Raining on My Parade

Raining on My Parade

I am forced to start meditating and chanting for lack of any other answers to my prayers. As I am within sight of the deck finish line I am suddenly encountering a rainy season that it killing my homestretch plan for completion. We are two rows into the tiling with the expectation that we can do several added rows each day. Remember, Handy Brad does nothing (ESPECIALLY tile) except in the perfect manner he has had beaten into him over the years. If he cannot do it to perfection, he will not do it. This moment he is scurrying about getting all the Thin-Set mortar bags off his truck bed and out of the rain and covering the recently set tile so that the rain does not undo the work he has just completed. Today should see these brief rain clouds passing and I still suspect that we will get most of a full day of work in, but the next three days range in rain probability from 56% to 90%, so it is not looking very good for a full work week.

Yesterday the glass railing guy came and informed us that unlike what we thought, he cannot put on the clamps until the edge tile is completed. Even though the clamps do not attach to the tile, they do come over the top of the tile and he is unwilling to install them and do his laser sighting to measure and order the glass until the tile is down. He claims that too many times the tile work that gets done under existing clamps disrupts the clamps an d it is not worth it to not wait for the tile to be finished. The idea of removing the placed clamps and replacing them is unacceptable since he does not feel the clamps are then as secure as they should be since they are holding very heavy pieces (5’x4’ tempered). In other words everything is on hold until the tile can at least be finished at the edge. And Handy Brad needs dry weather to lay tile.

I figured that at least Dave could finish the enclosure of the under deck since it is out of the rain, but he explained to me that he cannot cut Densdeck under the deck (he claims there is a lack of space) and thus, if it rains he does not feel he can work. We lose Rich after Wednesday to his trip to Missouri to see his son, so we are down to what Handy Brad and Dave can do by themselves and apparently, rain days are a non-starter on either side. The one idea I have put out there is that they do the laundry room demo in the rain this week so as to leave the early part of next week open to resume work on the tile and under deck work. I have yet to have a response to my text on that idea as they are all generally ignoring my text instructions after sixteen weeks on this job. It is hard to say who among the four of us is more frustrated by the protracted nature of this job.

And then I stop to think about the situation. Is there a particular reason I need this deck finished by a date certain? The simple answer is no. It is not holding me up on anything other than getting the deck furniture out of my dining room and garage. Having lived with that there for sixteen weeks, I doubt seriously that a few more weeks is either here or there. The truth is that I just want this to come to an end. It doesn’t really cost me more if it gets done next week versus this week since I am paying time and materials. Rich can work today and tomorrow on replacing the door moldings he has fabricated for me and I will be all that much more ready for the new door which I am forced to await for until DixieLine Lumber gets delivery on it in this era of excessive home renovations. Scheduling the door hanger and then scheduling the painter are both on the To Do list, but that would be an issue any time. Both need rain-free weather to do their things.

I’m actually wondering if the painting of the doors and gate are something I can do myself (perhaps with the help of Handy Brad). I will ask him to see if he has an opinion. If that’s the case, I will spend the next few days procuring the paint and preparing myself for the task. It is less about saving money and more about just getting it done without the hassle of scheduling. Workmen are so hard to get organized and, as I have learned of late, they all have their quirks and preferences, which can get very challenging to manage. Today I will go to the paint store to Buy the Chinese red paint I need to paint the new front door, the two other glass side doors and the front driveway gate. This home will finally take on the earthen red image that we feel it deserves as a great example of Southwestern architecture. I’m not sure how steel blue fit in with the image of this place, but earth tones seem far more appropriate. It matches the fire stick succulent tops. It matches the blooms of the aloe plants around the property. It matches the Bougainvillea flowers and the flowers of the prickly pear cacti. It fits.

When someone complains that we have a few days of rain coming upon us I take the opportunity to remind them that since the first rain in early November that caused me to put my foot through the deck we have had about three days of rain in that sixteen week timeframe. Three of 110 days is a pretty damn good track record of nice weather for outdoor construction. I am quite amazed and pleased with the weather here in San Diego now that I have experienced more than a full year of it. The last thing I am inclined to do is bitch about a day or two of rain. Nature is verdant and life is good.

Yesterday my roofing crew finished capping the parapets in sheet metal. They worked through to the later hours of the day for two days in a row to finish what they thought would be a two day job (it was closer to four days). But the point is that they found a work around to get the job done when they could. I am not suggesting that Handy Brad should be laying tile in the rain. Quite the contrary, I think he should adjust and take on the indoor tasks that need to be done and revel in the rain that the landscape and local reservoirs all need.

I have had a parade of project on this hillside this year and I do not mind that it is raining on my parade this week. As they say, the dogs will bark and the caravan will roll on into the night long after the raindrops fall.