Last week, my air conditioning guys finished their work (and he's ready for his first payment). The electrician finished running all his wire on Friday, and my plumber started working on his pipes and vent stacks on Saturday. I've been stressing out over ordering materials that I should have had already, like the exterior doors, the heater/vent/lights for the bathrooms, and some stuff that the plumber needs in order to finish his work. I've got my two bids on this stuff. Now it's a matter of comparing the prices and the different brands offered.
Like everything else, the heater/vent/lights are not a straighforward thing to get. There are choices among brands, among noise levels, among how many cubic feet per minute (CFMs) they can vent, and even among features. Some have a night light. Most don't have a heater. Some just have a fan. Uggh! Make it stop! :)
It also turns out that I'm going to be running all my own telephone, cable, and computer wires everywhere. I originally thought I would be doing that, and then my electrician told me he had assumed he was doing it. That was a relief in a way. I looked forward to doing it so I could say I did something like that on my own house, but then again I know it's a lot of work. He took longer than he planned with the electrical wiring, so he made a deal with me to reduce his fee and let me run the other stuff. So I'm saving money and getting the chance to do something I want to learn about. On the flip side, it's going to take me some time since I'm new at it.
I've decided on my bricklayers. I'm going with the very first ones I talked to. They are cheapest (at $8,020), and their work was very good. The woman I'm working with at the brickyard also highly recommends them. I just called him tonight and setup a meeting tomorrow so he can look at the house.
The brickyard sent me home with a few samples of my Magnolia Blend bricks, along with samples of different kinds of pavers to go on the front porch and back patio. The samples of my brick are all pretty much the same color, so it's not easy to pick out the roof color and the pavers.
As for roofers, I'm waiting on one final bid. The neighbor behind me used them to replace her roof after Katrina. They came out to measure on Friday (and the guy left his ladder), but he hasn't given me a price yet. The owner sent one of his supervisor-type guys to measure, and I asked him to look at where the roof is leaking through the felt. He said he had a guy who could stop by that evening on his way home and fix the felt so it wouldn't leak. Of course, that guy never came. It rained that night, and I found some new spots where it leaked. According to the bids I have so far, I'm going to need somewhere between 55 and 68 squares. A square is a 10ft x 10ft area.
On my latest bill from the lumber yard, they haven't credited me for 3 rolls of Tyvek housewrap I sent back. So I've been on the phone with them to take care of that. I think that's all the brain dump I'm capable of right now. More later...
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