rare, wild species. I was so angry and sad I cried. A lot.

Here are pictures of the hive. It was magnificent. The beekeeper took it apart comb by comb and put it on the ground. He said that other bees would salvage any that wasn’t tainted by the gas.

He said the monetary value was incalculable, probably over $1,000. The first two pictures were taken before the hive was killed.

Sarah

 

[pulltostart]

Sarah,

Congratulations on great progress!  It's looking quite homey.  The free standing room is neat.  What was it before the work began, and what will it be in the finished life?

 

lawrence

 

[sarahperdue]

Insurance

I ended up getting a “builder’s risk” policy. It was more expensive but probably more appropriate. Thankfully it’s covered.

 

[justjunque]

Glad to see the progress with the house.
But, that's so awful about the bees.

Barry

 

[sudsmaster]

I might be inclined to take that contractor to court for killing those rare bees. What they did was stupid and pointless. However, it might be more trouble than it's worth, as it could be hard to assess your loss from wild bees, no matter how rare. I'd certainly never hire that contractor again.

 

 

[sarahperdue]

Court

It's not against the law to kill bees in Alabama. I could try a destruction of property angle, but he's a skilled contractor in a rural area. He's also a basically good but uneducated guy.  I'm keeping him on the job. 

 

Sigh. I'm printing out an infographic about bees and considering giving them packets of bee friendly wildflower seeds.

 

Sarah

 

[mattl]

Hopefully some of the colony survived.

 

Looks like progress is happening.  It may be slow, and almost imperceptible for some time but then "pow" a big change happens.

 

 

 

[sarahperdue]

Survival

Sadly, according to the beekeeper, once the queen dies, they all die. That means the bees that weren't in the hive at the time of the poisoning will not survive. 

 

Sarah