Hardwood (ugghhh)

We're about worn out on the hardwood floors issue. The scratches (all caused by not sanding enough with an orbital sander originally), that turned into the patchwork refinishing and mis matched stain, that would "go away with the final coat, then go away in 2-3 weeks, then, 2-3 months, then 3-4 months...."

My worst fears were confirmed when I spoke to Craig at Hardwood Floorwerx (an extremely qualified hardwood company at 303-994-6336). I described the process and he said the floors would fade, but never match completely. He said that the process of scraping off the finish opens the grain differently and thus the wood absorbed the stain at a different rate. The floors would need to be refinished.

Votan finally agreed that refinishing is the best bet (how much easier this would have been if people would have listened to me last week before they did the final finish). Now we're backed up another 2 weeks (actually that'll be two months behind schedule if you're keeping track) behind schedule and will have a very rushed move.

I do credit Votan for wanting to make it right, but it's a shame that what was obvious to me as a lay person wasn't acted on sooner. An extra 8 hours of sanding the edges originally would have avoided another 100 hours of work re-doing everything (two times).

Hardwood nightmare continues, cabinets, etc.

I spent the whole day at the job site today.

The plumber looked for the leak over the garage ceiling, but couldn't even find plumbing. We suspect that it may have been a roof leak, although it would have had to come down the attic, between walls and down to the garage which would be odd. It was after a very raining night, though.

The hardwood is as I was worried, turning out to be a huge stress. Everywhere that they sanded the scratches out (just about 2' of the perimeter of every room) was a darker stain. I was assured that it would blend in 2-3 weeks. I questioned why they didn't just sand the whole floor down because I didn't want any delays later. No problem I was assured. Now they put the final top coat on and sure enough the blotching unmatched color is still there. Now they're saying 2-3 months it will blend "guaranteed". Why should I have to wait 2-3 months for my floors to (maybe) look good when it is a brand new house?

The cabinet situation isn't much better. We love the look of the cabinets, but are waiting for them to come paint them AGAIN since they just can't seem to get the color right (the doors don't even match each other). They replaced the backspalsh a second time because they scratched it last time after replacing it.

The shutters and corbels went up today, though, and they look awesome. Pete and Todd finishe dthe stair railing which looks great, the door hardware (Emtek) which we love. So things are coming to gether with the exception of the floor.