Rewiring is taking place today to decomission all our old knob and tube wiring. My poor plaster. The electricians are taking extra care, but damage is inevitable.

The worst part about wiring is that the city wouldn’t accept the location of the current panel because a duct was running less than 36″ from it, as well as the feeder line near it was not fire rated and if ignited would spread fire through the ductwork. So, $1500 poorer, we had to move the electrical panel OUT of the utility room (which REALLY torks me off) and into the basement bedroom closet.

It’d be one thing if we hadn’t paid extra when when upgraded the service last year to MOVE THE PANEL INTO THE AREA THE NEW UTILITY ROOM WOULD BE! I guess the structural beams screw up moving the ductwork away from the feeder line. I don’t know. All I know is my wallet is smoking.

I’m downgrading a few things I planned on to make up for the unexpected cost — namely new-to-me antique fixtures for the main floor bedrooms (probably would’ve spent $200-$300 a piece, instead I’ll pay to rewire them at about $7 a piece), period pearl inlay switches ($200 for living room and dining room), and a basement bath tile pattern upgrade ($300 for materials, probably even more for extra labor). I think I can live without these things for a while to make sure we stick to our now-outrageous budget, and I use the term “budget” loosely.

We’re mostly worried about budget because we decided to to a complete tear off of the old roof at the cost of around $6900.00. Now that it’s done, it was definitely worth it. It was absolutely necessary once they saw the state of things during the tear off. We cleaned out the savings to protect the rest of our investment. We’ll be doing some extra freelance work and overtime to build that savings back up IF we can stop with these crazy contingencies that keep coming up. The roof sure is pretty, though! You can sort-of see the before of our roof in the blog header graphic. :)

I still want to have enough money to dip the doors in the house ($115 each) and redo the walls on the main floor (drywall in the bedrooms so we can insulate) and repair the plaster in the living room and dining room.

3 Responses to “More Progress, Less Money”

1. Joanne says:

   February 13, 2008 at 9:35 pm

   It’s always frustrating when those unexpected expenses pop up–I’ve forever delaying the purchase of luxuries like, say, new clothes, because I have to fix something else.

   Your new roof does look great!
2. Bungalow Monster says:

   February 14, 2008 at 4:49 am

   I feel your pain! Normal people spend their money on cool stuff and show-off with it on weekends! We… put a utility cover on it and hang drywall over it! What’s wrong here?! :)
3. Stephanie says:

   February 19, 2008 at 5:11 pm

   Hi! Dipping the doors is so worth it, even if you have to wait awhile. We’ve used Houck’s Stripping a couple of times now and have been so happy with the results! http://dipdoors.com/process.html

   While I have your attention, I wanted to apologize. You left a post on my blog back on August 2, 2007 which said, among other things, that you thought it would be fun to get the Portland blogger/renovators together. I agree! I think that is such a great idea. You probably wondered at the time why I never responded. I am really sorry about that! As I said, you posted that comment on August second and I had a baby about an hour after midnight that night, so I was a little distracted at the time and never saw your post until today! I just wanted to you know that I wasn’t ignoring you. :-)

   The new roof looks great!