What did you do today non-detailing related?

[DFB]

Dragged the MasterCut out of the shed and slashed down a couple of weeks growth on my back lawn.





Came up pretty good, I simply gave the lawn a blow over afterwards to even out the clippings.

This is a commercial side throw mower aimed at local councils where catching is not important. It's incredibly light and maneuverable, while also being surprisingly well made. This example is one of the last 2-stroke powered Victa's.

[Coatingsarecrack]

Got my new rotors and calipers installed.








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[Eldorado2k]

Went to the Lakers vs. Clippers game.
Clippers Win!

[PouncingPanzer]

Played(nearly) too much Aliens:Fireteam Elite.

[chilly]

Went out and checked on the house

All the interior doors were hung and trimmed

The boss wanted all interior doors to be frosted glass and I was kind of nervous but I think they will really be a nice touch



The front door looks nice too, just sad they didn’t offer matching side lights



They have 90% of all the extra materials hauled off and it’s starting to look like a house


The interior of the garage is finished as far as sheet rock and paint and is being used as a staging area for trim and stuff



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[chilly]

We started a 15 day house and dog sitting gig while my son and his family go to Kauai

He knows how to bribe me




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[Odrapnew]

Begin Venting:

Not really what I've been personally doing, but over the last week I've watched my contractor do some questionable work when replacing siding on my house.
They tore of all the old and got most of one side up last Friday, oh, cool I says, they're moving right along.
After some investigating and comments from my wife (she was home), things started to sour very quick and haven't really gotten an sweeter yet.

Half way through day 2 (Saturday noon) they packed up, left all their scaffolding in my back yard along with pile of old siding, and didn't return until yesterday (3.5 days).
Their reason for packing up was because it was too cold to work...well, why the FORK did they start the work in the first place if they knew it was going to severely cold for the next 5-7 days. Forecast has been fairly accurate. I'm curious if they are there today since it's current 10F with -8F windchill and dropping.
We haven't trusted letting dog out in fenced in back yard due to all that crap, so we have to go out there with her to make sure she doesn't get into trouble or get hurt due to nails, old steel siding..etc. Good times when it's below 0.

So, since last Friday, my house has had no siding and very little rigid foam on 2 sides of the house during a week when temps were averaging around 0F.
Supposed to be down to -15F tonight and not get above 0 until tomorrow afternoon, so I have little faith they'll be there tomorrow, but it's supposed to be in the 30's starting Saturday.
This house was built in 1940, so no insulation in the walls.
We dropped the thermostat down to the low 60's so the furnace wouldn't just run constantly. That temp is a good 5+ degrees colder than what we usually keep it at.
We're lucky we don't have any 'wet walls' on the exterior because I put a thermometer near a gap under our cabinets and it was down to 27 and still dropping the other night.
The inside of the cabinet was dropping into the 40's.
Yes, I understand colder thermostat will result in colder wall temps, but still, we shouldn't have to be in this situation.

Onto the work they did.
The first side they finished installing new siding, but doesn't look like they put on the water barrier wrap (per MN code), so that will likely all need to be redone.
The sides that are not finished do not have the wrap and they started putting up siding over that, even after we brought up the code requirements, so that will also likely need to come down.

To top it off, they didn't pull the permit before they started.
We had the city inspector stop by and he was a bit shocked.

All this has been communicated to the contractor.
This is the same contractor that did our roof last fall, which has me concerned.
Luckily this is all due to storm damage last summer (insurance claim) so I'm technically not out any money, but I know I'll be paying in the end via insurance premiums.
I'll be holding back final payment until things are right....well, final payment is not due until inspections are complete anyway and I'll be chatting with the city inspector again before inspections are final.

Many pictures have been taken, I'll probably create my own separate vent thread once this is all complete.

End vent for now.

[Texchappy]

Nothing exciting. Wife and I finished a little key holder we put together.

[oneheadlite]

To top it off, they didn't pull the permit before they started.
We had the city inspector stop by and he was a bit shocked.
...

Sorry to hear about the nightmare.

I'm sure they charged you a permit fee, I worry it's more common than you'd hope that contractors charge you the xx dollars for pulling a permit yet don't actually do it hoping they can get away with just pocketing the extra money...

We had our house sided in the winter too; make sure they trim the siding a little short as it's gonna need room to expand in the summer. Our contractor warned us they were doing this on purpose so we didn't panic seeing the gaps underneath the corner trims. Watch out for any bowing/etc once it warms up.

They redid both our roof and siding due to storm damage (few years back now) - they did roof first then siding. Due to the elevation of our house the siding crew had to install a scaffold that anchored into the roof. The guys just ran big ol lag screws into the new shingles and gooped over the holes when they took them out. Needless to say their "fix it" guy came out and replaced the affected shingles and better sealed the holes before the whole thing was over.

I've said it a thousand times - it's so maddening how hard it is to find someone to do a GOOD job, not just THE job. House stuff stresses me out as it's so hard to know what you're going to end up with...

Side note, It's wild how much materials move. We had our deck redone early this summer and had them back out to shave down some pieces that were pushing out of position due to expansion in the late summer. The guy warned us that come winter we'll have gaps that'll be easy to see, to which I told him that's ok, we won't be on it in the winter. I appreciated the attention to fit and finish both when they built it and their skill in reworking it to fix the "issue".

[chilly]

Sorry to hear about the nightmare.

I'm sure they charged you a permit fee, I worry it's more common than you'd hope that contractors charge you the xx dollars for pulling a permit yet don't actually do it hoping they can get away with just pocketing the extra money...

We had our house sided in the winter too; make sure they trim the siding a little short as it's gonna need room to expand in the summer. Our contractor warned us they were doing this on purpose so we didn't panic seeing the gaps underneath the corner trims. Watch out for any bowing/etc once it warms up.

They redid both our roof and siding due to storm damage (few years back now) - they did roof first then siding. Due to the elevation of our house the siding crew had to install a scaffold that anchored into the roof. The guys just ran big ol lag screws into the new shingles and gooped over the holes when they took them out. Needless to say their "fix it" guy came out and replaced the affected shingles and better sealed the holes before the whole thing was over.

I've said it a thousand times - it's so maddening how hard it is to find someone to do a GOOD job, not just THE job. House stuff stresses me out as it's so hard to know what you're going to end up with...

Side note, It's wild how much materials move. We had our deck redone early this summer and had them back out to shave down some pieces that were pushing out of position due to expansion in the late summer. The guy warned us that come winter we'll have gaps that'll be easy to see, to which I told him that's ok, we won't be on it in the winter. I appreciated the attention to fit and finish both when they built it and their skill in reworking it to fix the "issue".

Yup, and even going with someone who has amazing ratings or recommendations from friends is no guarantee anymore, or at least that has been my experience

The guy who did our roof said the whole covid free money situation just about ruined him because he depended on a core crew of well paid professionals but his grunt labor was essential as well and he simply couldn't find people to do that type of work over the last couple of years

And materials moving?

When it hit zero I knew our deck would start popping, it sounded like a gunshot and scared the crap out of me almost every time