EEEEEE... met with David the architect yesterday.
Beginning to discuss fixtures. My god, my head is spinning.
Luckily, Lisa's taking charge. This morning, before she left for school, she showed me some of the cooking ranges on her laptop.
I just want this to be over.
Monday, March 26, 2007
Sunday, March 18, 2007
Another Contractor
Met with another contractor tonight. This one's out of Reseda in the Valley... so he's not a local.
Nice enough guy... as I'm sure is befitting his position as Project Manager. His estimate of out of house time was 4.5 months, pretty much in line with the others. A plus is that he warned us before giving us the time frame that we would have to move out and anyone who told us differently was lying. Good.
Not so good was his math. I glanced as he took notes: second floor--200K, first floor addition--50K; kitchen 35K. Then later as he broke it down for us, he bumped up each of those numbers 10 to 20 percent, then gave us an overall number of 400K.
Whatever. We'll bid him out for informational purposes when we get the final structural drawings (still no ETA on those), but he won't get the bid (bad math + not local = sorry, Charlie... er, Sean).
Nice enough guy... as I'm sure is befitting his position as Project Manager. His estimate of out of house time was 4.5 months, pretty much in line with the others. A plus is that he warned us before giving us the time frame that we would have to move out and anyone who told us differently was lying. Good.
Not so good was his math. I glanced as he took notes: second floor--200K, first floor addition--50K; kitchen 35K. Then later as he broke it down for us, he bumped up each of those numbers 10 to 20 percent, then gave us an overall number of 400K.
Whatever. We'll bid him out for informational purposes when we get the final structural drawings (still no ETA on those), but he won't get the bid (bad math + not local = sorry, Charlie... er, Sean).
Tuesday, March 6, 2007
What the House Looks Like Now (drawings)
Here are architect David's "as-built" drawings:
the plot
the house
and the elevations:
east
north
west
south
I'll upload some current pics in the next couple of days.
the plot
the house
and the elevations:
east
north
west
south
I'll upload some current pics in the next couple of days.
Contractors
Architect? Check.
Structural Engineer? Check.
Contractor?
Ewwwww, this is where it becomes no fun. Mom and dad did some construction around 8 years ago, and they had a horrible experience. Based on that experience, we want to make sure that our contractors are local (and therefore easy to track down).
Out of the blue at the end of January, when we first started to think about contractors, we received a call from Voge Construction. We met with their rep on Friday, February 16. It was the perfect first meeting: we had no illusions of hiring them, but got a feel for what/how we should ask questions. Mike, the rep, ballparked 300K for the project and a schedule of 3 months.
A week later, we met with Richie Herman, who came highly recommended by our architect David. Great guys. Seemed very thorough. But with a whopping schedule: Out of the house for 4-5 months. That left me stunned for a while.
Last night we met with a rep from Al Lowe Construction, who came recommended from another Bruin alum. It was a very good meeting, though we were hit with the news that the job may last up to 6 months. Sigh. Under the file-it-under-it's-a-small-world heading: Lowe is the son of our family doctor when I was a kid (he took out my tonsils, ferchrissakes). Lisa wants to look no further... The thing of note is that Lowe thinks we can get the structural drawings done quicker with another guy... we'll see.
Structural Engineer? Check.
Contractor?
Ewwwww, this is where it becomes no fun. Mom and dad did some construction around 8 years ago, and they had a horrible experience. Based on that experience, we want to make sure that our contractors are local (and therefore easy to track down).
Out of the blue at the end of January, when we first started to think about contractors, we received a call from Voge Construction. We met with their rep on Friday, February 16. It was the perfect first meeting: we had no illusions of hiring them, but got a feel for what/how we should ask questions. Mike, the rep, ballparked 300K for the project and a schedule of 3 months.
A week later, we met with Richie Herman, who came highly recommended by our architect David. Great guys. Seemed very thorough. But with a whopping schedule: Out of the house for 4-5 months. That left me stunned for a while.
Last night we met with a rep from Al Lowe Construction, who came recommended from another Bruin alum. It was a very good meeting, though we were hit with the news that the job may last up to 6 months. Sigh. Under the file-it-under-it's-a-small-world heading: Lowe is the son of our family doctor when I was a kid (he took out my tonsils, ferchrissakes). Lisa wants to look no further... The thing of note is that Lowe thinks we can get the structural drawings done quicker with another guy... we'll see.
Our First Idea
Like I mentioned earlier, our idea all along was to create a slight addition downstairs (for a larger dining room), and a full second story for a family room, two bedrooms (one for each boy), and a shared bath.
Here are my inital drawings (click the thumbnail to see the full drawing):
the existing building
the proposed first floor (notice that the north wall [at the bottom of the image] now runs uninterrupted from west to east, expanding the dining room; also we've opened up the kitchen to the living room for a great room)
the proposed second floor (notice the blocky layout... I'm not a professional)
Pretty simple, and simplistic... and quite ugly (no wonder Lisa was never a big fan)...
Here are my inital drawings (click the thumbnail to see the full drawing):
the existing building
the proposed first floor (notice that the north wall [at the bottom of the image] now runs uninterrupted from west to east, expanding the dining room; also we've opened up the kitchen to the living room for a great room)
the proposed second floor (notice the blocky layout... I'm not a professional)
Pretty simple, and simplistic... and quite ugly (no wonder Lisa was never a big fan)...
Monday, March 5, 2007
(no-so) Happy Birthday
Yesterday, I turned 44. I think in an attempt to avoid thinking of my late mother, I spent much of the day with Lisa and the boys on research missions to appliance discount stores and model homes.
All I got was overwhelmed by info and undercut by the relative sadness of the day.
Last night, we met wtih the architect again. He's got some new ideas... some really wild stuff. But to go with these new ideas, would take us back a month in the process. No. Let's keep it simple.
With any luck, we'll get the structural drawings going next week.
Later this week, I'll start uploading pics of the current house and walk through the early sketches and plans...
All I got was overwhelmed by info and undercut by the relative sadness of the day.
Last night, we met wtih the architect again. He's got some new ideas... some really wild stuff. But to go with these new ideas, would take us back a month in the process. No. Let's keep it simple.
With any luck, we'll get the structural drawings going next week.
Later this week, I'll start uploading pics of the current house and walk through the early sketches and plans...
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