It's so satisfying to see progress on your own home renovation.
My client's rehabs have come and gone while mine has stagnated for more than a year. But finally things are on the move and the same mantra I quote to my clients is coming home to roost, namely, "co-ordination is key."
We purchased our latest renovation materials — hardwood flooring, slate, ceramic tile, and bathroom fixtures — from Home Depot, spurred into action by a limited-time offer of no payments for a year.
Our local Home Depot opened in July and our order was the first fairly complicated one for some of the staff, but so far everyone we've worked with has been enthusiastic and eager to help.
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But you can't let good intentions and sunny dispositions lull you into a false sense of security. You still have to keep your eye on the ball.
It seems our Home Depot team knows this, too. Since starting this process we've been invited to meet with staff for the specific purpose of ensuring our order goes into the system correctly, that on-site measurements they'd taken were accurate, and that everyone's on the same page in terms of delivery and installation timing.
The meeting was useful as it revealed a few miscommunications and glitches — with an operation as big as Home Depot, orders go through a lot of different hands and this is normal — but we had the opportunity to iron them out.
If you're in a similar position with your renovation but your suppliers aren't being as proactive, take the lead and ask to meet with them to review every detail before orders are confirmed.
Corrections are tricky — and sometimes more costly — to make after the fact.
Unfortunately, we can't leave it all up to the retailer.
We're trying to co-ordinate delivery and installation of flooring and bathroom fixtures with the work schedule of our mechanicals expert, Doug Thompson of Do-Thom Mechanicals.
Doug's a busy guy — the good ones always are — and we're prepared to work around his schedule to ensure we get the best plumbing and electrical work possible.
Much has to be accomplished before bathroom floor tile can go in.
The existing off-white, deep pile, wall-to-wall carpeting and baseboards in John's bathroom have already been taken up, revealing that the walls were once painted the same nightmarish pink as the fixtures that are now history (oh happy day!).
John's rectangular shower unit has to be installed and Home Depot has confirmed the delivery date.
The water and drain pipes from a long-gone bidet have to be relocated a few feet so they can be re-employed to service the new sink, which will be on a different wall than the current sink.
The water and drain pipes for the old bathtub and sink will be capped but not removed.
We thought this would be prudent should we or a future owner want to reinstall a tub at any time.
After that's done, the sub-floor will be repaired and made ready to accept the slate tile.
In my bathroom, we have to remove the old double sink vanity with its hospital-green laminate countertop, the two grayish-lavender sinks, and accompanying faucets.
The plumbing for my single new sink will have to be relocated eight to 10 inches.
The new vanity is a freestanding furniture piece with feet so the floor tile will continue underneath it. Other than that, there's not much more to do before my new ceramic floor tile goes in.
We'd already removed the hunter green, deep pile, wall-to-wall carpet in my bathroom because it reeked.
I don't know why anyone would install carpeting of any sort in a bathroom, but using a deep pile has to be among the worst decisions you can make.
To make matters worse, previous owners had placed their cat litter boxes in this bathroom. I didn't want to think about what lurked in that carpet's dark, dank recesses.
Consequently, the green carpet bit the dust about a nanosecond after we moved in and I've been living with a plywood floor ever since.
But that's been okay. Plywood is actually a great tool for massaging the hard skin off your heels after a bath or shower.
As long as you don't mind a few slivers.
