Doors are not my friend today....

Doors are not my friend today....

April 14th -- Bad day today.  There was snow overnight, the painters overslept, and doors are not my friend.

The contractor let me know that the sliding door in the dining room is bowed, which is why it won't lock properly.  It was shipped that way, is under warranty and the company will pay for the painters to repaint the replacement door that has already been ordered. In the meantime, I bought a double drapery rod fixture for this door that will hang sheers and then some solid color panels.  This door is not my friend....

It was near the end of the day when I was in my office preparing to move my computer and local area network from my office to the master bedroom so that the floors in that rood can be finished and the room painted. The head painter, who had been here all day, called my name and then said it was very important that I come downstairs immediately.  I did and he was standing in front of one of the translucent library doors as it was fracturing -- yes, it was making a cracking noise and shattering, but not into shards as the glass is tempered.  We both just sort of watched it in disbelief -- then he went into action and asked me if I had any heavy plastic -- I had just taken the box spring and mattress out of their protective plastic bags (yes, I did finally set up my bed in the master bedroom).  Here is a photo of the glass as it was fracturing.

Here are the plastic bed bags that we wrapped around the door as it continued to fracture

We called the contractor who said he would be there immediately.  None of us had ever seen anything like this.  It was actually interesting to watch, but a real bummer.  At least the contractor was reassuring to me and said that it was under warranty and that he would order a new door.  He put masking tape on it to make sure that the glass would not drop in lots of little pieces.  Clearly, today doors are not my friend. 

The only explanation is that it was a cold day after the overnight snow and for periods of time throughout the day the sliding door was open, bringing cold air into the house.  In the late afternoon the programmed furnace came on and perhaps there was both cold and hot air that affected the glass in the door.  That's the best explanation I have, but it is a mystery.

The painters have really been working hard to complete the interior of the house because the weather did not cooperate for completing the exterior.  Between the woman who cleans my house and the painters, we have decided that it would look interesting to paint the ends of the main staircase that goes from the main level to the upper level and that I would find a bold color carpet  runner that would run down the center of the stairs.  This would provide a cleaner look,  and according to my cleaning person, would be a lot easier to clean than carpet. It turns out that when we pulled up the old carpet, the stairs had been painted like this in a previous life.

The walls will be gray, the trim white, and tomorrow I will start looking for a runner.

The painters finished painting the windows and trim in the living room, also gray,  and they will finish painting the stairwell walls tomorrow.

Despite the bad day for doors, the city inspector came today to do the FINAL inspection, and we passed.  As the painter kept telling me...it will only be a matter of days as we get closer and closer to getting everything done.


Tomorrow is another day and at least tonight I will sleep in my bed!