Posted by K
Sun, 09 Apr 2006 17:03:00 GMT
More pictures of the now-finished demo can be found here and I understand they are cleaning up that junk in the backyard (some of the stuff did not come out of our house, like that wicker thing and that fence-looking thing, so I guess the neighbors are using our yard to get rid of stuff).
I am currently being a huge dork and am making scale drawings of all the kitchen walls and planning out the cabinets. I think we are going with IKEA since they are cheap and rated highly by Consumer Reports (higher than other cabinets I was thinking about). I am conflicted about countertops… Corian remains stupidly expensive, I think, even though I can’t be sure. Concrete is cool but a pain, stainless is expensive and gets fingerprinty, and I am kind of interested in soapstone (even with the possible need to oil it) just because if it reminds me of seventh grade science class. How could it be bad?
Budget woes abound since we have to replace a lot of plumbing and wiring (which really isn’t so surprising, but still, very sad-making for our wallets), so we have to sit down and figure all that out. We may be moving into a house with unfinished floors if we run out of cash.
We also went out yesterday and looked at flooring, with the bathroom floor in mind. I just can’t get behind any floor tile that isn’t 8 bucks a square foot because it is all ugly and/or boring. Well, actually, most floor tile is ugly and or boring except I like hex tile, which is eight bucks a square foot. We did find field tile that is not horribly expensive ($3 a square foot) which was exciting but kind of useless since we need the tile there and not here.
So we also looked at and considered or ridiculed wood, engineered wood, bamboo, engineered wood that looked like bamboo, cork, vinyl tiles (we actually found one cool pattern), rubber tiles (which I want but will be very pricey and seem to be a pain to get if you are a residential consumer type person and not, say, a hospital), linoleum, and bright pink carpet.
I also got to fondle my faucet some more. I will pull the trigger and just buy it soon (somewhere cheaper than that). I have been mooning over it for five months now.
Also, one of our neighbors-to-be dropped by and told our contractor that she had an original door to the house she would give to us if we wanted (I think she is getting rid of it otherwise). I love our neighborhood. I kind of like our 1940’s door but this one sounds like it would let a lot more light in, and I am all about that (of course, I have to talk to Matt about this before I write back). But thanks, neighbor we do not know yet!
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Posted by K
Sat, 08 Apr 2006 21:04:00 GMT
I will post more later, but demo started a week ago, is now done, and our backyard looks like this:
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Posted by K
Sat, 28 Jan 2006 16:45:00 GMT
So we just got back from a trip to DC to see the house, meet with contractors, and, possibly, actually close on the house but that was once again delayed but should happen in another week or so.
It all went pretty well, other than the moments of abject terror I was having randomly, thinking “what in the hell are we doing” and being convinced that we are insane. Which we probably are, doing all this (all the housebuying things say to not buy a house that needs extensive work as a first time buyer) but most of the time I am okay with the insanity and the vodka I consumed each night helped me be okay with things.
Anyway, there were a lot of good things and some bad.
Good:
- structural elements willing, I solved the kitchen dilemma and know almost exactly what to do there
- The old house numbers on the front transom are still there (yes, it is the small things) and we can restore them
- there is a cool old medicine cabinet that needs to be stripped of about 3853 layers of varnish and paint in the bathroom, but it is probably original and very cool
- the contact paper used on parts of the walls will come off easily (it is contact paper over paint over wallpaper over paint over plaster and it is all just falling right off the plaster)
- the original skylight is there, hidden under the drop ceiling, and appears to be intact and in okay shape except for the green paint
- the second floor floors are in pretty good shape. we don’t know about the first floor because of an overlay that was put on top of them and we are not sure what to do about that (try to restore the overlay, which will be hard, or remove it and hope for the best underneath)
- all the original transoms above the doors are intact
- almost all the stair newels are intact and not even painted over and we can have the three broken ones replaced or remade
- we found a great place (hi, Brass Knob Warehouse!) for fixtures, radiators, and stair newels and there is an adorable kitten who lives there who will play with you while you look around
- the tin ceiling in the bathroom might be salvageable
- the front door which is an unusual width (40”) is solid and can be kept once we do some cosmetic things
- there is a huge window in the kitchen that is hidden behind cabinets we are going to reclaim
Bad:
- there is a huge window in the kitchen that is hidden behind cabinets that we are going to reclaim and it will take up approximately 55 inches of precious wall space horizontally and approximately 32 inches vertically
- the dining room floor where the joists below are sistered poorly looks scary but we knew that already
- oh, the green paint. everywhere. except for the pink in the basement
- all the nice transoms are painted over and I forsee a lot of razor blades and Peel Away in our future
- the tile in the basement might be asbestos but we are not sure. I took a tiny sample (and later found out I need a much bigger sample for testing, sigh)
- the floor in the bathroom (which is, under the linoleum, goregous and messed up circular white tile that I would love to keep but it just can’t happen) feels a little sketchy so the joists under there probably have to be sorted out but we kind of guessed that might be the case
We met with a bunch of contractors who ran the gamut insofar as type, from design firm types to local guys who did contracting work, and they were all interesting and had interesting things to say. There are three front runners right now:
J – has a lot of experience (and prices that reflect that, from what we were told: he used to be cheaper but grew) and does nice work (we saw two places he worked on) and has good references. Very thorough and professional and we have estimates from him already. He could probably do this with his eyes closed, and had no problem with sending us pictures and is email savvy and would do well.
CJ – somewhat less experience but had some good recommendations and seemed thorough and knew what he was talking about. We are waiting on his estimate and need to call some of his references. Also says he can communicate with us via email no problem, etc.
Chips – similar to CJ… less experience but very thorough and meticulous and knew what he was talking about. Recently went off on his own to start doing this kind of work, even though he has been in the business a long time. We met with him and need to give him contact info so he can get back in the house next week and do a thorough walk through and take notes and give us an estimate. Also need to get references so we can talk to some people directly and remember how he felt about email and phone communication.
Then we have heart attacks over the prices, but that is how these things go.
Next: update our to-do list. Post pictures.
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Posted by K
Tue, 17 Jan 2006 05:16:00 GMT
So far I have spoken to two contractor-types, a real contractor type and a design firm that is probably not what we want (or, not what we want given we don’t have a ton of money to spend and the guy I talked to already got all kind of snooty about kitchen remodeling costs). Anyway, I talked to them and I didn’t die. It is still terrifying and I have no idea what I am doing, but we are going to meet with some of these people anyway and see what they have to say. We have two right now and a line on a couple more, so we should be able to get a couple of estimates to compare.
I have a million questions about how the contractor stuff works, and about how it can work when we are living across the country, and how we get things like bathtubs delivered. And right now I am not thinking about it at all and watching 24.
It seems like all people, no matter what they have had done and who they are, complain about contractors either costing more than they thought it should have cost or going over time estimates. Or both. I am already ready for both of these things, although I am still secretly hopeful things will go okay.
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