Avoid Paul David Plumbing for anything but plumbing!!

While he is a good plumber, he is horrible as a general contractor! (He also does business under the name "Feldman Mechanical Contractors" or "Feldman Mechanical Contracting".)

When we hired Paul David Plumbing as our general contractor, it was because Paul David had done good plumbing work at a reasonable price. He was willing and able to deal with the old plumbing in our house, and to do things like rebuild our 1920s toilets.

He has proven himself completely incapable as a general contractor. We paid the deposit for materials, about 65% of the total cost of the job, in April. The contract was entered into with the agreement that a subcontractor with experience in slate would be doing the vast majority of the work, and that Paul David would be doing some work to assist them.

Paul David Plumbing provided us with excuse upon excuse upon excuse why the work had not begun on the roof. Last week, Paul David himself began work on the breezeway between the house and the garage. When one side of the breezeway repair was complete, he asked if we were satisfied with how it looked - I was - but this was based on appearance only. There was another slate that he had replaced, with a nail driven through the face of the slate, which I infomed him was improper practice, and that such repairs needed to be done with a slate hook. Paul David was unable to locate a supplier of slate hooks, which should have been a warning.



Next Paul David began work on the rear part of the roof, where there had been considerable damage from ice falling on it the previous winter, and where it was obvious repairs had been performed previously. The slate for the bottom few rows are 28 inches long. The slate installed was only 24 inches long, which did not provide sufficient overlap. Paul David did not realize this was an issue until it was pointed out to him. He further didn't realize that the slate needed to be shimmed out, using smaller pieces of slate, to fit the slightly curved framing of the roof.

It was at this point that we realized that Paul David Plumbing had failed to live up to their end of the contract. A professional with experience on slate had not been brought in, as had been specified in the contract. Further, slate adequate for the job had not been provided.



When Paul David Plumbing informed us that the proper sized slate wasn't readily available, we told him that we expected the exposed area and the improperly slated area to be covered to prevent damage from rain, which is expected for the rest of the week. When it appeared, on Sunday, that it was going to rain, we called Paul David Plumbing, informing him of this, asking him to cover the area. He said that he'd try to be out that afternoon. When we called him again, an hour later, when rain was threatening, he said that he couldn't make it and that his insurance would just have to cover it.

That was the absolute last straw. While Paul David may be a competent plumber, he simply cannot be trusted with anything beyond that.



On further inspection of the breezeway, in the area where work had not yet been completed, I saw that the slate was not installed properly - the nail holes in the slates were not countersunk, so the nail heads will rub against the slate above, eventually wearing through. Further, the flashing at the house is in such poor shape that it really should be replaced. This was not part of the original contract, but something that should have been brought to our attention - it makes little sense to repair the slate now, only to have to take it off in a couple years to redo the flashing.

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I took a very long lunch today (and as a result will be working quite late tonight) and met with Paul David to iron out the details of the completion of the contract. By next Friday, he will present us with a list of all the money that has been spent on materials, which will be deducted from the amount we paid, in April, for materials. From his costs will be deducted the cost of a temporary repair on the main roof of the house and repair of the improper work done on the breezeway. If he doesn't provide us with the expenses by next Friday, the amount will be assumed to be $2000. Either way, the amount due back to use will be paid in full by two weeks from that Friday.

I'm not terribly confident that we'll get our money back, but at least now we have everything in writing, and we have some legal standing, I hope.

In good news, Dennis Crookshanks (of Dennis M. Crookshanks Const., Inc.), whose gallery features some pretty impressive work, will be at our house either today or tomorrow to evaluate the situation and install a temporary patch. He clearly knows his stuff - I only wish I'd gone with the estimate that he'd provided when we called him originally. Fortunately, he still has our information on file, so it shouldn't take him terribly long to write up.

Disappointment

We are presently looking to see what our options are for pursing legal action against Paul David Plumbing. He has failed to deliver on the projects that he was contracted to complete, namely repairs to the roof, the chimney, and our gutters, supplying us with excuse after excuse after excuse.

He had said (and I should have specified further in our contract) that he had talked with a roofing firm who was to repair our roof and that he would only act as assistant. Now, with excuse after excuse, he's begun the work on the roof, himself. First he completed some work on the breezeway, which acceptable. Then he began to work on the main roof of the house. The slates that he had ordered were not long enough for the job, but he did not realize that. As a result, as installed, they do not have sufficient overlap. Further, the framing of our roof curves out, and the proper slate shims were not installed to avoid stress upon the slate.

This guy doesn't know what he's doing. He's taking forever. Right now, there's a big open chunk on our roof and we're screwed.

I bring up these issues and he just comes up with one excuse and then another. It's always going to be done in just a couple days, just a couple days more.

I just don't know how to handle all this. I'm freaking out because I feel I have no options. I'm not going to be able to meet the deadlines that the city has set for addressing the violations on the house, and I'm going to have a big hole open on my roof all winter.

On the plus side right now, and this is really the only thing on the plus side, the first gutter that was sent out to be repaired was returned today, and looks great. The gutter is copper, and they were able to roll out all the dents, thus that it looks like the rest of the gutters, or perhaps a bit better.

Finally, an update!

It's been forever since I've actually written anything about the house - this is mostly because the house projects are moving forward at a snail's pace. My general contractor has been moving at the speed of molasses and I haven't felt too motivated myself recently.

The contractor has finally started work on the slate, and I'm told that one of the new gutters will be here today, I think - I'll believe it when I see it.

I've finally finished the drywall on the ceiling in the library - I hope to start working on the crown moulding in there tonight.

Further, I've learned something that I wish I knew earlier. It can be just about impossible to get the old glazing out of steel casement windows - unlike wood windows, there seems to be less chance for humidity to get into the space between the glazing and the frame - so the glazing is often rock hard. I learned that a bit of heat, from a torch, will soften the glazing up enough that it comes out quite easily!

Hopefully I'll be able to make a post later this afternoon illustrating all the progress on the house.

Jesse Owens house

I've been trying to find local sites of historical significance, for use in the programs I run as the Youth Services Librarian at the Hough Branch of Cleveland Public Library. Local history isn't taught much in the schools here - "local history" too often means "Ohio history". Many of the kids have little, if any, experience outside this neighborhood, so when I talk about things on the other side of the county, I might as well be talking about New York or California. I've found that when I can talk about things that happened in their neighborhood - people who walked the same streets that they walk every day - that I can really get their attention.

I knew that Jesse Owens, four time gold medal winner at the 1936 Berlin Olympics, grew up in this neighborhood, but I hadn't been able to find out exactly where. Alll I'd been able to learn was that in 1923, "Jesse Owens was enrolled in Bolton Elementary School, just three blocks from his home." The school was located at East 89th and Carnegie. I'd contacted the Ohio State University archives, which holds Owens' papers, without any luck.



Finally, after it seemed I had exhausted all reasonable options, John Skrtic, manager of the Social Sciences department at Cleveland Public Library, sent me a link to this photo, from the Cleveland Memory Project. It shows Owens sitting on the front steps of a house in 1935, the year he, in the space of 45 minutes at a Big Ten track meet in Michigan, beat three world records and tied a fourth.

Unfortunately, the caption did not identify the location of the photograph. The style of the house looks characteristically Cleveland, but I didn't know more than that. I contacted Bill Barrow, Special Collections Librarian at Cleveland State University, to see if he might be able to provide a higher resolution version of the image so that I might see the address on the house or even just take a magnifying glass and check it out himself. He did far, far better than that and provided me with the address of the house!

The house is located at 2178 East 100th Street, Cleveland, Ohio. It is somewhat worse for the wear, but appears to be taken care of. The house is very close to the Cleveland Clinic, so effort will need to be made to ensure its long term protection, as the Clinic continues to expand.


Update:
There are no records in the Cleveland City Directory for the Owens family for 1930 and 1932. The 1933 City Directory lists the house as "vacant". They are listed at this address for 1934, 1935, and 1936. Further, the 1930 Census lists them at 2212 East 90th Street. Thanks to Michael Ruffing, librarian, History and Geography Department, Cleveland Public Library, for this information.



This is the house at 2212 E. 90, where the Owens family lived as of 1930.

In search of the elusive inner-city Greek Revival house

I've always had a thing for Greek Revival houses. Their lines and proportions seem so right. For a while I've thought it would be interesting to have an old farmhouse and tiny farm in the inner city. With falling real estate prices, I've decided to look a bit harder to see if I can really find that magical Greek Revival farmhouse.

This is not as a replacement for my current residence, but rather, an additional project. The house would end up as a rental property after I had fixed it up, though I would probably make at least some effort to cultivate the land around it. As a result, I'm somewhat more inclined toward areas where I would be able to find a house with a chunk of land adjacent or nearby - these areas also tend to be cheaper.

My personal interest would be in a smaller house that either had really great lines or retained plenty of original detail. A smaller house would be a more managable project to rehab and maintain.

I've begun to systematically search through the areas where I might expect to find such houses, and will be documenting as I find them, as well as including them in this map. I welcome any additional sites you may be able to identify.

The photograph at the top of the page is of the Dunham Tavern, on Euclid Avenue. The oldest building in Cleveland on its original foundation, it is also probably the best known Greek Revival house in the city.



I often pass by this c.1835 house on Buckeye Road at East 108th Street. It was made from stone quarried nearby. I hadn't noticed the detail work on it before, but it is really quite nice. Replace the glass block windows and remove the vinylcide, and one would be left with a very nice house.



I started looking methodically near my neighborhood, hoping to find something interesting. I came across this house on East 130th Street, just north of Kinsman. Kinsman is one of the oldest roads in the area.



This angle shows the original lines a bit more clearly.

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Today, on my lunch break, I found three houses - two solid Greek Revivals and one suspect.



This one is hard to see, due to the trees, but I didn't venture further up the driveway to take a photograph, out of respect for the owner. This photograph shows the lines a bit more clearly. The house is located at Located at 1158 Addison Road, Cleveland, Ohio.



This house, at 1209 East 71st Street, has really nice lines. The windows, in their original locations, would have looked great. For the purposes of this argument, we're going to assume that they're currently ugly vinyl replacements (I actually have no idea) and that you'd want to replace them, so they might as well be replaced in the original locations. The foundation is locally quarried sandstone, and there's exterior access to the cellar.



The addition to the rear, presumably the kitchen, is reasonably harmonious with the rest of the house. The other addition, with the flat roof, should probably be removed.



The addition has the same style of sandstone foundation as the rest of the house, suggesting that it wasn't built terribly long after the main part of the house. I'd almost be inclined to think that the space I've been calling an addition might have come first, except that the pitch on the roof is slightly steeper than the rest of the house.



The other side of the house looks quite presentable, too. Street presence would be improved by a bit of pruning of the tree in front of it and removal of the porch.

The house is owned by Great Lakes Home Remodelers, Inc., which purchased the property on 13 July 2006 for $4,800 from the Federal National Mortgage Association (Fannie Mae). It is one of five properties that they own, four of which were foreclosures. They are delinquent on taxes on all five of the properties as of today, according to the Cuyahoga County Auditor's website - the balance owed on this property is $2719.32. The auditor states that this house is a duplex. It is 1536 square feet.

At this point, I suspect that the current owners would be happy to get rid of this house, even at a loss. There's enough vacant land nearby to have some serious potential for gardening or a yard.



This house, at 6833 Bayliss Avenue, is the last I will mention today. It's a bit of a puzzler to me. The proportions seem just about right, but there's simply been too much work done on it for me to be sure one way or the other.

The arch is falling! The arch is falling!

or:
Maybe we've just been in denial all this time



When we got back from our vacation, we saw this brick hanging down, which we knew wasn't good.



Upon further observation, the crack seemed to extend to the wall of the garage.



We were sure that this was mostly new, perhaps the result of the big wind storm a couple weeks back, until I looked at this photo, taken in September, when we were first looking at the house.

I think that the loose chunk of brick may have settled a little bit. However, I no longer feel that I can blame the replacement of the garage floor and the theoretical shifting of the walls on this. Nope. Just regular old settling and time.

Since I took these photographs, I've jacked the bricks back up into place, awating the inevitable repairs that will surely come.

In the second photograph, you can see where the section of damaged gutter has been removed so that a proper replacement may be fabricated. Note that the wood underneath the gutter was never painted, yet remains in excellent condition. This is why you want to save the original woodwork when possible - the old growth wood that they used is rock-solid, and can often last forever with minimal care.

Buffalo ReUse - Finally!

I've written previously about Buffalo ReUse, a non-profit organization in Buffalo, New York, dedicated to salvaging the architectural detail of homes that are being demolished. While on vacation, I visited their retail outlet, and was totally blown away. The inventory was about three times the size of all the stores dealing in such things in the Cleveland area put together. I can't believe how much great stuff there was at bargain basement prices.

We'd planned to make a stop on the way home, too, but decided not to. This means that a road trip, soon, is in order. I'm talking to you, Really Bad Cleveland Accent and Lead Paint Cookbook. Those doors that you desired? That claw-foot tub? Yup. Let's split the cost of gas and tolls and do this!



There were many many bathtubs, with nice ones priced around $200-300. I'd bring something to clean them with before purchase to ensure that there wasn't significant damage or staining, as they are stored outside.



This was but part of their outdoor storage lot. Yes, that's a marble sink slab from the 1880s or 1890s leaning up against the windows there.



Is this the sink you're looking for, Anastasia?



I couldn't believe this great sink with integral faucet for a mere $125.



Or the Case "kidney" toilet sitting next to it for $120.



There were doors, doors, and more doors, interior and exterior. I recall interior doors being priced at around $15-35 each.



Handpainted tile for $1.25 each!



There was plenty of oddball stuff, too, like tin ceiling at $2 a square foot.


Or this electric bathroom heater.



Or these brass shower valves, which I would have investigated further, if not for the hands of my son trying to grab and chew said fixture.



Would you believe the brass switchplate in the center for a dollar?



This wood armchair, the better one, was $15. The one in front was $5.



I'm not sure how much this railing was, but WOW.

Overall, I was really impressed. I can't wait to go back.