Both the electrician and the tiler came by today (in that order) and it was great to see some of the last things get done. It seems like the last 5% or so has taken the same time as the previous 95% (and somehow, at least as frustrating.)
Well I was right: the second coat of stucco was pretty messy as shown in these photos, but in all honesty, they did come back to put a third base coat down to make sure that they had it all covered properly before they sprayed it.
Yes, we got the news… The preliminary pricing came in higher than we were forecasting so now we have to look into what we can do to shave down some costs… I was expecting this as in my experience, the costs rarely come in at what you’ve budgeted; must be a universal law or something. I am meeting with the contractor tomorrow to find out about his part of the work and figure out areas for savings, so hopefully we can maintain the basic layout and concept. Stay tuned for more!
Late last week we had a meeting with our designer on the kitchen reno and formalized the plan. She brought in a Richlieu catalog with all sorts of organization devices so we could go through it and pick the things that we thought would be useful. Its pretty seductive to look at all the “labour-saving” products, but as we are sure to find out, they really can inflate the price of the job! After the meeting we ran out to get a sense of what fixtures would be (sink, faucet). I had no idea that these things were pricier than rhinestones at an Elvis convention. (And just as flashy too!) We took a look at some tiles for the backsplash
Here are the latest numbers as I am getting into actually doing the work on the kitchen makeover. Knobs (bulk Pack of 20!, Lee Valley) $5.95 Backsplash embossed wallpaper (roll, HomeDepot) $19.99 Silver paint (1 can, HomeDepot) $11.97 Sandpaper (leftover from another job) $0 Primer (leftover from another job) $0 Floor Tiles (Black and White, Vinyl, Rona) $45.00 Melamine Paint (leftover from another job) $0 PaintBrushes, tape etc. $8.99 Blackboard Paint (1 can, Benjamin Moore Store) $19.99 Mirror (IKEA) $7.99 Trim for Mirror (Home Depot) $8.00 Trim for Blackboard section (leftover from another job) $0 Total $123.88 $95.92 OK, so I was over 100, but we added in a couple of things to spruce it up on top of
