The Housing Report: September 14, 2009

Sometimes it has to get unpleasant. Because of all the drama I had this morning with the house and the floor stain color, I sent the note below to the agency assisting us with the project. I'm anxious to hear their response tomorrow - if they mention the note at all. In the past, when they get in trouble, they seem to ignore the situation.

Good morning,

I wanted to give you an update on our stain issue from Monday as well as give our thoughts on how it unfolded.

In short, I asked for another coat of stain as it was lighter than we would have liked. Besides that, some areas of the house, especially the kitchen, were darker. Not a board or two. But a whole section. As I told Marian, I really needed a sample to compare the final product against. Without it, it wasn't fair to say, "This is what you approved." So they're adding another coat today and the varnish tomorrow a.m. and p.m. I'm told I need to walk through with Marian to ensure the floor is perfect before moving forward.

As for how it unfolded today, I have to say Chris and I are somewhat disappointed. If I wouldn't have been there this morning to supervise landscaping, the varnish would have been applied and it would have been too late to make any corrections (that or much more expensive). And considering how important the floor is to the house, we really think one of you should have been there to ensure that everything was correct. It wasn't appropriate for me to be sideswiped by the situation upon my arrival. After all, the managing of timelines and expectations is some of the reasons why we hired GPD. Otherwise, I'd be managing the process - knowing I needed to be there for such decisions. And yes, we are watching hours closely now that we've gone over the original estimate. But we've never asked for you not to be involved with making important decisions as a result.

So again, moving forward, I believe I'll walk through tomorrow night or Wednesday morning with Marian to ensure everything is good.

Dave