Week Two

We're about 12 days into our project and now we have two almost new bathrooms and the hardwood floor (courtesy of Ikea) is being installed. We'll be putting in carpet in two of the three bedrooms and in the family room downstairs.

Originally the master bath was going to be tiled using materials that were intended for the dining room. The former owners had selected several tile colors and had them there waiting for use. Well I wanted the flooring to flow between the rooms and elected to have the hardwood throughout the living room and dining room. So, we were going to use some of the tiles in the master bathroom to re-do the floor and shower. Guess what??? We couldn't find a box that wasn't full of broken pieces! Someone must have dropped them when they were moving them. All but about 3 of the boxes were ruined. So now we're over budget on the master bath. I had to go out and purchase new tile. Another $500. It does look nice though.

Our labor costs are a few hundred over as well. Adam charged us more per hour than he charges James (my hubby). We're not sure why. He also tried to charge us for his trips to the hardware store. I didn't pay for that though. He didn't say anything when I gave him the money for the lesser amount.

Lesson: Don't assume anything.

Our painters came over the weekend and sprayed every room. The house looks so much better!! We needed them to do that quickly so that Adam didn't have to work around them. Having them come on the 1st weekend worked out pretty good. One problem - they literally sprayed everything. We should have specified that they tape off the outlets so we didn't have beige paint all over them. I ended up spending hours scraping paint off of them so we didn't have to replace them. They also sprayed the doorbell box & the thermostats too. I'm having a really hard time getting those clean. Not sure how I'll take care of those. I refuse to buy new ones.

Lesson: Don't assume anything.