also I have painting to do and it's too rainy to paint

[cimorene]

We went to order our kitchen countertops today (butcherblock), and they have to be put in before the backsplash is tiled and before the plumbers and electricians install the sink, dishwasher, and oven (because the backsplash goes behind the hood, which needs both plumbers and electricians). They're supposed to be finished sometime this weekend, but that leaves us several days where there won't be anything the carpenters can do, which, given how hard it sometimes is to get carpenter time, and that the apprentice carpenters go back to school in the fall, is a tragic waste of potential carpenter availability!

We can paint and wallpaper in there before that (except Wax is working and I can't hang the wallpaper alone), but otherwise we have to wait for the counters.

In other news, yesterday I had an appointment that was supposed to be at city hall if the pandemic was over, and over the phone if it was still pandemicky; and given that the pandemic is not over, they've just set up testing points at the Turku airport and are setting one up at the harbor for boats, I concluded that it was a phone appointment. However, since nobody called me as expected, I deduced that in the eyes of the local government at least the pandemic is officially "over", but they thought I would just know that even though the government organization's own website, when I went to try to reschedule, made me click through two announcements about how they're handling things differently right now due to the pandemic crisis. It took me a few hours of battling with the website to find out that I can't reschedule electronically because of having missed the appointment, so I had to text the social workers and ask for help rescheduling. And of course, I "should" be able to schedule it online as long as I have a social security number, but "temporarily" their website can't handle non-EU citizens and when I tried to click 'register' it just gave me an error message where the sole option was clicking on 'OK'.

Comments

[princessofgeeks]

2 steps forward and one back.

Remodeling is like a big jigsaw puzzle.

[cimorene]

Yes, it's so annoying having all this stuff that I can do that I can't do until some other random thing gets done! I can't build the closet until the plumber comes, the plumber can't come until it's time to install the kitchen fixtures, the kitchen fixtures can't go in until the counters are in. I can't paint the ceiling until the trim is in; the trim can't go in until the electricians are finished because they're using crown molding wiring; the electricians can't come until it's time to install the stove and hood; that can't be done until we can tile the wall; the wall can't be tiled until the counter comes. The only stuff I can do is stuff I can't do by myself or can only do with the right humidity and temperature so the paint doesn't get fucked up (it's the wrong humidity and temperature today).

Oh, and removing a bunch of stripped screws from the built-in wardrobes. My mom explained a bunch of ways I can do it and says I can learn how from YouTube videos. Doesn't technically need two people, but never having done it before, I'm inclined to wait for Wax's supervision...

[princessofgeeks]

I sympathize so hard.

The good news is that when the first domino is able to fall, usually the others really start clicking. Kind of like a logjam breaking up. Or pushing through a bottleneck.

[laurenthemself]

Oh for goodness' sake. I hope you're not stuck in bureaucrazy too long.

[cimorene]

Thankfully the social worker whose phone number I had was one of the good ones and she already called me this morning to personally fix my website problems and schedule my new appointment - and it's in two weeks which is frankly amazing given the usual speed of appointments at that agency. Definitely not losing her number!

[princessofgeeks]

This is excellent news.

[cimorene]

LOL, the government released a new work-from-home recommendation the same day she gave the appointment, just a few hours later. Now I'll have to check if it's turning into a phone appointment after all...

[which_chick]

Ugh, hope you get the contractor stuff straightened out soon! I'm waiting on ordered tile for my tub surround (taking out the old plastic one, tearing out the drywall behind it, installing moisture barrier and cement board, tiling) but what with the pandemic thing (in the US), supply chains are not what they could be so who knows when the tile will get here. I'm not tearing out any tub surround until I see the whites of the tile, though.

And I hear you on the too wet to paint. Here the humidity is such that the paint fairly slides off the walls unless you run AC full blast. (It's not raining but if you clap suddenly, water falls out of the air. Yay August.)

[cimorene]

Yeah, unfortunately with the environmental conditions all you can do is wait sometimes... though on This Old House I've seen them put scaffolding and plastic tarps around a house and then heat the envelope so they can paint...