remodeling nightmare

14 years ago

I need some mental support please!

We used to own a 1940 colonial which little by little we ended doing everything. New heating system, update most of the electricity, gutting bathrooms, exterior work etc etc. Pretty much everything went smoothly and we managed great but the house was small for us.

So when a big and fabulous turn of the century colonial went on the market we decided to plunge and buy it. We knew pretty much everything needed to be redone we budgeted and thought we could do it. As if....

Everyday is horrible and one surprise after the other and nothing is going smoothly. Here is a count of the nightmare:

1. Needed a new roof because of leaks. It is cold so the new shingles do not necessary stick. Every time is windy some fly away. Roofer has to come back regularly. Still got water one day. But what can I do? Can not wait until summer due to water coming in the house.

2. Brand new heating system installed. Went away for a weekend. System went on default for unknown reason, house froze, 3 pipes broke, major water damage. Fight with insurance.

3. Electrical rewiring: We were told about one month. One month passed and only 1/3 is done. Is it ever going to end?

4. Found out that 3 radiators were leaky and needed to be replaced. Found out that supplier would not deliver them and also plumber could not pick them up due to weight. Had to hire special company to deliver and that cost way more than budgeted. Besides what a nightmare to go find old radiators that match the house.

I am in despair. I have regrets.The other day I called a new real estate guy to get opinion and he thinks it is worth the trouble because of location and history of the house and suggested to keep going. That was reassuring and good news. If I can make it to summer I think I ll manage but it is still January....Please send some words of support.

Sort by:Oldest

Comments (10)

computerklutz
14 years ago
Oh, (((((((hugs)))))))))) I am sorry. I don't normally post on this board, but drop by to read/learn.

10 years ago I went through a house nightmare (our house flooded , basically totalled and we redid it from ground up).

I remember days like yours, days when the world appeared black because of remodeling. I must say you have had many nightmares to complicate things for you. I can understand the despair and the regrets. I can not tell you what to do, but I think it would be wise to get several more opinions from other real estate guys (besides the new guy)and see if they concur. If they do, then you know that the advice is pretty sound and if you stick it out you will be okay. Often times, sticking it out is the only choice besides walking away. If it is worth sticking it out, then buy lots of chocolate for your nerves and keep going.

I really feel for you, feeling overwhelmed by a money pit is depressing. There is light at the end of the tunnel. Hang in there!
annzgw
14 years ago
Re: the roofing. I don't know what part of the country you live in, but have you considered just covering the roof until spring? Winter is not the ideal time to put on a new roof!

On the electrical......are they showing up for work every day? Did you get a flat bid and are you happy with the work otherwise?

Winter is often a terrible time to be in the middle of a remodel but if you're happy with the progression and quality of work the subs are doing, then things will make a turn for the better!
Related Discussions
Remodeling Nightmare is this normal?
Q
Comments (10)
Well, I should have added we didn't just squint our eyes and pick a number for what the remodel should cost. We first provided detailed drawings of existing vs expected finished, complete with materials list, drawings of cabinets, the works to my best friend's father and he priced for us (he's a life long contractor who does this sort of work, just not in our area) He would do the work for us, but would have to charge so much for travel as to be prohibitive. I also consulted with the man who did work for me in the city we used to live in. He's retired, but up until his health problems a year ago did this sort of work, in our area, and he agreed with the price best friend's dad gave us. Honestly I'm trying to figure out what might put us on the do not bid list. From talking around it has become apparent there is a LOT of new construction in our area, and of course that's easier/more profitable work than our teeny remodel, so we think that's probably big in this whole thing. We made it clear from the very start, this is what we have, this is what we want, we have cash in hand, we do want to start asap, but understand we must get in line with the varous subs required for the work. The remodel has in fact turned out to be a giant nightmare. The guy will tell us oh the sub will be here on X day to do Y, and on that day....nada. And he's unavailable by phone. From day one, he hides out from us. Something is wrong, and we say to sub UM...this is incorrect. Oh, we were told this is the way to do it. Um, that isn't even code. The only reason we haven't been graced with two red tags is we called up the inspector, who is a friend of ours, before he came by to inspect and inquired yes, is this ok...let me email you pictures. No, ok skip the inspection slated for X time, we will call to reschedule after it's fixed. Now we hear he's telling people we are "high maintenance". Whatever. Also we found out he was red tagged for some of the same stuff on some houses our neighbor has him working on for him. If it is high maintenance to expect the GC to 1)tell the subs to do things correctly, providing drawings where necessary - not one sub had seen our drawings to date 2) check on the subs occassionally as they work 3) call us if a show stopper is hit, not hide out til you want money 4) Know the code! I guess we'll call that our badge of honor. Our biggest issue to date is we asked how to handle a water heater in a pantry and were told no enclosure needed. I thought it was wrong and kick myself for not checking. Now I have a 5'x4' pantry that is basically a closet for the water heater enclosure. Mind you, this would not be so if he built it 2'x2' which my architect ex assures me is industry standard. He laughed and say why in the heck does the guy think the standard pans they sell for water heater enclosures are designed to fit in a 2'x2'? All I can tell you is we will NEVER hire anything else done for us. NEVER. Not worth the aggravations. If we had known it would be completely up to us to monitor the subs, inspect the work daily, etc, we'd have never hired a GC to begin with.
...See More
Kitchen remodel nightmare
Q
Comments (1)
Lucky Joe: Yes, itÃ¢ÂÂs a Ã¢ÂÂhackÃ¢ÂÂ fix for a custom kitchen. You can add a filler to the right corner of the base cabinet but that will likely cause far more problems. TheyÃ¢ÂÂll need to remove the granite and all base cabinets to the right. To add the 2.5Ã¢ÂÂ or even a 1Ã¢ÂÂ filler will need to come off somewhere or the granite top may be too small. They may break the granite while removing it. Without seeing the layout, itÃ¢ÂÂs hard to recommend the best answer. One option is narrowing the sink base cabinet openings (equal on both sides) on both top and bottom by adding to the inside of the stiles. Depending on the hardware and overlay, if done well, it will look balanced, nobody will see the fix unless you open the door and/or tray. The sink base gets a lot of wear and tear so if this fix is done poorly, it will look bad and give you headaches forever. If the door overlay isnÃ¢ÂÂt wide enough and the fix is done poorly, it will be an eyesore. They will need to order smaller sink front tray door(s) and smaller base door(s) but itÃ¢ÂÂs much easier, cheaper and doesnÃ¢ÂÂt create all the problems of removing and reinstalling everything. They may even have enough scrap material to widen the stiles which is good for color match. Adding to the stiles behind the tray fronts isnÃ¢ÂÂt a stress point so as long as it was glued and clamped, it isn't bad. If it was only tacked in with trim nails, it will loosen over time. For the lower cabinet doors, they need to glue and screw the stile extensions (or better) as the use of the door will loosen the extension unless rock solid. Depending on the hardware, they should be able to hide the screws behind the hinges. Even for custom cabinets, a good carpenter can make this fix. The headache is the time to order the cabinet doors and stile extension pieces, and making sure the color and finish is a good match. Good luck,
...See More
Nightmare remodel turned into a blessing?
Q
Comments (24)
I was surprised to discover these weren't Norcroft cabinets. Not that the pretty style would be, but in the mistakes and giving you the bad cabinets. I ordered 11 cabinets and ended up with 32. Heights, widths, materials, depths, you name it, they came in wrong in several different "replacements." I was ordering through DirectBuy, and the wonderful cabinet guy said, "Want 'em? We can't do anything with 'em." Hoarder (and rebuilding DIYer) that I am, I said, "Oh, well. I suppose I could find something to do with them." All the while hearing the marching band cheering and blaring horns in my imagination! Drowning out the game show "you're a winner" bells. Kitchen, MBR, MB, and ultimately, my LR got all their cabinetry. I wasn't even shy about retrofitting and rebuilding some of it, since it was free. Much of the deeper cabs I made into inset cabinets. LOVE THEm -- but hate Norcorft's 2.5" deep base cabinet upper drawers. DUuuuuuumB. Anyway. Since I bought these way before I had any DIY skills, nor knew of TheCabinetJoint.com, H4H, Goodwill, tools, and innovation on my part, I figured these were a great deal in the long run. Sure, they were, but what I know now? I still wouldn't have bought them. So this has nothing to do with your post. Just got me thinking! Great job.
...See More
Master Bath remodel
Q
Comments (22)
I am doing a roll-in shower with a solid-surface pan. You can get one fabricated to just about any size through Grifform Innovations in Oregon. They priced out a 36 x 60 trench drain Corian pan for me at $1827 in white with colored colors going up in 3 other color groups to $2205. Shipping to me in Michigan would be around $20. I chose this Shower pan instead, from a company called Transolid. It is a solid-surface pan with a trench drain in the front. The regular drain is just behind the trench drain and they give you a piece of the solid surface material to cover it with (only the edges really need to be open to let the water in). In a very nice looking white Carrara Marble look, it runs $1020 before the 5% discount they are running. It is 37 3/4" x 63" before the walls go up, which will decrease the front-to-back depth to 37" and the width to 61 1/2." They also have a wall system in White Carrara that has white lines embedded into the surface (though they are flat, no indentation) to imitate grout lines so that it looks like they are made with tiles. There are four shelves, too. The walls are made with solid -surface, too. I have a piece of it and it looks like the Corian or Swanstone samples I have sent for, 1/4, " stiff and solid with the color going all the way through the material. Their Carrara looks much better than the Ice and Tundra colors from Swan that was as close and they could get. (My previous choice for a roll-in solid surface pan was Swanstone, and was 34" deep before the 3/4" was subtracted for the wall) Their walls come in two styles. If you want just a hand-held shower head on a bar, you can get their New Construction style set that has an aluminum mesh backer on the quarter-inch panels that stiffen the panels and allow you to have them mounted directly to the studs. If you are like me and need to drill for shower heads and shower valves and the on-off valves, then you need the Remodel style walls. The New Construction set can come with a dome that covers the ceiling, too and gives three LED lights inside the shower. The Remodel style does not have a dome but has and Extension that allows you to take the walls up to or near the ceiling. Here is a link to see their New Construction version with Dome top. The other nice thing about the New Construction version for the ADA shower pan is that it is ready for you to just drill through the outer surface of the shower through holes lined with metal ferrules for the installation of grab bars and the bar for the hand-held shower spray that they sell to go with it. You then just put 2x4 bracing in between the studs when you are preparing the walls before putting up the shower enclosure. Drill the wall material through the ferrules for any grab bars that you want to install. I have been planning my bath remodel for four years. The first delay was due to my hubby wanting time to recover from our previous remodeling nightmare. It was supposed to just be building a wall of bookshelves and cabinets in the front room to make the living room into a den/music room/library. Jim and I discovered that the slab that this room was built on was sunken and cracked in two and that this was hidden under a false floor by the previous owner. We had to get a foundation repair company involved, then repour the slab, repaint and refloor the room. We had no front door all summer while all of this was going on. So I promised hubby no construction for three years! In those years of planning, I looked at all of the possible solid premade shower pans. For the size you want, there are few choices. I am assuming that you want something better than the fiberglass ones that sometimes crack when not installed perfectly and that get dull and cheap looking fairly quickly. Kohler does not make one of their cast iron ones the size you want. 3 ' x 5' (or maybe 34" x 5') will be their largest, and none of them are wheelchair friendly. From my research, I learned a few things to look for. Get either a cast iron or a solid-surface pan. A solid surface is one that has the color going all the way through, where there is no outer coating. This way, if there is ever any staining or scratching, you can use scouring powder and a green scotch brite pad to scrub the surface and buff out most stains or scratches. There are ways to sand out worse scratches. You can actually repair the surface like this because the surface is the same as the inside of the material. You do not want to get a pan that has an outer finish on it as traditional marbleite does. You probably know the kind I mean, the one that looks dull after a few years and cannot be renewed. The acrylic ones have the same problem. If someone tries to sell you anything with a shiny finish, ask if the scotch brite and scouring powder method of renewing the surface can be used, if they say "No," then you know that this is not a solid-surface and that the shine is a temporary condition. The solid surface ones will not be shiny to begin with! I understand your desire to have a nice big shower. I share it. I have to steal a foot of space from my second bedroom to get the shower size I chose and some maneuvering room in the bathroom. So I am settling for the 37" deep shower.
...See More
alexia10
Original Author
14 years ago
Roof: I leave north and all the roofers I talked to told me to fix roof asap despite the cold. I think the house due to location (seats on a hill) is more windy than expected and that got things worse. I did not even know that there was on option to cover.
Electrical: The guys show regularly except for when they have emergency calls. I am happy (so far) with their work. I think they totally underestimated the length of the work and in retrospect I should have hired a bigger company that would send more guys. I am paying a flat fee.

Yeah I am sure I made a lot of mistakes when I chose contractors. I can not understand how some people can save money and get good quality work done. Anytime I tried to a save a penny I got exactly what I paid for : Not a great job.

In my old house we remodeled one project at a time and that was a lot better and less stressful. Last month I had roof, electrical, heating and some plumbing all done simultaneously and I found out the hard way that this type of remodeling is completely different that the one project at a time.... And of course now I have to deal with the bursting pipes and the insurance. ouch.
The way it is right now I think I have to stick it for a year.
macv
14 years ago
It is painful to remodel your house and acting as your own general contractor increases the pain considerably. You chose that path so you have to see it through to the end. Good luck.
alexia10
Original Author
14 years ago
I agree. I chose this path. I think the noise of the giant dehumidifiers makes me crazy..... %)
kellykath
14 years ago
Alexia, Can you feel my shoulders? I'm standing right next to you with some roofing issues myself. This will eventually pass and the situation will hopefully improve. Your not alone . . in fact, I'm going to hold a glass up to you right now and say "cheer's". I'll be back to check up on solutions for my bay window problem and you.
macv
14 years ago
Professional builders and architects deal with similar renovation issues every day. Its hard work especially in cold weather but don't despair; for you it will eventually be over.
jeannesavelle
14 years ago
It's kind of like having a baby, once it is all done you forget about the pain. Seems like you are having some problems with your contractors, you might want to tackle some of the jobs yourself. If you have the right Tools for the job, it makes it a whole lot easier.

Here is a link that might be useful: Power Tools
pinch_me
14 years ago
"big and fabulous turn of the century colonial " must have had something about it that spoke to you. Can you remember? Yes, every place is a money pit one time or another. Right now you've been dumped on through no fault of your own. Insurance companies never want to pay so brace yourself. And quit being nice. YOu paid the premiums. They owe you. The electrician needs to be jacked up. Remind him of the original time estimate every chance you get. Quit being so nice. The roof. Your roofers are at fault here. They took advantage of you. Shingles don't stick when it's cold. Ever. For anyone. Have them cover it with tarps and do it right next May. Quit being so nice. This isn't a multiple choice solution for them. Do it right and do it when you said you would. Remind them Who's writing the check. And how big this project will be before it's done. There will no doubt be the opportunity for more work if they want it IF you are happy with them.
lovingstuff
14 years ago
alexia10, it sounds like you bought an old house. Well okay, the house is giving you fits, but there are probably some really good bones in your house. Old growth wood is a thing of beauty. As for the insurance company, in Texas you can complain to the state board of insurance. It is amazing how fast our insurance company stepped up to the plate after we complained to the board. pinch me is right, stop being so nice. Here is what I have found, after we had to be our own gc (our gc was incompetent), we use only subs who do work without any money upfront. We will pay them for materials or buy the materials. What we have found is that it is a pride thing with the ethical guys, they want to finish or be close to finishing before they accept any payments. Or they will work on a payment plan where they get so much after a certain stage. For our electrician, plumber and HVAC this is how it worked and we gladly payed them at their contracted points. The ones we don't trust are the fast talkers who want lots of money up front. Oh and I stopped being nice, except for the people who are ethical and honest. For them, I will sing their praises to anyone who will listen. Good luck and know that it will all work out.

remodeling nightmare

Comments (10)

computerklutz

annzgw

Related Discussions

alexia10
Original Author

macv

alexia10
Original Author

kellykath

macv

jeannesavelle

pinch_me

lovingstuff

COMPANY

BUSINESS SERVICES

GET HELP

CONNECT WITH US

remodeling nightmare

Comments (10)

Related Discussions

alexia10Original Author

alexia10Original Author

COMPANY

BUSINESS SERVICES

GET HELP

CONNECT WITH US

alexia10
Original Author

alexia10
Original Author