Week 1 Finished

I've added a new column on the right side of this blog titled "nickles and dimes". Going into the project I think we anticipated a few additional costs in excess of what was estimated but it's been a week and these extra fees are slowly adding up so I figure it's probably not a bad idea to keep a running total.

Speaking of costs...the cost to move the 220volt outlet is now $900. Arnold had originally estimated it to be around $500 but after opening the walls and whatnot apparently his estimate wasn't close.

Also, some of our cabinets are on backorder. I asked how long but he didn’t know yet. He did say that he'd find out today and he'll come back to us with wait times and any potential alternatives if they exist. Obviously I think it's important to keep sight of the end goal for the kitchen and if that means waiting an extra week or two or five before we have all our cabinets then so be it.

Lastly, Arnold is getting closer to working on the stone around the fireplace. Before he does that we need to pick up a wall mount for the television.

Onto the pictures...

Here's a shot of the entrance way between the dining room and kitchen. Parag had asked me to ask Arnold if it would be possible to have the door way extend all the way to ceiling. Apparently that would not be possible. They need certain beams in place in order to keep the wood from cracking; although, he did say he could move it up the height of the two small vertical beams. This would cost ~$50 for the two dining room entrance ways and a few hundred for the living room. This was one of those all or nothing ideas, unless they could move it up to the ceiling I didn't see the point so I told him NOT to do it.


Here's a picture of where the canned lights will be installed.


The next three pictures are of the foyer doorway. Our original plan called for a stone "doormat" to stretch across the entrance. As you can see, that won't be possible because the vent is in the way. Also, because of how they lay the stone, Arnold explained that it won't be flush with the base of the door. Instead, there would be a line of hardwood flooring at the base of the door which would then lead into the stone. Below you'll see a crude picture of what he intended on doing for us. It seems like our doormat will end up being a floating stone floor between the doorway and the stairs. I think we should revisit whether this is what we want to do.