First, the GC (Steve) handled the sheetrock sub, and I will remain always grateful for that fact. Second, there was some confusion at the beginning of this process due to my ongoing indecision about the ceilings. I settled on sheetrock for everything but the downstairs walls in the workshop and garage areas. For those walls, I chose a form of plywood so that I can apply a texture effect that will look like plaster/concrete. That is something I can do in late spring/early summer after everything else is complete and the crews are long gone.
For the remaining walls, I chose to go with a flat effect. On all of the ceilings except for those in the three main rooms upstairs (bedroom, kitchen/living room, office) I chose the knocked down effect. Finally, for those three remaining rooms, I am putting rough pine on the ceilings. I am especially excited about this part, and we had to order the pine from the sawmill (Phillip Fouraker), and it is stacked and drying on site. Steve and his crew will come back in three months (approximately July) to install the pine on the ceilings. Until then, it is plain white and looks fine.
The sheetrock process from start to finish frankly took too long...about 2-3 weeks too long, and it caused a domino effect with other parts of the construction. There was a lot of confusion on what the problem really was, but as of this writing I can simply say he was ill. I don't want to come off as insensitive, so let me explain that we weren't the first job this happened on...and he knew he wasn't really up to the job when he bid it, but Steve didn't know that. All of that being said, he did not handle himself well with Steve or his own subs and frankly bordered on dishonest, but at the very least was unprofessional. It was a first edition experience for Steve, and that to me says a lot. Bottom line, there was a lot of grief for all of us, but mainly for Steve. I am so grateful to have a wonderful GC who takes his responsibilities seriously and always has my best interests at heart. Once again he proved his value (as a GC and a person), and earned my continued gratitude.
The drama all came to an end while I was away on business. In mid-April, I had to go to San Francisco and when I returned the sheetrock job was finally finished, lien waivers were signed, and final checks were paid. Poof...just like magic.
Hmmm....
