Sears Never Fails

We've needed a new TV ever since we moved our 14 year old 32" CRT TV to the bedroom.  It still works and has a decent picture, but it takes up a lot of room.

When we renovated the downstairs, we thought about furniture placement and where the TV would go.  We carefully measured so that our older buffet would fit between the two new windows and it ended up being the perfect size for a 46" Flat Panel TV.

We've been putting off buying the TV for about a month, but with company coming it just had to be done.  Valerie did her research with help of her sister who is in the business and we decided on either a Samsung or Sharp with Internet connectivity for downloading Netflix movies.  She found the best price on the Samsung at Sears and saw online that our local Sears had exactly one left.


We arrived at Sears at 10:25 and they opened at 10:30.  We were the first ones in the side door, but still managed to get to the electronics department with four people ahead of us.  I kind of felt sorry for the salesman because there was five people waiting and he was the only one in the department.  Of course, the first person on line had to do a return and then a purchase and he wanted his discount for opening a Sears credit card.  Awesome.  He needed a manager override for the new price, and helped the next person at a register at the front of the department.

After about 20 minutes, we tracked him down at the front of the Electronics department helping other customers.

"Oh, I'm helping people up front now", was his explanation when we finally got to him.

Our salesman's associate was explaining the "Extended Warranty" to his customer when the customer said "It's a scam, no thank you."  Our salesman stopped what he was doing (helping us) and explained the virtues of spending an additional $250 on a $800 TV.

The customer was a little smart alleck and asked the salesman, "Are you saying that my TV won't last three years?  Maybe I better go somewhere else to buy it..."

"No, no, no, it's a good brand, but it's just like insurance!"

The other customer politely declined again and our guy got back to us.

"I see we only have one of your model in stock, I have to go and verify the inventory", he told us.  I kind of appreciated this considering what happened last time.  He came back in about 20 minutes and sure enough, they didn't have the unit.  Didn't even try to sell me another brand, a bigger size, or a different model.

As we were walking out, I said to Valerie that Sears never fails to disappoint me.

Putting It Back Together

The sheetrock repairs have left dust everywhere, on the floors, walls and furniture. Sheetrock dust is very fine and does not vacuum up well. To remove the dust the floors have to be mopped and dried several times.  The dust travels throughout the house so it is not just the downstairs which is impacted.

There is nothing more frustrating than having to once again put the house together.  I keep thinking, didn't we just do all this work a few weeks ago ? At this point we have no curtains, no ceiling lights and no art on the walls. Most of the furniture is in the guest bedrooms.

I am no longer enthusiastic about the renovation. After 6 months of turmoil,  all I want is a clean house and a couch to sit on.

Sheetrock Repaired

The sheetrock has been repaired.  Steve sanded off the mesh tape and installed paper tape in the damaged areas. I am hoping that this permanently fixes the problem and no new issues arise.

The sheetrock problems have left me extremely jaded. I don’t know that I would ever want to renovate again.   Jeff is more philosophical and says this negative experience should not dictate what we do in the future.

Sheetrock Update

Steve has started to repair the sheetrock.

The light fixtures are uninstalled and the curtains are down. Some furniture has been moved upstairs and the rest is under tarps. The dining, family, and living room are all unusable.

We are hosting Thanksgiving, so this work needs to be completed in 2 weeks time and the house put back together.

Stairwell Complete

The stairwell has been painted. This is the last item that needed to be painted due to the renovation.

Why all the cracking ?

To everyone who is asking why our newly installed walls and ceilings are cracking, I have to say that we do not have a definitive answer. No, we do not live on a fault line!

After reading several "How to Sheetrock"  books, it appears that fiberglass tape should NOT be used with pre-mixed joint compound. Even the Home Depot 1-2-3 book warns you that cracking may result. Special setting compounds are required for fiberglass tape.

Don't people use fiberglass tape and pre-mixed compound all the time ? Yes, but many times this leads to problems with joints cracking. The sheetrock god, US Gypsum, warns on their website, "Do NOT use fiberglass tape with joint compound, only with setting type compounds". This same warning is carried on their fiberglass tape.

Our contractor does not think this is the cause of the numerous ceiling and wall cracks.

If you are going to be installing sheetrock, I suggest reading more about paper joint tape vs fiberglass tape. Paper is significantly stronger and recommended by the majority of sheetrock professionals.

More Cracking

After  painting the built in cabinets, the dining room wall needed some touch up. As I was painting the wall, I noticed a hairline crack. I took a deep breath and tried not to panic. Perhaps the wall crack was limited to just one spot .

In my heart, I knew that just like the ceiling, most of the walls were probably cracking. I looked in the hallway, family room and formal living room. Every external wall is cracking!

If I was angry about the ceiling, I am furious about the walls. Every room will have to be repainted.

Jeff is trying to find a resolution for this debacle. Jeff is talking with our contractor, Steve, to see what will be done to remedy this situation.

Built In Update

The built in cabinet doors have been painted and installed. I think that the cabinets look nice and will be a focal point in the room.

I was able to fit most, but not all, of the china into the new cabinets.

Cracking

With the cabinets almost finished, I hoped that our work on the house would soon be finished. That is, until I noticed a crack in the formal living room ceiling. Upon closer inspection, there were 2 long cracks. I was upset, but Jeff said this may be due to settling. Steve was still working on the cabinets and said he would fix the problem. Jeff and Steve looked at the other rooms and did not see any issues.

I came home to find that most of the joints in the formal living room ceiling had been taped and plastered. I nearly cried. The entire ceiling has to be repainted. Before painting, furniture has to be moved, all light fixtures have to be removed and  curtains have to be taken down.

Fast forward to a sunny day after the cabinet construction was finished. I slowly walked thru the downstairs and found multiple cracks in the hallway, family room and dining room ceilings. Almost every ceiling joint is cracking.

I am angry and disheartened. For there to be so many problems, the cause is either faulty materials or faulty workmanship. Jeff and I spent weeks painting the downstairs and this work will need to be redone. When we renovated, the process seemed to go fairly smoothly. I never imagined that 3 months later, it would become a nightmare.

Painting Built Ins

The panel, mantel and cabinets have now been painted. It took many hours to apply 2 coats of paint to all of this wood. The doors still need to be primed and painted.

I like the look of the mantel and built ins. However, I am not sure that it has the Wow Factor that I was hoping for. Perhaps putting items into the cabinets and on the mantel will help make this more interesting.

Cabinets

The dining room cabinets are now finished!

I hope that we can complete the painting in 2 weeks.

Waiting on Glass

The wood panel over the fireplace has been built and installed. The edges of the large middle panel match the edges of the firebox.

The bottom cabinet doors have been built and installed. We are waiting on the glass to be cut and polished, so the top doors can be finished. We are also waiting for the Restoration Hardware knobs to be delivered.

Primed

The cabinets and mantel have been primed. The doors are still being made.

I believe that painting the cabinets and mantel will take longer than painting the balusters on the staircase.

Where's Cooper ?

Depending upon the time of day, Cooper can be found in different rooms. Coop likes to follow the sun and is enjoying the new windows.

Last Column

The last column has finally been painted. Now when you walk through the front door, the foyer appears finished.

If you go up the stairs, you will see that the stairwell still needs painting.

Mantel

The rainy weather has slowed down the cabinet construction, since the damp weather makes it difficult to work outside cutting the boards.

The mantel  is now finished. We chose fluted columns as the mantel's legs to mirror the other columns in the house. The crown molding on the ceiling is also used on the mantel to unify the design.

Drapes

The dining room curtains have been hung.

I had bought a curtain rod before the chandelier arrived. After seeing the chandelier, I realized the curtain rod would not be a good match. This meant another trip to Penney's to exchange the rod.

The dining room table has been put together, so we now have a place to sit.

Shoe Molding

Now that the hardwood floors have been refinished, the shoe  molding has been installed.

While the installation took only a few hours, the painting of all this took much longer.

Cabinets

The old mantel has been removed from the fireplace and the cabinets are being built.

When construction completes, we will paint the cabinets white. Yes, more painting.

Fireplace

When we renovated, our family room became the dining room. The reason for doing this was to have the dining area adjoin the kitchen.

This means that there is a fireplace in the dining room. We wanted to have a new mantel and custom cabinets  built, but this exceeded our budget.

A few months have passed and work on the built ins is starting. In two weeks, the construction should complete.