Today's Progress

Got the locks changed on three doors and a sliding glass door (never saw one of those with a key lock in it before). Now the deadbolts and knobs use the same key, which is nice. That cost $150 and included 5 keys.

The new cabinet guy came out and looked at what needs to be done. He basically said the cabinets that are there look like they were made with leftover pieces in someone's garage. It looks like we have all the doors and boxes, but the bad news is there is no countertop, so that will need to be ordered and he said those are taking about three weeks. I also need a drawer and end pieces. He pointed out some bad work - the cabinets are a bit short in one place, so they don't come even with the tile on the floor - there's about a quarter inch gap. Similar situation with some upper cabinets. The space left for the refrigerator seems a bit too large and the gap between the stove and cabinets on either side is too big. He also said he's never seen corner cabinets like the guy made (and that are already hung). He wasn't sure what the guy was doing. Anyway, he took measurements and said it'll take a day or two to figure out what all needs to be done to finish the job off. I feel much better working with this guy. And he is licensed :-)

On a side note, the other cabinet doors were inside some of the cabinets. I don't remember seeing them there before, so maybe Joe dropped those off at some point.

And I discovered that the last storm we had apparently damaged the tree in front of the house. Luckily, it didn't fall on the house, but now I'll need to get that taken care of before it's sold.

Free Trailer!

If anyone wants a free trailer, leave a comment here and I'll email you details. Here's the ad I posted to craigslist:

A contractor I was using to do some rehab work has fled, taking my money and leaving the job unfinished. He also left a trailer behind. I have been unable to contact him for a month and the city's abandoned property department tells me the trailer is mine to do what I want with. So, I'm giving it away! My only stipulation is that you also take away the trash that is loaded on it - mainly old kitchen cabinets and two toilets. The trailer is approximately 6 feet wide by 10 feet long. It has two axles but there are only wheels on one. The tires are inflated. I don't know if the tail lights work. It's a bit rusty, but seems to be in good shape. Email me for details on picking it up.







UPDATE 6/30/05: The trailer is no longer available.

House Update

I've not heard anything back from Joe regarding my fax, so I swung by the house today at lunch. Nothing has changed. The trailer is still there and the inside is the same. Now, technically, he still has about 3.5 hours to comply with my fax, but I think it's safe to assume he's not going to.

I changed the combination to the lockbox and was surprised to see the keys that were supposed to be inside were not there. Every time I've gone to the house in the past, I've used my set of keys, so I haven't opened the lockbox in probably 2 months. Who knows how long they've been missing. I'm assuming Joe has them, so I called a locksmith today and he's coming out tomorrow afternoon to re-key all the locks.

I also took a picture of the license plate of the trailer to try to track down the owner. It's unclear to me if it's actually Joe's trailer or the trailer of Joe's previous employer. (I trust Joe so little, I'm not even sure he had a previous employer and he's not just working for himself and feeding me b.s.) But, I figure there could be legal issues if I just tow it off myself somewhere, so I did some research and the city has a number you can call to report abandoned vehicles on private property, so I'll call them and see what they can do.

I filed a complaint with the Arizona Registrar of Contractors against Joe today for contracting without a license. I could even do it online! How convenient!

I have to call the new cabinet guy tomorrow morning to set up a meeting with him. Hopefully, that can happen at the same time I'll be out there with the locksmith.

Weeds are invading the property, thanks to some rain we've had recently, and I'll need to get those cleared away before I put it up for sale. I'm going to wait for that though, until everything inside has been finished and I'm sure the place is ready to go on the market.

I also got a call from my handyman asking if I got his invoice for the toilets and flooring. I haven't gotten it, so he's re-faxing it, but I also mentioned he still hadn't finished the flooring in the hall closet, so he said he'd do that this afternoon.

On an interesting note, I've just discovered that a friend I went to elementary and high school with has become an actor and is appearing on HBO's Entourage. Check out picture 5 for episode 12 here and another picture here. Funny.. he was going to be a music major, but he did know about every Academy Award question that came up during our high school's trivia contests, so I guess it's natural he headed that direction... Super smart guy too.