Did I mention I no longer like surprises? You would think that at this stage of the game we’d have run our course of them, but no.
Three weeks ago we brought in the final interior window. Now I believe that I’ve mentioned it before but there are five interior windows in the house. One window is in the kitchen above the sinks, looking over the, well nothing really, looking at the wall of the dining room. But it really adds to the look of the kitchen. Another window is between our hallway and the Great room, allowing us to peek in and see if the guests have started moving in the morning, and get the coffee going.
The other three windows, one thin one in the office, and two that form a wall and corner of the dining room are tall windows, they are supposed to be some 92 inches tall. All three of them. Unfortunately for some unknown reason our supplier thought that the biggest of them would look better three inches shorter than the others. Three inches! Kind of hard to hide when the two windows form a corner, butted up against each other. And as the wooden dividers that visually separate the window are dividing the window in thirds height-wise, they don’t line up with each other.
True to form, Gary came up with solutions, and fretted and worked out trim that would look good on the window. The dividers still don’t line up, but the window looks pretty good all the same.
The second surprise came last week. Before Gary left for Christmas we had discovered that there were no flooring transitions or glue for our iCore floor. I happily discovered that our local Co-op could supply them, and quoted a price significantly lower than our main supplier. I ordered what I needed just before Christmas, and was told that it would take three weeks. As four and five weeks went by I began getting nervous and asked the manager to check on them and was told that they were coming. By the time last week went by I thought that I had better do some checking myself and called the distributor, only to find that none of our transitions or glue had been ordered. The Co-op manager determined that someone at their Winnipeg office simply filed the order and never placed it with the distributor. He assured me that they had sent their PO in now. Only problem was that I couldn’t wait another three weeks for the transitions. They had some glue in stock and would get it up right up and send the rest in three weeks (which works for us as most of the gluing is done after the floor is installed). We would need to make some transitions on our own, using extra maple and birch we have.
When our glue still hadn’t arrived after a couple of planes I called the distributor back. No they hadn’t placed the order yet. He was good enough to get the glue sent and the order started, while I called the Co-op back to find out why this was to complicated for their purchasing department. Hopefully we’ll see the glue on Saturday’s plane.
Of course that still meant I needed a surprise or glitch for this week, and it was a big one. Our electrician never finished the last time he was in, and was supposed to be back over two weeks ago. I finally tracked him down in Clyde River to find that he was not coming until March, after I was supposed to have clients already. Huge loss of revenue and we still need to wait for him before we can finish other things. Mrs. Kines’ little boy is not a happy little boy right now.
And what else did we get done. Gary has started the finishing of the stairs, building the banisters and getting the maple treads and risers prepared. The crew has worked on painting and trim and underlay. And I’ve put up more crown moulding (in our apartment) and built a cabinet for our bathroom and one to hold our hats and mitts in the back entrance. And now I’m finishing off the trim in the kitchen. I find this work very satisfying, although it would probably be easier to do if I could sleep through the night.
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Poor, hope you’ve been giving them a piece of your mind Clare. Typical though I think, of the service you get when you are isolated from the main business centres. I don’t care to think of the times I’ve cooled my heels waiting for a return phone call that never came from a building hardware supplier.
Wow. Will I be able to afford to stay at your B&B? Also, can you pretty much guarantee me the Northern Lights if I come?
You know Duncan, I think that so often suppliers think “Yeah, well they’re at the top of the world, what are they going to do if we screw them around” Attitudes I could never comprehend, I mean you think they’d want my future business.
Of course you can afford us Pablo. We’re the more reasonably priced accommodation here. And a real value for our ammenities. But, um, no guarantee for Northern Lights. We really don’t get much here (too close to the magnetic pole) and when we get it they are mostly smudges. We have had a few good displays the last couple of winters though. Not sure what caused the change. And if you were hoping to visit in the summer AND see Northern Lights well, if we could see them in our 24 hour light they’d probably be melting rock.