...

I called the engineer back and they haven't heard from the contractor because "he's going through a medical procedure". This was his excuse for ghosting me back in March as well. Engineer also said they will not send me any reports - will not even say for sure that the reports exist - without going through the contractor because they work for the contractor and not for me.

So now I guess I commence hassling the contractor. In the meantime I will reach out to the city inspector and find out what my options are.

I am definitely talking to a fucking lawyer.

***

'Tis the season when restaurant work starts to ramp up, and so I have to figure out what jobs absolutely need a second person and get them done while daughter still has time. (Also we are starting to get closer into not-having-windows-open season and since daughter takes zero infection precautions that is an absolute deal-breaker for having her in the house.)

I think getting the new lights hung is number one and then I have a sideboard that needs to be partially reassembled and it's way too heavy to wrangle by myself, and then that's it.

( to-do list under cut )

There are ants in the new kitchen. There were ants in the old kitchen, so I guess I shouldn't be surprised. I keep finding them in the kitchen sink though, which is... weird.

Weekend was less productive than hoped, or at least less productive at the specific things I wanted to finish. Daughter ended up only being able to come on Thursday and I got stuck in a meeting until late. There's always stuff for her to pick away at, but the This-Needs-More-Than-Two-Hands jobs only got a couple of hours of dedicated time.

That was enough time to take off the old light fixtures and find out that the new ones I bought fit perfectly into the short narrow spaces available. Unfortunately the base of the new lights is a couple of centimetres smaller than that of the old ones - and the original installation was done by cutting holes in the walls that were of a size just barely able to be covered by the old fixtures. So once again I am fixing holes in plaster because apparently this is my life now.

This is mostly annoying because I have to turn the power off to the room because I'm working around dangling wires. So I'm plastering & painting with one hand and holding my phone up for light with the other. Somewhere around here I know I have some flashlights that are small enough I can hold it in my mouth so I can use both hands - but you think I can find them?

Then I looked at the bathroom and decided it looked really patchy so I slapped another layer of paint on it. Looks much better. The only thing left to paint is the doors.

To Do List: Tomorrow I will follow up with the engineer (AGAIN), and hit the hardware store. (Maybe I'll see if they have one of those headlamp deals.)

I should also call an electrician to install the two exterior lights, one was missed completely and the second was set up with an interior box instead of an outdoor one. I might also call the guy who installed the storm door for the kitchen and see if he can get one on the basement door because I am tired of flies and mosquitos coming in every time I open the door. It's a weird size, but he might be able to special order something.

And then I have a cancer screen that's way overdue, and my doctor sent me the name of a therapist she recommends that I should follow up on, and I started cleaning out my closet this weekend so I can start going through the stacks of boxes out of the top floor and finding homes for things. (So far I found two big bags of Darrell's old clothing and a whole-ass guitar I didn't know about.)