bumps in the road

The demolition process has uncovered a few unexpected things. Neither John or I are surprised by this, but we're still dismayed.

In a previous post, I mentioned that the contractor discovered an unexpected shear wall between the great room and 4's room. This shear wall meant that we were going to have to leave it. After much discussion, we have decided to proceed with our original plans and remove it. Since it wasn't noted on the original plans, and it was "okayed" by the City of SLO, it's outta there.

Sidenote: Through these discussions, I learned that a "shear wall" is not the same as a load-bearing wall. Huh. You learn something new everyday.

In addition to removing the shear wall, we're also going to "take" 4's closet, seen here as "closet #1."



Taking "closet #1" was not part of the original plans; however, in doing that, we will gain an additional 2.5 feet in the width of our kitchen.





From the blueprints, you can see how the additional 2.5 feet {width} will improve the flow of our kitchen.

Obviously, we'll have to reconfigure 4's room to give her back a closet, but we'll figure that out later.

5 key factors in choosing a contractor

After weeks of waiting for bids, we've chosen our contractor.

All props go to John who met with them, showed them our renovation plans, and let them all know our choice.

Since we received bids from five different contractors, we had to have some sort of criteria to make our choice. This is our criteria, in no particular order.

5 key factors to consider:

1. Price

Obviously, price was important to us. Like everyone, we're on a budget. That being said, we also know that you get what you pay for. So we weren't going to just go with the lowest bid.

2. Referrals & recommendations

We wanted to know that people were happy with their work. Duh.

3. Priority

We want to be a priority. Our renovation plans are not major; therefore, we're not a huge *money maker*. We don't think that should make us a low priority though. We want a contractor who answers our calls and gets back to us promptly.

4. Personality!

We want someone with a nice personality and someone who is easy to get a long with. If we're going to be working side-by-side with him (and by *we* I mean *John*), he has to be nice.

5. Future projects

Our renovation plans are not the end of our projects -- they are just the beginning. Too many projects to list here, but we are going to need help finishing a few of them. It would be nice to have a contractor who will help out on a few {future} odd jobs here and there.


What would you add to my list?

an update on the contractors

image via

Some of you may be saying, "So that's really nice and all, Karen. So glad you started ripping up carpet and painting rooms and such, but when does the real work begin?"

Here's the skinny:

The Permit
I dropped off the paperwork for the permit on Dec. 21st. I was told that it would take 3 - 4 weeks to hear back. So any day now...

***updated 1/26: We got our permit back, but there are 15 corrections we need to address.***

***updated 2/3: Architect working on revisions. She should be turning them back in to the city tomorrow.

Contractor #1
Same company that drew our design plans. Although we were extremely happy with their design services, we were bummed that it took them more than a month to give us a bid for the renovation.
Verdict: Too expensive + we are clearly not a priority.

Contractor #2
A referral from our realtor. He was very nice but after thoroughly viewing the plans, he admitted that he really is a "one-man" team and that our job was too big for him. We appreciated his honesty.

Contractor #3
A referral from an acquaintenance. He is very motivated, and we will get his bid in a couple of days. Only drawback is that we haven't seen any of his work (yet.)

***updated 1/26: We received #3's bid.***

Contractor #4
A referral from a friend. We have seen his work and he's good. John met with him yesterday and he has a set of plans, so we should hear back from him soon.

***updated 2/3: We have his bid.***


Contractor #5
A referral from same friend as above. We just heard back from him via phone. John will probably meet with him Friday or Saturday.

***update 1/26: John met with him last week. Waiting to hear back from them.***

***updated 2/3: We have his bid.***

So there you go.
That's what is happening 'round here.