I got an email form Sir Richard, his castle & keep are rebuild, it took almost a year to complete since the fire, from the sounds of it the entire affair left a bad taste in his mouth as far as contractors go....... his email below, "Allen, I swore off the forum as an incentive to finish a cannon project. I told myself I would not look in until I had something to show. That way, my 2 year project might go foward. It has not. Besides the rebuild, I have been in PT and with a back brace for several months, so that rules out wrestling with iron and steel. The castle repair/rebuild took 51 weeks and only ended on August 14th, 2011. The fire was August 22, 2010. To celebrate the contractor's leaving the week before and before I killed him, my wife and I decided to have dinner out on the evening that celebrated the fire. I shuffled out to the car and Pat locked-up behind me. As she closed the side door, I heard a terrific, loud crash from within the house. I looked back and called to her; "What was that?". She peered through the door's window and responded with, "The new kitchen cabinets that the fool just installed, fell off the wall and smashed the new dryer too". We went to dinner. " Things have NOT gone well with the rebuild. Forget about the GC. I could write a book about his errors and omissions, besides the cabinets. The tear-down guy scammed the insurance company and stole alot of stuff out of here. The painter was told to paint everything "egg shell white". I returned from the hospital to find that he was painting with flat white. He said, "I think flat white looks better". The electrician, among doing other things wrong, installed the wall switches on the hinge side of the doors, 2 breakers that we never found what the connected and my welder connection was upside down so that the cable could not be connected. The plumber was a shoe-maker and I don't even want to get into that. He also messed-up the oil burner. The only good workers we had here, did the concrete, foundation and entrance steps. They are two old friends, locals who are addict-alcoholics. They listened to what I wanted...did it perfectly...and left in less than the estimated time and asked for less than they contracted for. I hope to be able to get to my project next month (HOPE!). It should take me at least until spring. Until then, I am returning to seclusion. I do not check this e-mail address anymore and just had this computer built this week; to replace the one that that was fried and died a slow death. So I was poking around and clicked this email site which I usually ignore. I use 4 other addresses, so I keep up with other things and places but NOT the forum. That's it! Thank you for asking. Richard "The Pearl Caster" " Well here's to Richard, may his troubles be few and may his health mend, so that he may get on with his project and be back amoung friends from his self emposed exile.....
