So we are 3 weeks into the renovation. I can say that because I am at the laundromat for the 3rd time and I have 2 hours of me time to write this post. DH and the kids are still sleeping and I am up in the quiet of the laundromat. Sounds crazy but it's nice.
Basement 1
Basement 2
Basement 3
Basement 4
Garage 1
Garage 2
Doesn't look like a lot has been accomplished but seriously it has.
We did make some changes and some things cropped up of course unexpectedly. The shower when torn out was completely rotted. No idea until they tore it out. Guess there was a leak or something. So the frame basically fell apart when they took it out.
There wasn't insulation behind the super thin paneling and we had to reframe the door to the laundry because we couldn't get the washer and dryer in after we put in drywall. Wasn't big enough. So the door and tile had to be redone. Lucky we found matching tile. We did manage to flow the laundry perfectly with dryer, washer, sink by flipping the door on our dryer.
The door we were moving from the garage to house had a major support beam in the way. So we are putting in new supports and still moving the door. We found live 220 wires behind the walls when they opened it up that had never been capped.
We have to figure out what to do the garage. With side loading garage door openers I don't think we have the temp lights that normally are on garage openers. So we won't have lights when we drive in. We have two lights in the garage but we'd have to jump out of the car to turn it on or leave it on. We're researching options because we are thinking of getting a sensor that can tell us if we leave the garage door open. We are also trying to iron out the mudroom we are trying to create in Garage 2 picture.
The window just came in. I am praying we are done with this project by Decemeber 21st. My parents come to town and I want it done or done enough they can stay in the basement. If not it'll be cramped. They did say thanksgiving but when has anything ever run on time? I don't have enough experience to know if they under or over estimated the time budget. I am assuming they just hire more guys if they are tight on time and need to start the next job? Or do they just start working weekends?
3 weeks in
October 14th, 2017 at 03:25 pm
October 14th, 2017 at 06:22 pm 1508005351
October 14th, 2017 at 10:53 pm 1508021639
We did a simple kitchen reno in one of our homes and the guy tore out the wall of cupboards, counter, moved the stove & fridge, W/D to living rm and disappeared for nearly a month. Never returned calls, made DH c-r-a-z-y. Turned out he had another job in another city. When he returned he was behind and flustered, installed one line of backsplash tiles upside down, yadda yadda. You just plan to stay calm as Murphy's Law goes 'pow.'
Laura's fence installer just kept the money and didn't come back
October 16th, 2017 at 11:58 pm 1508198285
Snafu, I budgeted Christmas to begin with. Let's hope I was right. Our garage doors arrive 10/30 and the windows came in on Friday. Right now they are off for a week, pre-planned. Nope they show up everyday and work all day. I am very happy. They have a crew of 5 guys and only one comes to our house daily. Then I see 3 others who show up intermittently. And they have people they sub-contract out. I picked them because they did a friends house and were "on time" in finishing the work as promised. They did really well budgeting the timeline.
Also the other quote though about the same did not come back at the end and finish off our other friends houses. These guys told me up front they needed time to finish another project mid-way and I like the honesty and integrity.
Right now I'm okay everything is okay. I was going crazier earlier trying to make decisions but now I'm just rolling with it. We're debating installing earthquake retrofit but I'm leaning towards no.