www.chirpthird.com: well, I did it, I signed the contract!

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Posted by KevinA (Member # 139) on :

I bet you thought I was gonna tell you what I signed too!!!!

BWWWWWAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

Ok, we signed the contract to have our kitchen re-done. It's waaaaaaaaaaaaaay overdue. The house is 61.5 years old, and it's the original kitchen......I'm gonna have to kiss a new car goodbye, but it's worth it for this. $19,500 clams. Ouch. Thats why they invented Home Equity loans!

It's going to be awesome, all new cabinets, walls, floors. Cabinet doors that actually close, and don't have broken hinges, drawers that slide easy.

We are cutting it close to the arrival of the new little one though. They start work on May 14, and it should take about 2.5 weeks. Here's hoping Corina does not go early!!!

WAHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO.

I'm not happy am I?

Posted by DanA_F99_1977 (Member # 118) on :

Watch the movie "The Money Pit". Two weeks, two weeks, two weeks!!!! That what we keep saying!! Ours isn't done yet! Good luck but I would bet it won't be done in 2.5 weeks. The counter top won't be ready, or the cabinets had a flaw and had to be reordered or something else. It's always something. I hope it works smooth as silk but depend on it. Just some advice from a man that has been showering in a temp shower since early Jan.

Here is just one picture of a small part of the project.

[ 05 April 2001: Message edited by: DanA_F99_1977 ]

Posted by Mike F - SSOA F99 3913 (Member # 109) on :

..well that's better than standing under the old fan in the kitchen and getting a shower.

Gotta love home improvement. I just finished one of the upstairs bedrooms. Getting converted back to our office.

Painted the walls and ceiling, pulled the carpeting and what padding was left, secured the subfloor and installed a floating hardwood laminate floor. Tonite its install the new baseboard and the cedar lining in the closset.

Then we can move the new computer desk and hutch and bring the rolltop back in from the dining room.

What a pain, but it'll be worth the aggrevation. Yea, after the soreness goes away. HaHaHaHaHaHa.

Posted by KevinA (Member # 139) on :

Nice studs Dan!!!

Yeah, I own a money pit, first the roof on the garage, then the roof on the house, and new garage doors with openers. I've landscaped 60% of the yard. I painted the trim, and I still have a back patio to fix & front stairs to get repaired.......

All of that & I still love my house!

I almost forgot, I finished the basement too!

Posted by DaddySS (Member # 848) on :

That's why I do most of the work myself. No broken promises, contractors all over your house etc. I redid my kitchen in one week (granted they were 18 hour days). New cabinets, layout, flooring, appliances, lighting.

Best of luck with yours,it really is nice when it's done.

BTW, you should have seen me putting in the 475 lb viking double wall oven by myself, I should have made a video of that!

[ 05 April 2001: Message edited by: DaddySS ]

Posted by DanA_F99_1977 (Member # 118) on :

A Viking!! Please don't let Grace hear you!!
Very nice!!

Posted by Hawkeye (Member # 88) on :

A contract - ah - I thought it was for a
hit on a little green frog that's been
AWOL

Posted by jimb0 (Member # 176) on :

...I'm viewing our next home renovation with very mixed emotions. It will be great when it's finished, because I'll have a 6 car garage with 2 lifts, a giant workshop with a 10' x 15' storage room, a huge upstairs master bedroom and bathroom, my office size will be increased by another 50%, and I'll have a 3rd floor crows nest that will provide me unobstructed views of the ocean, the Indian River and the mainland. The big downside (other than the cost) is that we'll have to move out of the house completely, because we'll be pretty much pulling the roof off and gutting the existing house back to the block walls. That means we have to move...twice, and find a rental house to move into for 6 months. That's really going to test my "all good things come to those who wait" philosophy, but on the upside, 180 days is only 1/3rd the amount of time I spent waiting on my Firehawk...

...gee...I guess it's not so bad after all...

...good luck on the project Kev...and make sure you refill your Valium prescription before you get started...

Posted by HTWLSS (Member # 117) on :

jimbO, that sounds like what we're doing.....

We're tearing down the 2 car shack (literally, the SS side of it used to be a canning kitchen) and our 2 car carport that our 3 first gen cars are stuffed 3" apart under on the east side of the house.

We'll build a 25' wide by 66' deep garage with a hoist and a 10' x 33' side room. There will be upstairs storage in the whole thing.

What we have now:

One trick is where to store the 3 first Gen cars and the SS while this is taking place. The El Camino will be at a restoration shop in Central Oregon. My Chevelle, our travel trailer, the SST, my Honda Scooter and the two daily drivers will remain parked on the opposite side of the house from where the new garage is being constructed (the west end).

After the big garage is done, we'll move the contents of the house into the back half and convert it to temporary living quarters.

Then the house gets jacked up to replace the 2 course concrete block foundation with a real one. Then a 3 car garage gets built where the Chevelle and the travel trailer sits on the west side of the house, the roof of the house gets removed and a complete upstairs will get added on (the house was built in 1935).
The kitchen will be bumped out an additional 4 feet and the laundry room will get re-configured. In the process of adding the small garage, we lose a bedroom downstairs, extend the living room, build a staircase to the upstairs and a hallway to the garage, relocate the front door and will have to relocate the hot tub. We gain 4 bedrooms and 2 bathrooms upstairs that will be used to display our collectibles (no kids, you see).

At least we'll have a laundry and bathroom in the upstairs of the big garage and a make-shift kitchen while we camp out in it while the house is getting done.

Now, we just have to hope that the money will be there.

We've been nursing the roof of the house through the past 6 winters that we've owned the house just waiting for the remodel to start. Now that we're through all of the Land Use approvals......plan submittal will be next week! We hope to break ground on the big east side garage in May.

The house will go from 916 sq ft to about 2200 sq ft and the garage will be MUCH bigger....total lot coverage will be 55%!!!! (We have a 10K sq ft lot - 100' x 100')

WHEW! I'll let you know in 5 years how we're doing.

Posted by jimb0 (Member # 176) on :

...wow Teri, that looks like a most formidible project indeed...it's sure gonna by killer when it's finished, for sure. With the exception of the 10' x 15' storage room, our house will maintain the same footprint on the lot as it does now...we're pretty much going up and not out...

...'cause I don't want to give up any of the backyard...

Posted by DanA_F99_1977 (Member # 118) on :

Wow!!! And I thought Grace was bad!!

Good luck!

Why not just buy a new house that already has what you want. It has to be cost effective. We considered that when we started to do all the work on ours, but decided we liked the neighborhood and I simply told Grace, "I ain't movin'". We have put a lot more money into this house then we could ever get back if we sold it.

Posted by DanA_F99_1977 (Member # 118) on :

quote:
Originally posted by KevinA:
Nice studs Dan!!!

Studs are are covered now. New pictures in about a week. The rest on on photopoint if you want to see. Cabinets and counter tops are done. Two weeks!!

Posted by SS #2616 (Member # 857) on :

Way to go.. did you consider pulling a Norm Abram and building the stuff yourself?? then you could pull a Hometime and install it all your self save some cash??

Posted by jimb0 (Member # 176) on :

quote:
Originally posted by DanA_F99_1977:
Wow!!! And I thought Grace was bad!!
Good luck!
Why not just buy a new house that already has what you want. It has to be cost effective.

We considered the same, but we live in the perfect spot...300' from the ocean, on a deep well with perfect water, on a dead-end dirt road, excellent neighbors that don't complain when I blast the music in the backyard or fire up the loudmouth on the Hawk at 6am...

Plus, with comparable lot prices now at $50-60K and a new construction cost estimate of around $250-$300K, I'll come out about $100K to the good...

...just enough to cover that 2003 Viper RT/10...

Posted by DanA_F99_1977 (Member # 118) on :

Cool!! Location is everything and that includes neighbors. My best friend lives across the street and put to much money into his house for the same reason. WE AIN'T MOVIN!!

I did enough of the Norm Abrams thing to last me a lifetime. I don't want to spend all my time working on my house anymore. I would rather put another coat of Zaino on my cars and go for a ride!!

Posted by poSSum (Member # 119) on :

WOW .. Looks like you folks have fixing the slowdown in the American economy under control all by yourselves

Posted by HTWLSS (Member # 117) on :

quote:
Originally posted by DanA_F99_1977:
Why not just buy a new house that already has what you want.

We've crunched the numbers and weighed this option. It's waaaaay too expensive to buy what we want already built. There just aren't properties like that (big garage, small house) for sale for a reasonable price around here. We're thinking we can stay w/in a $100K remodel/construction budget and to buy something comparable to our finished project would be three times that. It'll be more cost effective to do what we're doing. The only work we'll hire out for is the concrete and the shell (framing, windows, roof, siding) and we'll do the wiring, plumbing and interior finish work ourselves.

It'll be easier to pay for it in chunks as we go along than it will be to take on a tripled mortgage payment.

Posted by DanA_F99_1977 (Member # 118) on :

Ahhh, doing lots yourself ehhh? I guess that means the trailer never get fininshed!! There is not time for all you want to do!! Good luck, just make sure you save some money and put it aside for Bragg-Smith!!

Posted by HTWLSS (Member # 117) on :

We'll figure out some way to be there!!!

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