We added the final element to the kitchen addition triad this morning when much blood was spilled on the battlefield of home renovating. Not mine, and that’s a bloody good thing, since I’ve contributed a lot of sweat and possibly all of the tears.

I’ll state one of two morals contained in this post first: Do Not Reach Across a Moving Table Saw Blade. Ever.

Our contractor’s apprentice made this unfortunate and frankly, stupid mistake today and was severely cut. James handled the mishap very professionally, and it was obvious his only thought was the well-being of his worker.
I was in the front part of the house with my daughter when I heard A. yell loudly from the mudroom, where the table saw was set up. Before I could even make it to the back of the house, James (who had been laying floor in the bedsitting room) was on the scene, had grabbed a whole roll of paper toweling from off the kitchen counter and had wrapped the man’s arm immediately. In the blink of an eye they were out the door and in the truck (yes, that one) on the way to the hospital, which is thankfully just two short blocks from here. James’ only words were, “don’t worry, I’ll be back later.”

When I looked in the mudroom, I must admit my stomach did a little flip. There was quite a bit of blood on the floor, the rug at the doorway and some large splashes on one of Deirdre’s winter boots, which she’d kicked off at the door earlier in the morning. Since I had to send her off to school in a short time, my first thought was getting the blood off her boot before she saw it. Thankfully, it cleaned up quickly with some cold water. The rug I just rolled up and tossed, and the tiles were sponged up.

Then I looked at the mudroom wall beside the table saw and noticed a straight, horizontal spatter line about eight inches long…shades of RSI: Renovation Scene Investigation. Gulp.

To be completely truthful, when I saw the blood on my very recently painted wall, I kind of went all Lady MacBeth, my only thought being, “Out, damned spot!” I really didn’t think there was much chance it was going to clean up (eggshell finish, you know), but some careful dabbing with only cold water proved me wrong.

Product Tip: The brand of paint we used on this wall was CIL Realife 100% Acrylic Latex Eggshell. I’m mentioning it because John and I actually had a small tiff about this paint when he’d picked it up. I thought, because it’s a fairly inexpensive consumer brand, it wouldn’t perform as well as other paints we’ve used. I have to admit the paint has great coverage (no lap marks) and better scrubbability than just about anything else we’ve used.

The only place where I couldn’t remove the blood was a small drip on the unfinished wood trim around the mudroom door, but since we’re staining it down the road, it won’t be noticeable (and was probably meant to remain). And of course, the snow at the side door looks a bit scary.

Upon his return just over an hour later – after contacting A.’s parents, filling out a WSIB accident report and waiting for a family member to arrive at the hospital – James and I had a short discussion about what had transpired earlier.
He was understandably disappointed, because this injury should NOT have happened had his apprentice been following the absolute basics of what he’d been taught in terms of safe equipment operation.

James also brought up something that I think deserves repeating here: Whenever you hire anyone to do work in your home, make sure they have proper liability insurance and worker’s compensation to cover accidents or injury to themselves or their employees while they are working within your home. Without it, you could be liable under your own homeowners insurance (at least that’s the way it is here in Ontario).
No one needs to have their insurance rates skyrocket because somebody they hired wasn’t using their head while performing their job. Accidents happen every day, everywhere, and what happened in my house today should be all the reminder you need. Hire professionals when required, and get it in writing.

At 6:30 pm (7½ hours after the accident happened) A. came to our door to pick up his walking shoes. His mother was driving him home from the hospital. He’d just had surgery on his arm, and was bandaged from elbow to wrist. So this was more than just a cut.
Please everyone, use commom sense and be careful. This was preventable.

Amazingly, a lot of reno work was accomplished today, but I’m going to leave that post for another time. It’s been a rather long day.