Non-glass house

On the night of Monday, November 17, we were especially cold. On Tuesday morning, I discovered the cause: somebody cut a space for the bathroom window and left it completely open! This new bathroom is directly under where we sleep. I took a photo with my iPhone and e-mailed it to Steve and Alex under the subject line, “Big freezing hole.” They’ve since put plywood over the gap on the inside and continued installing stucco on the side of the house.

We are still waiting for the proper transom window to arrive. We rejected a two-pane affair for being the wrong style for the house. The contractor ordered it without our review and approval; he gets to eat the cost.

Insulation installation began on Wednesday. With spray-foam costing about double, we’ve signed up with the Pink Panther (Owens Corning PINK FIBERGLAS® Insulation). When Matt walked in after work, he was like, “Hurrah, insulation!”

Irritation quickly replaced his jubilation. A dark shroud has covered the great room since the crew removed our two sets of sliders on October 2. At long last, there were glass doors in the great room… These were, however, the wrong model. We expected Therma-Tru Slim-line™ doors, which are designed to maximize our view. We got the Smooth-Star® style that we accepted for the bedroom but all agreed was wrong for our living area.

When I got home from work well after 8 p.m., Alex was on the phone, explaining that he couldn’t return the seven door panels; Matt was explaining that Alex couldn’t attach the sliders to our home.

All three of us suffered a sleepless night. The question I kept asking myself was: What will ultimately make me happier, getting the job done now (which is what led me to accept the window order and the back doors and the bedroom slider), or saying “no” and being stuck with nothing, as we are in the downstairs bathroom?

Alex met with us on the morning of Thursday, November 20, admitting his ordering error and providing us with a solution: install the wrong doors now and swap them for the correct versions when they arrive (both styles use the same track). We agreed. And as we now wait for this crucial step in buttoning up the house, ice forms on the lake.

Renovation tip: Trust but verify. Come up with a system that enables you to double check and approve every important item that your contractor plans to order for your home. It will save you aggravation—and it will save him money (and the time and energy it takes to deal with an aggravated client). Although we provided the contractor with a window and door schedule, we still ended up with different stuff than we specified!