Tuesday, October 27, 2009

so. um. woah. sticker shock. I need to come up with more money.

Wednesday, October 21, 2009

Windows are ordered. Phew!

I had to pick out my molding preference and after googling to death, I told the builder I like this the best:



Now we're working on finalizing portico plans. I've asked the builder to price it out with and without the 2nd decorative roof-line. I am all too quickly running out of money here.

Bathroom #1 should hopefully be complete by the end of next week, depending on when we can get the countertops in and measured. It's painted, they're laying tile tomorrow (which I have a story for), and they said it'll be ready for the quartz people to measure anytime after Monday. Yay!

Lesson learned: Travertine doesn't come with a bullnose - you have to have a stone fabricator bullnose it for you. I've said 'bullnose' more times in the past few weeks than I ever thought I'd say in a lifetime, I'm sure. And running back and forth to the place in Natick that does it, not fun! I hate that section of Route 9.

So speaking of Travertine, my carpenter was all ready to start tiling on Monday when we realized we didn't have the 12x12's for the master bath. What???? They were nowhere to be found, which I couldn't believe because I was sure we picked up a complete order. I called Best Tile and they said their stock was correct so I must have them somewhere. Nope. So I sent my husband down yesterday with the receipt and he convinced them to give us another lot of tiles for free. I'm willing to bet that a stock person caught the discrepancy and waited for a customer to call. When a few weeks went by with no call, that employee took the overage home with him. That's my bet. They told my husband that if we come across the lost tile, to return it. Ha.

I cannot wait for all of this to be done. I'm already sick and tired of having to correspond with so many people so often. Especially if they call - with all the time I spend on the computer, I really hate talking to 'live' people anymore. LOL.

All this window trim googling has distracted me from work - I must get some more work done today...

Monday, October 12, 2009

New windows are being ordered tomorrow. All $20,000 worth. Doh. That's $5k more than what I assumed it might be. Add that to the fact that bathrooms are costing quite a bit more to renovate than I expected, and this project is going over budget. We'll see. Bathroom renovations should kick into higher gear now that most of the Kohler order is in.

I had to pick a different quartz for the master - the other was not available as a remnant. I picked Cambria's Sutton:




The windows are Integrity by Marvin with a prairie style grill in bronze.



Being replaced is every window in the home, as well as 2 sliding doors, additional awning windows added above side windows in the living room/dining room, and a new Therma-Tru front door with matching sidelights in the Saratoga design with black nickel:



They're having Marvin make a custom window for over the front door which will also have the prairie style grill.

Construction on the windows will likely not begin for 4 weeks. Hopefully the bathrooms will be done by them. I'm hoping to show my family all the renovations when they're in RI for thanksgiving.

Of course nothing goes smoothly - just before bathroom construction started, my beloved Siamese died suddenly. He was only 5 or 6. We think he got into something poisonous or toxic, but we really don't know. None of the other animals got sick (2 other cats and a pit bull). Losing my handsome Simon really broke my heart, but I also feared the workers going in and out of the house all day and losing him another way - he was quite the escape artist when he wanted to be and I was so afraid he'd get out with all the activity around here. I really want another Siamese but I think we'll wait until all this activity (and spending!) is complete.

The carpenters had to re-frame the shower because I told them the wrong width for the linen cabinet. Whoops. But luckily they weren't so far along that it was too much work. Although they have to resize the copper shower pan for like the 4th time.

I didn't expect that my niece-in-law's boyfriend would charge me as much as he is for plumbing work. Oy! And this is just for the first of 3 bathrooms, I was reminded today. That means more of my speculative calculations are off. I'm likely going to have to find another source for money - Dad? He he. Let's hope I don't have to go there, yet there's pretty much no turning back now...

Let's hope I have finished bathroom pics (at least of one of the three) to share sometime in the next 2 weeks.