11 posts tagged “home improvements”
So this week, I guess we were the only people who wanted work done on our house, because EVERYBODY came to our house this week, and it was awesome.
We got our countertops installed.
It's finally here. Today is the day we fire and begin suing our contractor. I have waited so long for this day that I can't believe that it has finally arrived. We locked him out this morning, but it's not like he's attempted to show up this week anyway, so it's mostly a ceremonial locking-out.
I drank a lot of wine at the farm last night to celebrate. Today I am fuzzy and tired. As soon as 9am rolls around, I'm calling the lawyer.
Let's get this show on the road!
I took photos. They probably don't make much sense, because... well, I don't have a wide-angle lens camera. I should have taken video maybe? But I don't know how to upload to YouTube, and also I am lazy, so whatever. Anyway, I've updated the "renos" set at flickr, so check it.
- We have an "optional 3rd bedroom" hidden behind the living room and
kitchen walls. We are converting it into a dining room by taking out
some walls.
- The living room spans both the "dining
room" and kitchen, so we are taking out 10' of wall between the DR and
LR, and then also taking out the 10' wall between the kitchen and the
dining room. This will give us a more "open floor plan" feel to the
whole space. The kitchen sink is on the wall next to the DR, this will
become sort of an "island" space, with high cabinets hung on the
ceiling above.
- Renovating entire kitchen, including tearing out all existing cabinetry.
- Both
kitchen windows will be removed, and bottom sills will be elevated to
be above countertop/backsplash height (they currently have sills at
like 30" off the floor, which is much too low for countertops).
- All
new white wainscot-front cabinetry will be installed, including wall
cabinets on the back wall by the back door and another between the
windows, a cabinet to house the exhaust fan over the stove, and a
storage cabinet over the fridge.
- Hanging double-sided glass cabinets will be hung from the ceiling over the kitchen sink, between kitchen & dining room.
- All new granite countertops in "china butterfly" green color. Including backsplash throughout, and including 17" wide counter between kitchen and Dining Room (on the DR side, below this will be a built-in bookshelf).
- A new 30" wall oven installed next to the stove.
The oven on my current range is tiny, and cooks unevenly (it is, after
all, an antique). This will be in addition to my antique O'Keefe and
Merrit range.
- Renovating the entire bathroom,
- including new tub (18" deep)
- all new floor and wall tile (similar to exisiting black & white tile)
- Wainscoting and chair rail on bathroom walls
- keeping existing commode and sink
- New front & rear entry doors, all new trim and jambs (will use fir and glass doors, with all-glass storm doors)
- Crown molding throughout
- Tankless water heater (our old one won't be able to keep up with the deeper new tub)
- Front
bay window with louvers will be torn out, louvers bricked up, new
picture window with two smaller double-hung windows on either side for
air circulation in spring and fall.
- Lots of electrical and HVAC movement, some GFI circuits installed in kitchen and bath, hopefully some time spent with my sexy punk rock plumber.
People keep asking so here's the list. I will post photos to this tomorrow.
- We have an "optional 3rd bedroom" hidden behind the living room and kitchen walls. We are converting it into a dining room by taking out some walls.
- The living room spans both the "dining room" and kitchen, so we are taking out 10' of wall between the DR and LR, and then also taking out the 10' wall between the kitchen and the dining room. This will give us a more "open floor plan" feel to the whole space. The kitchen sink is on the wall next to the DR, this will become sort of an "island" space, with high cabinets hung on the ceiling above.
- Renovating entire kitchen, including tearing out all existing cabinetry.
- Both kitchen windows will be removed, and bottom sills will be elevated to be above countertop/backsplash height (they currently have sills at like 30" off the floor, which is much too low for countertops).
- All new white wainscot-front cabinetry will be installed, including wall cabinets on the back wall by the back door and another between the windows, a cabinet to house the exhaust fan over the stove, and a storage cabinet over the fridge.
- Hanging double-sided glass cabinets will be hung from the ceiling over the kitchen sink, between kitchen & dining room.
- All new granite countertops in "china butterfly" green color. Including backsplash throughout, and including 17" wide counter between kitchen and Dining Room (on the DR side, below this will be a built-in bookshelf).
- A new 30" wall oven installed next to the stove. The oven on my current range is tiny, and cooks unevenly (it is, after all, an antique). This will be in addition to my antique O'Keefe and Merrit range.
- Renovating the entire bathroom,
- including new tub (18" deep)
- all new floor and wall tile (similar to exisiting black & white tile)
- Wainscoting and chair rail on bathroom walls
- keeping existing commode and sink
- New front & rear entry doors, all new trim and jambs (will use fir and glass doors, with all-glass storm doors)
- Crown molding throughout
- Tankless water heater (our old one won't be able to keep up with the deeper new tub)
- Front bay window with louvers will be torn out, louvers bricked up, new picture window with two smaller double-hung windows on either side for air circulation in spring and fall.
- Lots of electrical and HVAC movement, some GFI circuits installed in kitchen and bath, hopefully some time spent with my sexy punk rock plumber.
Well, today Allen's calling references, and I'm filling out city work permits, including the tax abatement request, which is the point of this whole damn thing to begin with. Our contractor stopped by with a new updated bid (missing one thing, but perfect aside from that) and some granite samples. We picked one called China Butterfly, which is a green-and-black pattern, like this.
I'm going to take some "before" photos, because we're about to start putting stuff into storage to make room for the demo. I think we'll also be getting rid of a shitton of stuff. So if anybody needs bookshelves or a bed, or a sofa or chairs, or any of that crap, CALL ME.
So today, Bob Windsor came to take a look at our construction job. And the first thing he did was insult us by implying that our house wasn't worth putting any money into, and then adding injury to insult by suggesting that there's no way we would ever have enough money to hire him and his crew. This, seriously, was within the first five minutes of his arrival. We had mentioned one part of a mult-part job to him.
So I told Bob Windsor that he shouldn't worry about how much money we had, that we have more than enough money for this project, and that if he was interested in talking about the job, we could discuss specifics further. But instead, Bob Windsor kept insinuating that we didn't know how much this type of construction would cost us, and that perhaps we hadn't been doing our research and that really there was no point in putting a ton of work into a house that wouldn't be able to recoup the cost at sale time.
I warned Bob Windsor that I was beginning to feel insulted and offended, and that perhaps if he didn't want the job, or he didn't think the job was worth his time, then we were probably through discussing the project. At which point he protested that he wasn't attempting to insult us, and that he was very interested in discussing the project further, but then went on to imply, once more, that we didn't have any money, didn't know what we were talking about, and that our house wasn't worth putting any money into.
So I handed Bob Windsor his card and showed him the door.
Bob Windsor is a rude and offensive man.
When discussing this with one of my coworkers this morning, my coworker laughed and said, "Oh, I wish I'd known, that guy did the same thing to me." Apparently Bob Windsor has a reputation for being a rude and offensive man.
Man, getting contractors to get back to you is like pulling teeth. I get that they're busy, but shit, dudes. Do you want to continue to make money or NOT? I want to wave money at them. LOOK I HAVE MONEY PLEASE COME FIX MY SHITZORZ, K THX.
I am tired of making appointments and shit.
Met with second contractor today. Very cool dude, very creative and thoughtful and insightful. Said putting the stairs where we'd like them is no problem, taking out the wall is no problem, everything that is a problem will have a solution. Very cool dude. He is coming back out on saturday to take measurements and get us an estimate. I liked him very much, I liked his approach.
We still might scrap the upstairs construction, but we both admit that it would be fuckin sweet to have some elbow room up in here. We go back and forth. I guess it depends what this guy's quote is. We are working on a fairly narrow budget ($50k with possibility for another $20-30K if really necessary) so our dream may not be our reality.
Anyway, it's helpful to at least meet somebody who is creative and insightful. Gives me hope that we're not totally fuxxored.
Meeting another contractor tomorrow at 2pm. Will update. We have talked a lot and may have given up on the renovating-the-upstairs idea, and might just be spending our money on making a TOTALLY AWESOME little cuteypie house. Will see what contractor tomorrow comes up with. The stairs are becoming an issue, and if that's the case, then we'll just drop the whole upstairs idea and let the next owner deal with it.
If we just do the downstairs, we can do the living room, kitchen, dining room renos (take out the walls between the three to open up the entire downstairs, as well as totally renovate the kitchen), plus retile the bathroom (floor and shower), put crown molding throughout, and still have enough money to replace the roof (needs doing) as well as the AC and furnace (both are 25 years old---I've been limping them along with routine service), and then we'll also put in a tankless water heater. Oh, and new wood wide-slat blinds throughout the entire house.
I spent the weekend taking 50 years of shoddy paint jobs off the doors and trim in the hallway with the two bedrooms and the bathroom. A heat gun is surprisingly efficient for this job. I only burned myself with 900F paint chips a couple of times. It only took about three hours to do the front of the door. I'm pretty stoked about it.
