Painted Steel beams and interior finishes

The substantial progress made this past week was overshadowed somewhat by the vandalism incident.  Mario the painter finished painting the beams. The color is meant to match the bronze cladding. The original intention was to use a brown similar to the current Eiffel tower color, but we found it a bit too light.  

 

This picture shows the beam closeup before and after sanding and painting.

 The ceiling is of maple veneer, stained rather darker than we had intended. It seems David Jameson didn't like our plans for a light colored ceiling, and the panels were finished before we found about the color change. We were concerned about lighting in the teahouse, since all the lights are in the floor and will shine onto the ceiling. So we were dependent on a light colored ceiling to lighten up the space at night. Still the color looks good.

The floors of fir end pieces is not yet sanded and stained. I suspect we'll need to go with a dark color, now that the rest of the room is dark.






 How the teahouse looks as of August 29, 2009. The broken glass can be seen to the left of the side door.



 

Tea House Vandalism

The tea house was vandalized last night. It was likely a bb gun, coming from the direction of one of the angry neighbors. You can see the direction that the shot came from in the reflection of the 2nd picture.

Exterior nearing completion

The bronze cladding was finished this week. Mario the painter started to sand and prime the steel beams. They will be painted a bronze color to match the cladding.




Close up of the exterior cladding.

A post yelling email exchange

August 13, 2009



Andy,

I am not sure what has happened to you in the last 24 hours.

Per my response to your phone tirade yesterday, we will be there today to remove the blue tarp. The first wave of the bronze is finished and we will begin the installation of such today.

Our plan is to pack it up this morning and be there mid morning.

As to your neighbors: with the removal of the blue tarp, the only thing they will have to object to is the modern structure itself,
to which they had objections to when the first elements were installed.

As to the timing of this project, please understand that I am not trying to drive you crazy, but merely trying to finish a difficult project under difficult circumstances.
With that in mind, I apologize for the stress and inconvenience that this project has caused you and Sara. But please also understand that this project has caused me considerable stress, both technical and financial.

In spite of the long history of this project, all the elements for completion are ready and we can move forward to complete this. I only ask you to hang on to your last threads of patience for a few days.

Henry

------------------------------------------------------------------------
August 19, 2009


Henry,

Now that you've made some progress and I have calmed down, let me explain things a little further. It had gotten to where I have neighbors knocking on our door in the evening to chew me out about the tarp, which had been in place for nine months. There was no getting across to them that I couldn't simply fire you and find another contractor, and I've been at wits end. So it seemed that yelling really loud was my only option. I don't know if you had intended to come the next day or not. I'm only sorry that things had gotten to the point where I had to do it. When you couple this with the previous long delays, and your past reassurances about how quickly things would go, it added up to more than we have been able to handle.

We do realize that you will very likely lose money on this project. But we have signed a contract, and we did expect that it would be honored in a reasonable time frame. which would have been something much closer to the 12 weeks that was written into the contract.

The exterior bronze looks terrific. Let's get the interior wrapped up.


Andy

Finally

Two nights ago I called Henry and yelled for 10 minutes, including a number of obscenities. It wasn't much fun, but it seems that was the only way to get through to him that time was up. So the next morning they took the tarp down and got back to working on the trim. This allowed the landscapers to come back and start to plant the trees and shrubs.

More Complaints

David and Henry,

You both have pushed me too far. I expect both of you to show up here and resolve this issue. You both owe Sara and I, along with all of our neighbors an apology for the damage you have done to our lives. We won't put up with this any longer. Too much money has been spent, and it has only resulted in our conflicts with the neighbors. I can't believe that 6 years has gone by, and what we have to show for this is a truly ugly blue tarp.

It's hard for me to imagine anymore what it is like to hire a contractor who comes and finishes a job in a professional manner. Do you treat all your clients in this manner????? Please take the tarp down tomorrow first thing in the morning.


Andy

Bethesda Gazette

Henry and David,

I hope you both saw the article in today's Gazette about neighbors complaining about backyard construction:

http://www.gazette.net/stories/08052009/bethnew200940_32530.shtml

I'm concerned that our unfinished project (with that horrible blue tarp) sitting there for nearly a year will eventually find it's way into the news. Why don't we try really hard to make sure this doesn't happen by finishing the project in the next several weeks. I don't think that this is the kind of publicity that either of you are going to want.

Andy