Floor Problems

After spending ten hours pouring and finishing a beautiful concrete floor, it's a shame that in the final twenty minutes they dropped the ball. When the floor is hard enough to walk on but still setting, it's easy to leave a mark if there's dirt or even dust on the bottom of your shoes. The mark, if not troweled in, will set in the concrete, and that's what happened when the machine used to cut control joints was rolled across the floor. Not only are there wheel marks but a handful of boot prints as well. My efforts to wash these marks away the following day were not effective. They're part of the concrete. That's one problem. Yesterday, as I was sweeping up after framing some walls, I noticed a area of fine cracks about two feet long and six inches wide. Tapping on the area produced a hollow sound. I remembered that there was a little low spot there that they'd filled in with a very thin coat of cream. As it cured, this thin layer didn't adhere to the concrete below, and it's well on its way to peeling off. A phone call yesterday got somebody to come and look today. What course of action will be taken is still up in the air. But, since I haven't paid a dime for the work thus far, the ball they dropped is most certainly in my court.

Bird lovers out there will be pleased to hear that a minor relocation of the baby phoebes went without a hitch. I decided for everyone's good that they'd be better off outside the main part of the house. I chose the screened-in porch, made a little shelf for the nest, and very carefully slid the nestful of birds onto a cedar shingle. Down one ladder and up another, I carefully deposited the shingle in the new location just around the corner. All is well; the parents found them easily and now have a sight with less traffic.

A tractor trailer of insulation is due to arrive tomorrow morning.