Renovations

[Alchris]

Wow, I can't believe it. We had a stucco company come over and give us an estimate Thursday of last week. He said that he would fit us in around his new housing jobs and get started sometime this week. I figured that we wouldn't see him for a couple of weeks. After all this is Edmonton where no construction gets done on time. Monday night he brings over his prep man and gives him instructions. My wife tells him the colors, light grey and medium grey(both with a touch of purple). The prep man showed up on Tuesday and finished his job before he left. The scratch coat is supposed to be applied tomorrow and I am beginning to believe it will happen. I might even be ready to plant the palms by the end of the month.

My friend was supposed to have a bay window put in the kitchen and new cabinets put in. I traded some paving stones for the old cabinets. The Job was to start in early April. Nothing has happened so far. That is more like Edmonton.

Allen

[DesertZone]

That is great Allen, I hope one day to have my house stuccod also

[Alchris]

After putting it off for a few years, and hoping that the building boom would slow, I arranged for the stuccoing. The scratch coat is now almost cured. If it ever cools down, they will finish the job. I prefer stucco over siding. It's more solid and reflects the heat better. I'll post a pic when it's done, hopefully with my palsm planted in the front.

I shouldn't complain about the building boom. It has increased the value of the house from $131K in 2002 to about $400K right now. With the construction of 3 Oil Sands plants and all of the other spin off work, there is a drastic shortage of workers in every walk of life. McDonalds can't get enough staff although they are paying $13.25/hr. Journeyman electricians are getting $30/hr(non-union) and construction laborers are being paid $20/hr. Even with the wages it is hard to survive as rents are about $800 + for 1 bedroom apartments.

Allen

[lucky1]

Interesting topic.
It's hard to find journeymen around here...they're either working full-time for contractors during the building boom, or they've gone to Northern Alberta or BC to get the big bucks.

In our little 8 page (local only) newpaper, there are now 4 pages of Help Wanted.
Everything from building managers to electricians and plumbers to McDonalds and Wendy's assistant managers.

Big chain stores can't get enough "gophers" to stock the shelves on overnite shift ('coz they only pay $8 - $9 an hour!)
so sometimes the shelves are one-third empty.

Barb

[Alchris]

I ended up getting an Edmonton contractors job on the stucco. He finally finished a week and a half ago after saying almost every week that he would get to it 'next week'. This kind of left my palms in pots until I couldn't wait any more. While they trampled everything that was growing beside the house, they did leave the 2 palms alone. The stucco quality was good.

I don't have a pic of the house when we bought it handy. Attached is a pic from the summer of 2006, when we removed the picture window to replace it, and a pic of the new stucco job.





I am now working at repairing the damage to the plants and soil as well as planting shrubs and decorative grasses that I have been keeping alive in pots since June.

Allen

[lucky1]

Nice reno job Allen.

Contractors do have trouble protecting plants when they're setting up ladders and scaffolding.
And some just don't care.

Barb

[Alchris]

Thanks.

I expected some damage. But they tramped through my flower beds when there was a place for them to go around them. And broke off the stakes, then trampled my plume grass. I set up a place for them to dump their refuse concrete. Some of the men used it but others dumped the unset concrete into a flower bed, into the area that I prepped to lay paving stones and on top of a sidewalk behind the garage.

I just needed to vent. All I need to do now is replace the eavestrough and the exterior of the house is done.

Allen

[lucky1]

They did THAT???
No wonder you're miffed.
What a bunch of bozos.

You can imagine the state of the guy's own house/garden (if he can't appreciate other people's stuff)!

While it's often impossible--unless you're retired--have someone at home when work is planned.
Then you can have the satisfaction of telling him he's a bozo
Barb

[Alchris]

I was around most days that they worked. I talked to the crew each morning(there were some different guys each day) and, while I was outside watching, they did as instructed.

The Boss was almost never on site when the crew was working and was apologetic every time I complained--not that it made a difference.

Allen

[lucky1]

You did the best you could, Allen.
Just the general malaise of society where nobody gives a damn about anyone else's stuff.
Hope you can get your flower bed and plants fixed up.
Barb