Plenty of updates to share, as I’ve been on a dead run since last week and finally have time to catch my breath and post some updates, now that I’m back at the office at the day job. (Heh.)
Things are still a go with House #1, and we’re still shooting for a closing date of Dec. 11th. The buyer went through the house again and had a few issues but they were all easily addressed, such as hot water/cold water lines being reversed in a sink, the heat not turning on (valve not turned on when furnace was installed), etc. The inspection is tomorrow but hopefully that’ll go smoothly, as all of the major stuff in the house is new, the foundation issues have already been discussed, yada yada yada. Fingers still crossed, though.
At the risk of jinxing myself, things are rocking along on House #2, and I’m finally turning the corner mentally there, going from “What the hell have I gotten myself into?” back to a place where I’m actually excited and wanting to get over there to work on it. Part of it is getting House #1 under contract but most of it is finally turning the corner where entire rooms are being put back together and finished, and real demonstrative progress can be seen.
I’m also very, very happy with the work done so far by Lee, the general contractor I hired. Last week was his first on the job, and I wasn’t able to be there at all the first two days he worked, so obviously a bit of nervousness there. We also still didn’t have power on at the house, so I had to rent a generator and all sorts of time was lost dealing with that ridiculous situation. (I actually bought a cheapo generic brand generator from China at one point, which ran for all of five minutes before basically flying apart at various seams; moral of the story, yeah, a 3000W generator for $350 is too good to be true).
Lee and his helper ended up working the day after Thanksgiving and on Saturday to make up for lost time, though, and he initially refused to bill me for the time he spent getting the permit, lugging the generator back and forth from the equipment rental place, and other assorted dead time they incurred due to assorted delays (I went ahead and paid him for the time, which he seemed very appreciative of, so score one for both of us there).
He also brought his 16-17 year old nephew with him for a few days, who apparently just likes to hang out at jobs and help out, who finished off the last of the demo and taped off all of the windows and trim in the entire house for painting at zero cost to me.
As far as progress, most of the back porch is now framed in and screened, with some painting and finish trim remaining, but it’s basically done, and looks great. I’m going to end up sinking a decent amount of cash on the porch area when it’s all said and done but I think it’s a good investment, as it ties the house together nicely and makes it feel much larger. I can’t count the porch as square footage obviously but it now gives off a finished feel, so it’s sort of phantom square footage.
The framing is also all finished for the bathroom addition in the new master, as well as the new walk-in closet. We went back and forth on the final layout, trying to find a middle ground between square footage for the bedroom itself, as well as enough space for a walk-in closet with his and her sides. In the end it meant that the bathroom itself got slightly downsized, with the main victim being the loss of the double vanity/sink. Which sucks, and I really didn’t like losing it, but there was only so much space to work with.
It also tied back into the ongoing budget battle I’m fighting, as downsizing to a single vanity helped gain a big of ground there, too. I’m still trying to scratch and claw back the budget overages from the new windows, so every little bit helps. I’ve been much more budget conscious this time around, and am almost welcoming the challenge, as far as tracking all the dollars and cents, trying to squeeze out savings wherever I can.
Holding the budget line has been hard, though. I get ahead a bit then suddenly I’m spending $200 for renting a generator (doh), gain a bit of ground when the electrical upgrades are only going to cost $200 (yay) then I suddenly realize that with the new bathroom addition and a new half bath added off the laundry room, the existing functional 30 gallon water heater isn’t going to cut it (doh).
We should have electrical service either today or tomorrow, which is going to be very welcome after working in a dark, gloomy house for over a month now, especially with daylight savings time, as I’ll be able to work over there at nights after work. New furnace plans are finalized and should be going in in the next week or two. Plumbing is still up in the air but I’m getting a final estimate today or tomorrow from a fairly large area plumbing company, and I’ll likely go with it, as long as it’s not absolutely ridiculous.
Contractor is coming back for more framing and other assorted work once the power is back on, and we’re going to push hard to try to get everything wrapped up by December 15th. He said he can also bring in some extra help (his brother and another guy who helps him out from time to time) at $10/hr if we want to set aside a day or two for just powering through a lot of stuff that extra hands are helpful for, such as installing appliances, outlets, hardware, hanging doors, etc.
So maybe, just maybe, this dang ol’ thing will actually get done before 2008. We shall see.
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