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I'm working on the final installations for a project that started nearly a year ago.
It's been a struggle as the designer and contractor are working with me for a nice, but difficult client. It's an extreme renovation to a 40 year old mansion located on the coast, but it had severe water damage.
My first visit revealed walls cut open to treat for mildew, machines to dry the moisture between the walls and strong chemicals sprayed in attics, crawl spaces and all the areas affected by the water.

I got the contract for built-in units that include bathroom vanities, laundry, bar, butler's pantry and mud room. That went through. After, I was invited to bid closets and wardrobe units. I got that part added under a separate contract. Closets should be easy... but it turned out to be the hardest part of the project, as the client specified ultra details that took several rounds of drawing changes before she would approve production.

The client/designer ordered the hardware (handles) late delaying the installation. I did a walk through with the client and installer to go over the locations of the handles. It didn't appear that anything unusual would happen, but the client did an inspection after the hardware was installed and made a list of complaints.

Her email was copied to everyone in the team. She's out of town and only comes a few times a month to see the progress. I met the contractor this morning to address the issues stated in her email. No big deal. The installed mis-drilled a hole for a handle in one door, patched it and it's only visible when you look at the back of the door. That needs to be replaced. She and my installer agreed to the placement of the hardware, a specific distance from the edge of all the doors that was centered between the width of the 2-1/2" perimeter moulding. The master bath and guest bath doors have a wider moulding. It's 3" so the installer put the hardware in the middle of the space of those doors and the client complained because it's 1/4" different that the discussion of the other doors. Now she wants us to replace those doors.

The contractor & designer and I agree we installed them in the correct location. To use the dimension for the other doors would be wrong. All the instructions were verbal as we stood there holding hardware on the doors to agree the location. I'm now going to put in writing to explain why we did what we and hopefully, she will accept it.


Speaking of things in writing... There is a comment on a current forum thread asking who invited protesters on January 6th and was it in writing?
The answer is yes. @therealdonaldtrump did so on December 26. It's documented and part of a Twitter archive:
"The ‘Justice’ Department and the FBI have done nothing about the 2020 Presidential Election Voter Fraud, the biggest SCAM in our nation’s history, despite overwhelming evidence. They should be ashamed. History will remember. Never give up. See everyone in D.C. on January 6th."












Sometimes, when you put things in writing, it comes back to implicate you in an insurrection. But... that's the topic for another blog!

Talking with a friend today, we discussed what are the usual penalties for tax fraud/evasions. Her response was: Prison. Remember Charles Kushner?
I pulled up some statistics and found several sites differed, but nearly the same.
The average sentence for tax fraud was 14 months.
Of that 63% went to prison.
52% were white with an average of 52 years old.
82% had no prior criminal history.
Median amount of fraud was $278,325.
11.6% involved amounts greater than $1.5 million.
Top five districts of offenders:
New Jersey, California, Illinois, Massachusetts, New York.

Charles Kushner, got 2 years and was jailed for tax evasion, making illegal campaign donations and tampering with a witness, his brother-in-law. He orchestrated a sex tape with a prostitute and sent it to the man’s wife. Kushner pleaded guilty in 2004 to 18 counts of tax evasion, witness tampering and making illegal campaign donations.
His confession included a retaliation against his brother-in-law, who was cooperating with federal authorities. Kushner hired a prostitute to seduce him in a hotel room with cameras, filming the encounter and sent it to his sister, the man’s wife.
He was pardoned by Donald Trump.

So, I asked the question: "Trump was found guilty of tax fraud. Why wasn't he sent to prison?"

I wore construction boots when I was a project manager, as a good part of my day was on jobsites. It's a requirement by OSHA to wear thick sole, steel toe shoes when in a construction environment.
Job change and the boots were put aside.
Yesterday, I had an appointment to measure a new project that is in the 'framing stage' where all the partitions are going up, prior to electrical and plumbing. Lots of sheet metal, pipes, air conditioning grills on the floor as tradesmen went about their business.

This is the right time to spot errors in layout and make corrections to the shop drawings that the factory builds from. We need all the time to fabricate so the product is ready when the contractor is requesting delivery.

The screws used to hold the metal studs have sharp points needed to pierce sheet metal and the framing crew don't pick up any that fall to the floor. I was on the job for a few hours and had to pull screws from the bottom of my boots a few times.

That was the easy part as I had the boots on for 5 hours and couldn't wait to get home to remove them. They were killing my feet yesterday afternoon and I felt pain this morning when I got up!
I'm back in soft shoes today and getting into my normal routine... maybe with some aspirin for breakfast.