We are on track with our lending process. Our contractor was validated by the bank. Also a big plus of this type of loan is that they give us protection against any liens, through extensive title endorsement processing stuff that I’m glad I don’t have to do! Often you hear of shady contractors that take the money and never pay their subs, who then in turn, come back and put a lien on the homeowner. I’m glad this is one less thing I have to worry about.

The appraisal was yesterday and that went well too. The appraiser has to give the bank the as-is value, and his estimate of the value at the end of the project.

I’ve been refining the looks I want in various rooms as we go along. I actually did some math and we can actually put a clawfoot in the master bath, as we’ll save money by not having to pay for the extensive wall tiling to the ceiling we’d need in the shower area that was previously specified. I also really want to use marble basketweave tile on the floor. It’s just so pretty!

I’m also rethinking the basement (maybe a little too late). If we only put one bedroom down there, then we could switch the location of the media room and the now 1 bedroom. The media room currently has a window that would qualify for egress as is, with a step added. We use that window now to get things in and out of the basement, like an old 1950′s industrial freezer, so YES it is definitely egress compliant. If we switch those rooms, we’d save $5000 on the cost of egressing! I feel like an idiot not thinking of this before, but we could not do 2 bedrooms on the already egress side. There is the fireplace clean out on one side, and no way to add any sort of window for a second bedroom.

The other complication will be probably moving or nixing the small wetbar we planned on. Maybe saving another $1000+ and not bothering with it may be the best idea. I’ll need to talk to our contractor. The other plus of swapping the spaces would be that we could put in a proper walk-in closet (a window is in the way in the other space) so we could only get a shallow (but long) bifold door closet. With a walk-in Jeremy could house all his servers and security system stuff in a much more secure area than the utility room (which has a window).

Permits, still no go. I’m expecting the final requests from the city to be done by early next week (as reported by our designer). Maybe next week we will have permits! PLEASE!!!

I was in Phoenix for the last week and am having trouble getting back into focus for work and home projects. Too much to do, too little time. I’m also trying to stay on the healthy eating path. I think junk food really contributes to that “fuzzy” lack of focus feeling. Luckily they just opened a Panera Bread next to Trader Joe’s right down the street, so I’m hoping to stay on track over the weekend with fresh foods. I also think we should take advantage of making homemade meals ’til the end of the year, when we lose our kitchen and will long once again for even a sink to wash dishes. That in itself is a crazy thought!

On the house front, I’ve been trying to compile and revise our fixture list and comparison shop. If the predicted bad weather holds out for tomorrow, I hope to head over to Direct Buy and order some things that have a long lead time. So far my tallied savings is about $2500 worth, and add that to the $1500 savings we got on our high-efficiency furnace and central air, we’re getting close to recouping the investment. We’re hoping that with cabinets and furniture we’ll come far out into the black. The worst part is waiting for the lead time, I love instant gratification when shopping. Although if I had to do it all over again, the savings aren’t really outweighing the general hassle of the whole ordering process. Oh well, I think once we know what furniture we need, we’ll be happy we have a membership.

I also hope to stop by<a href=”http://www.schoolhouseelectric.com”>Schoolhouse Electric</a> this weekend sometime too. Love love LOVE!

One Response to “Rethinking at the Last Minute”

1. Jackie says:

   December 5, 2007 at 11:26 am

   I can’t believe all the work this is! I watched Flip it back and thought of you guys. Who knew it was such an ordeal! Looking forward to more pictures!