Porch light

We hope to have an electrician start up in a week or two so we can finish off the second floor wiring–allowing us to insulate the upper crawlspace before winter (our house has NO insulation, unless you count old newpapers stuffed in some cracks).

 We now have a list of ceiling fans, lights and sconces we’ll need to do Phase I.  I’m happy to report that we bought two porch lights.  See http://www.hechinger.com/hardware/tools/507374980-progress-lighting-motion-sensor-outdoor-wall-sconce-p5854.html.  Our choice was from a limited universe of four:  we wanted a light that was black (goes with our red brick and black window frames), had a motion detector, and was sized to fit the space (roughly 6″ X 12″).

Stood up by a handyman!

Ok, my life must really be in trouble:  I got stood up by a handyman!  That’s one way of screening out contractors–they don’t even show up when they say they would.  Lesson:  don’t use M&M Handyman!  I was talking with a carpenter today who waited 11 WEEKS for the plumbers to finish a two-day job! 

 Anyway, yesterday I called “Daniel” at Elite Kitchens in Rockville.  He had impressed us when we visited his shop two months ago (ok, maybe it was his European accent).    He won’t work with us because–get this–we have a permit!  “We had a bad experience once with a DC inspector.  The job just dragged on and on.”  He went on to say, “You don’t need a permit if you’re not doing anything structurally.”  Wrong!  Has he read the permit requirements recently for electrical and plumbing changes?  (Still, we’ll at least shop him for price on his cabinets.)

Charge me to give you money? No, thanks.

Ok, let me just say one of my personal peeves is not paying a contractor to give an estimate.  I understand that many people need a problem diagnosed first, and that a licensed professional should be compensated for his or her time.  But I have projects that I know about–I just want a quote on doing it, and no, I don’t want to pay you for your time.  Welcome to the real world of business where we often invest our time, advertising dollars, etc. in search of the elusive customer.  I only wish I had $10 for every non-buying customer I have pursued in my life.  Charging for an estimate is right down there with mortgage companies that charge you to get on a program where you make an extra payment or two over the year.

 On a separate note, I’ve been working down in the basement.  The wood subsills around the windows were totally rotted out.  Old newspaper–too decrepit for me to find a date–had been stuffed in the space in a poor attempt to insulate.  Any way, I bricked in one of the sills and also tuckpointed around the electrical panel, where I know we’ll have work done soon.  It’s kind of fun to work with my hands for a change; too much working my overloaded mind.  The end of my day at the office is marked by a small stack of paper on the desk; the end of a day of renovation is marked by a new wall or something else that’s tangible.  Heck, I could quit my job as an attorney and become a mason–maybe the world would be better off?

Speaking of craftsmen, I saved about $100 a month ago by fixing a shorted-out phone by myself.  While cutting away the bad, unused lines I found the original phone lines–a pair of twisted wires many decades old.  When you renovate, you just have to ask questions like, “Who installed those?”  “What family lived here?”  “Did some teenager in the 40s hide their conversations from his parents like we teenagers did in the 70s?”

Last thoughts:  Larry for Colorado Electric is great; I’ll probably go with him.  He’s filled with stories of how safe the District used to be in the 50s and early 60s, before the riots.  How much changed once MLK was killed!  Finally, 40 years later, this city is starting to come out of its funk (having Marion Barry as a addicted mayor didn’t help!).  And speaking of quotes, Michael and Son Services was $1000 more (that’s 33% more!) than another company in its bid to replace the lead service line from the property line to the basement.

Success!

At 6:01 p.m. last Friday night, someone in the permit department signed off on our permit!  Finally–after five months!

The permit cost $1240.  I already have several contractors lined up to give us bids:  electrical (the main box is a mess), plumbing (love those rusted iron pipes), and lead service pipe replacement (the city replaced the main back in 2005, but we still have a lead pipe from the property line to the basement). 

It will be nice to get some of these things fixed, finally.  I surprised in a sad way that the design/permit process is now going on 10 months.  Luckily Emily and I seem to have a high tolerance for living in war zones. 

Chinese water torture and other stories from DC

You know the Chinese water torture?  Drip, drip, drip on your forehead until you divulge all your secrets?  We’ll were starting to get the equivalent drip, drip, drip from the roof onto the ceiling when it rains.  Not good.  The other night, the water even started coming through the ceiling in our bedroom (luckily, not over our bed).

We know the roof needs replacing, but we’ve been trying to put it off until the kitchen vent cuts are made.  Which leads back to the permit issue:  we should have received our permit months ago, with the kitchen construction well under way.

So today I called the Permit Office (which took about five minutes to get through the many voicemail trees).  “Ms. Brown” heard me out (no, I didn’t yell at her), and said she would try to help.  She called back once or twice (including the showstopper: “we can’t find your drawings”), and eventually did find the drawings in “Structural’s bin.”  So for the last month, needing only someone to sign off after seeing our proof that we warned our neighbors, our permit has languished in a bin.  Fine job our expeditor is doing!

Anyway, “Mr. Chen” is supposed to “get to it” by Monday.  We’ll see.

Ok, time to start making people uncomfortable

The application for the permit is going on five months!  That’s long enough; time to start making some people explain their incompetence.  First, I contacted my architect, who sent the following nasty-gram to our permit expeditor (some woman named Cathie to whom I’ll have to pay $350):

Hi Cathie,

I’m still out of town and will be back in the office on Thursday.  Why don’t we have a permit yet?  We are only looking for Structural re-review.  His comments were all addressed long before I left.  I don’t understand why I’m getting e-mails from the homeowner asking me where the permit is.  What needs to be done to get this resolved?  ASAP!  Who do we need to talk to?  This is unacceptable and needs to be resolved this week.

Jim Martin

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If I don’t have a permit by Friday, I’m going to call the Mayor’s office and escalate it from there.