Dawn Byrne

Last Valentine’s Day, hubby and I bought bedroom carpeting for our love nest. The installation ended with a restoration company repairing a main beam that was cracking underneath our bed. You can read those stories here and here.

This Valentine’s Day, we gave each other a new kitchen floor. Not as romantic as bedroom carpeting. Or as scary as the floor almost collapsing under us while we slept. But, since our elderly house is feeling its age, frustration stymied us again. A sales representative quote $2,140.00 for Luxury Vinyl Plank flooring. This surprised me because our kitchen and pantry are small rooms.

Days later, an installer pointed to the bottom of our crumbling wall at the back door. He said he could put the floor in, but not molding. He needed a solid wall to tack the molding onto. And, no guarantee the strip molding wouldn’t pull away from drywall; strip molding on drywall needs a wood backing. My sales rep. had boasted she was a 16-year veteran of the large flooring company. Why didn’t she mention the crumbling wall when she sized and surveyed our kitchen and pantry? I cancelled.

Hubby repaired the walls. Then, dug out the name of our sales rep. from last year’s carpet installation. This new kitchen floor quote, for the same materials, from the same company, was $1,875.00.

Days after that, the second installer couldn’t put down the LVP because the floor was too unlevel. A supervisor from the large flooring company explained I needed to hire a contractor to install sub-flooring before rescheduling with them to lay the LVP. Once that phone conversation ended, the second installer told me someone from his home improvement company could lay a sub-floor the next day. Hmm.

The large flooring company sub-contracts their installation work to small contractors. I thought the installer was taking a risk; offering me his contracting services. But, after more than a week without my kitchen, I was desperate to get the floor installed so hubby could hook the stove back up.

Next day, all day, one carpenter worked putting down ¼ inch plywood that was supported on the lower areas of the floors with shims. He didn’t cover a small area near the doorway into our dining room. When I asked about it, he said it was okay because the LVP floor installers would cover it. As I walked on the sub-floor, the shims popped. I bounced where the plywood was hollow underneath. Again, the carpenter said it was okay, the new floor would take care of that too. I paid him $684.00. Tire tracks from his truck run along our side yard, and on our front lawn where he did a K-turn.

More days later, a third installer from the large flooring company bounced on the sub-floor. “That’s not a shot you’re hearing, it’s a shim,” he said into his phone to his boss at the large flooring company. The sub-floor had to be taken up and replaced with 7/16 inch material. The third installer took pictures of the business cards of the second installer and the carpenter who worked all day in our kitchen. I also asked him to take a picture of the receipt that I insisted the second installer give me before the ¼ inch sub-floor was laid.

Days after that, the third installer worked with an apprentice for 5 ½ hours. They pulled up the sub-floor, replaced it with 7/16 inch material, laid the LVP, installed wood backing around the bottom of the walls, and tacked strip molding. Thresholds to the basement, back door and dining room are clean. Transition from kitchen to pantry is capped beautifully. Gaps are sealed flawlessly.

The upside is that we got the proper sub-floor for more than $300.00 less than if the large flooring company had originally put it on our bill. Because of their employee’s mistake in selling us the wrong sub-flooring, we weren’t charged the extra money the large flooring company typically requires for sub-flooring. Add this to the money we saved going with the second sales rep., and we saved more than $565.00. However, since we weren’t told we needed a sub-floor to begin with, we put out $684.00 we hadn’t intended.

Initially, going with the large flooring company was disappointing. However, they made good on giving us the floor we wanted and sucked up their loss with the sub-flooring. The saddest take away is the back of the carpenter’s business card. It says ‘Thank You’ above biblical scripture on love.

We started this process in January. It ended after Valentine’s Day. Hubby and I shouldn’t have put pressure, again, on our poor old house to make Valentine’s Day memorable. This day of love, lays enough pressure on relationships, let alone houses.

“Don’t do that again,” said the kind woman at Berman Jewelers in Cherry Hill, NJ after the male behind their counter cut off my wedding and engagement rings. She added a story about someone who was hospitalized and needed his ring removed right away. The hospital had to cut it off. She ended the story with, “And your insurance won’t pay for that.”

Initially I had called two other jewelers about removing my rings. They said they didn’t do that, and suggested the ER or a fire/rescue company. Even though Berman didn’t promise they could remove my rings, they cautioned me that a non-jeweler removing rings could ruin them. Maybe the first two jewelers thought I had an emergency, but I really wish they also mentioned Berman, or another local business that did removals.

I hadn’t taken off my rings since hubby slid them on 35 years ago. That was possible because they’re petite enough where they never got in my way, needed cleaning or repair. But I felt foolish allowing the rings to get stuck. Until Berman told me they remove about 2 to 3 rings from people a week. At least I’m not the only too-sentimental ring wearer. Typically, school rings are the most difficult to remove because of their size and the material some are made from. While on the phone with them, Berman asked me if there was room between my finger and the rings. Their tool needs to fit in there to cut the metal. They suggested I come at 10am when they opened, before my finger had time to swell.

My rings never bothered me. But, the flesh under them hadn’t thickened while the rest of me gradually did. That’s why my left ring finger looks deformed. The woman at Berman said my finger would heal, and to just give it time. That’s a happy surprise. I was wondering how my re-sized rings would fit, look and feel once hubby slipped them back on.

Mom had warned me to get them removed when I first realized they wouldn’t come off. My plan was to lose weight. Yeah, right. The only result was allowing more time for arthritis to set in.

In a week I’ll get back my rings. At first, I habitually reached for them. The experience was something like a ‘ghost limb,’ where I felt myself wearing the rings, but not when I squeezed where they used to be.

Two of my children are getting married. My beloved engagement ring doesn’t compare in size to those gorgeous rings. Hubby asked if I want a new one. I can’t bring myself to say, “I do.” I’m almost in tears thinking of replacing a symbol that shows so clearly who we are and where we came from. The woman jeweler knew almost exactly when hubby bought the rings, and even quoted prices. She also knew they were sold as a trio, the second band being the groom’s. I enjoyed talking with her and the male jeweler. They treated my rings like they were as valuable as the others in their locked showcases.

Insurance isn’t paying for my rings or their removal, but I’m glad I didn’t get in an extreme health situation in which my sentimental rings added to an urgent situation.

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