Day 112 - Homestretch

This is a draft of a post I wrote on October 9th, but never published. All I can say is that I must have been smoking crack when I wrote this....

According to my sources we should be back in our home on our around Halloween. Probably not finished....but out of the RV and in our brandy new-ish home. Things are really progressing now and amazingly, the house is starting to look rather like a home.

So from this point on, no pictures. Call me a total HGTV groupie, or a home decorating weirdo, but I'm all about "the reveal". I don't want to give the end result up too easily, so y'all are just gonna have to be patient. (Not that there actually is a y'all mind you!) More of my delusional "I'm on a home remodeling TV show" thing....

So this is where we're at: the walls have been primed and are ready for paint. In fact, in kind of took me by surprise when my contractor told me to pick out colors. Color? Check. Tile is on order and will be next. Kitchen mini-remodel has yet to begin, but I suppose that there is some waiting to be done for the backsplash tile.

Lots and lots and lots of little things to do like install my new range and hood, counters, build cabinets for the new office, install floors, finish pergolas, build the front steps....
Geesh - there's still so much to do!!!!

October 24th - the end is no where in sight. Really. What was I thinking? There is still a TON of stuff to be done. We're still in the RV and let me say that the novelty "wow it's like we're on a really fun family camping trip" thing is so totally over. So. Totally. Over.

Day 86 : I Can Almost See The Finish Line

This will eventually become soon be a front entrance. 

After a minor freak out over our dwindling staff, I've calmed down, wiped the plaster dust that was stuck to my tears, and realized that what will be - will be. And then they came. More troops were sent in to battle gaping holes, exposed wood, doors that won't install themselves, etc. (Insert angels singing here.)

And now? As of this moment I'm happy to report that we have what's known as the "scratch coat" on the front of our stucco house, we have interior walls that have 2 coats of "mud" and will be sanded tomorrow, a front door, a new bow window in our new office, and more! What we don't have is our custom vanity in the en suite bath or new office or kitchen. Floors. Lighting. And more!

So....it's a process, right? Ya gotta break a few eggs to make an omelet. (No idea of the relevance of that, btw.) Ya gotta yell at a contractor to get him to sit up and take notice of the fact that a family of four is LIVING in an RV and while that might seem like an "adventure" to some, at this point, it's kind of a living hell. 

Day 78: Walls? Why yes, we have them.

We have walls. Really.

Just when it appeared that our contractor had all but abandoned us (which btw - I fully expected), things are starting to take shape. Sure the contractor decided that it would be the perfect time to visit Mom in Isreal. Yes, now. And for the last few weeks we've come to expect 2 guys - the same 2 guys - to show up each morning. And only 2 guys. Gone are the throngs of burly worker-bees that once were. And then there were 2. But the dawn today brought a much larger crew ---- and walls!


Oh walls - I love you so. You indicate to me that our house will eventually be a home again. That photographs and art and TV's will adorn you soon. I can even imagine that your chalky whiteness will someday soon be warmed with color. Ah.......

Day ??? - The Haps.

Day....wait....what day is this? I'll figure it out and get back to you.


So, here's a brief recap of the events since I last posted. We moved...and then we moved....and then we moved again. Santa Monica, Holiday Inn Express, Santa Monica, driveway - that's the order of things if I'm not mistaken. Somewhere in between the 2 Santa Monica stints we discovered that an hour commute to school every day - in each direction was pretty much out of the question. As was policing and cleaning up after our 3 dogs. It just wasn't a doable situation.


Lightbulb. I pulled from the recesses of my mind a brief somewhat-inebriated conversation at a backyard neighborhood shin-dig. Something along the lines of "we have a 36' motor home that's just sitting and doing nothing for no one - why don't you borrow it from us". Now, while we've known our neighbors for many years, and had full knowledge that they are a lovely couple, at the time it seemed out of the question and just too far fetched. But suddenly....it became much less far fetched. So we called them up and decided that a rental situation (rather than a lending situation) was more in our comfort zone and lo and behold....we're now living in a land yacht in our driveway. Much better situation - dogs are free to roam, books, clothes, toys, Internet are handy (NO MORE PACKING!!!) and we're here to watch over our house from any evil-doers and when the contractors have questions. Voila.


...And it's actually kind of comfy and cozy! So....on to the project. Everything is moving along swimmingly and while we lost both time and money on all of the extensive (as in "worse we've ever seen") termite damage, we're corrected and moving along. Windows arrived and are installed and may I add looking ever so perfect. They're a great match with our original steel French windows and I'm glad I dug my heels in and insisted on them.


Other stuff:
1. Doors from China are a hassle - but luckily not an insurmountable problem - and they're going in one by one.


2. Bathtub arrives on Friday.


3. Entry door arrived and is kind of a piece of shit, buy it'll look great once it's up. Big story attached to this door actually. I struck a deal with crestviewdoors.com to trade out an instructional video for a free set of windows for the door. (The actual door is from ETO doors in downtown L.A.) I'm an experienced woodworker and I thought - how hard can this be. Cut 3 holes in the door - insert windows - bingo. Wrong, wrong, wrong. I won't bore you with the details except to say that the project was a bitch. It was a bitch on steroids. After much hand wringing, tears, and "oh my God what was I thinking", the project was completed. And all I can say is thank God for the inventions of wood filler, sandpaper and paint.


4. Purchased a really nice pro range. Can't wait to use it!


5. Tile is completely selected and now we just need to order it.


6. Finally made our decision about flooring. Much angst involved here as we had to take wear ability (with 3 dogs), cost AND beauty in to account. Finding a match for all 3 proved to be pretty difficult and I soon learned that you have to some times give up one thing to get another.


7. Continued working on furniture - decor - particularly Nick's room (my starting place and then I'll move on to the little one).


So that's it for now. And oh yeah --- it's day 66! 


And now for some photos!

Doors from China - installed!

And finally...we have windows! I LOVE my new windows!

And an overview of the new front of our house!

Our lovely little one in front of our lovely little home on wheels.

Ah...good times.

And in the midst of all of this ----- my son celebrated both his 15th birthday AND the first ever day of high school on the same exact day! Here he is (in the middle) with his adorable friends celebrating.

And our sweetie pie celebrated her first day of kindergarten - in a brand new school! So brave!

Day Forty - Displaced

Day Forty. Well it's taken me a couple of weeks to get this blog post down. Not for lack of trying. I'm a whirling dervish. My head is in 20 places at any given time. I have a hundred buying decisions to tackle -- and I never thought I'd say this -- buying is becoming a drag. In fact decision-making in general has become quite a drag. Flooring - tile - lighting - furniture - kitchen appliances - paint colors - etc. etc. 


And then there's the termites. Don't even get me started on the termites. Apparently our home is/was like a 24 hour Vegas buffet for termites. It's quite tasty. A big striped tent is somewhere in our future....


So here's where we're at. No one in my immediate family imagined that the scope of this job was a huge as it is. It's huger than huge, it's humongous. So we moved. We're living in my sisters apartment in Santa Monica, coming up  every morning and many evenings and weekends as well sometimes. It's hard on everyone -- but especially my sister who is used to solitary living and not a sometimes messy, usually chaotic family of 4 - 7 if you count the 3 dogs that we dragged along with us. Thank you Darien. You are a saint.


In addition to just the complexity of managing a family and a business (plus my husbands new film project), the social life of a teenager and keeping a 5 year old happy and occupied from a satellite location, we have to deal with the start of school just 10 days from now. Note to self: shop for a hotel near schools today. Phew.


All that aside....the project is moving along swimmingly. And its going to be amazing when it's done. My worries that Nick's new bedroom would be too small was for nothing - the room is perfect. The ROOM (the term "great room" makes me nervous), is going to be pretty awesome and entertaining central. I'm happy to still have my beautiful living room as a retreat when all of this open floor plan stuff makes me crave a little piece and quiet. You know?


So how 'bout a few pictures?

We Now Have Skylights! Ok - maybe not.

...And a Beautiful En Suite. Ok - maybe not.

But We Do Have A Shipment of French Doors From China!

And A Little Girl That Comes To Clean Up The Place!

...And A Final Footprint That's Pretty Damn Cool!

Day Twenty-Three - WTF Were We Thinking???

Where Once Stood A Home....

Day 17 and the 4th week of construction. What an extravaganza! At this point in the project we're seriously considering our sanity, physical health and marriage. What the F were we thinking? Seriously. Not in terms of doing the project. The more the project goes along - the more I feel that the necessity was there, both in terms of the space that we needed, modernizing our home, and in all of the things that were broken/overlooked through the years that we're now being forced to confront - head on. Like termites. I won't even get into termites. Let's just say they're nasty mo-foes for sure. Through the years we would on occasion see a little swarm of them in say, our bedroom and we'd just kind of look at each other and shrug our shoulders. Where others might have panicked and called in the professionals our "musician lifestyle" called for simple shoulder shrugging and then on to the next topic. Basically our home repair policy has always been "ignore". 

We're at the point where the dust, dirt, flying insulation, rat poop (don't even go there), holes in the floors, no walls, no a/c, 8 hours daily of banging, pounding, crashing, swearing, Mexican pop music, dogs escaping, not to mention all of us crammed basically into our master bedroom --- is beginning to wear on us. We're considering our alternatives. We can't stay here any longer. Either we move to my sisters in Santa Monica, or we stay out - every day, all day. So if you're reading this and we're still doing construction and let's say you're planning on going away for a few weeks this summer and need a house sitting family -- think of us!

Don't get me wrong. I think that this is a gift. Being able to do what others only dream about is truly awesome. Despite the fact that this is extremely difficult to live through, the contractor is doing a great job - his crew is awesome and everything is moving along at lightening speed! 

Day Seventeen - Out With The Old....

Day 15 and I couldn't figure out whether to title this post "Out With The Old and In With The New" or "Things I'm Really Gonna Miss". I guess remodeling is bittersweet. As I watch them hammer away at the little things that I have always loved I feel a bit choked up - sometimes even a little angry. I practice deep breathing and home improvement mantras and remember that you have to break some eggs to make an omelet -- no wait, that's not the right saying. Whatever - you have to make a mess - you have to say goodbye - you have to keep looking ahead, or you can really begin to get, well - stuck. I've seen it happen firsthand. When you get too precious with your (air quotes) stuff, and when you have trouble parting with "things" , then change becomes nearly impossible! 


That said, these are things that I really am gonna miss:

The modern tree mural that my husband and I created in my little girl's room. I can still recall the combined looks of wonder, fear and happiness on July 2, 2008, when she came home from Russia and walked into that room for the very first time...

...along with the little birds that unexpectedly popped up around the room.....

...my sweet vintage stainless range hood - in all it's scalloped, cottage-y glory. We breathed new life into this hood when we remodeled our kitchen after the Northridge earthquake. By tiling the once drywall-only box above it and giving it a good spit shine, it became a show piece in our kitchen...

...and even my little handmade mosaic counter top with inlaid souvenir plates. I try to remember these early DIY days and the satisfaction that comes with creating something fun and fantastical just because you can't afford to do it any other way.

Still....change isn't possible unless you do bid adieu to some of the things that you hold dear. 

Day Sixteen - Rebarrific!

Rebar.....and then......concrete!

Day 13 - Rebar is now in place - all over the place. Things are starting to take shape. 6:00 a.m. and 4 humongous (and very cool) concrete mixers pull up to our house. Don't they know that 6:00 a.m. is practically the middle of the night!

Concrete is pouring into holes, crevices and forms as we speak!

Day Eleven - Dirt.

Yes, Dirt.

Did you ever wonder what your family room would look like with a big ole pile of dirt in the middle of it? No? Me neither. 

There is something so strange about walking through your house and seeing men's heads sticking out of holes in more than one room. They kind of look like little prairie dogs - you know? In any case, it's just really weird. 

We're looking forward to seeing the fun stuff -- when rooms start to look like rooms, and patios start to look like patios. Right now it's pretty much just the top of men's heads, holes and piles of dirt. 

Still....going into the weekend, and the end of week 2 feeling like so much has happened to our house in such a short time. So far our contractor (so far - operative words!), has an amazing crew working for him. They work so hard all day long.

Day Ten - Hole-y Moley!

Day 9 and we're entering all new territory here now. After moving our little one into a makeshift bedroom (inside our living room), creating a temporary office inside our master bedroom, and shipping our tattered family room love seat to the reupholsterer for a facelift, we managed to clear out 2 complete rooms. Which btw - has all but used up every bit of available space in our garage. We'll either be moving to plan b - renting a POD, or we'll start to fill up my sisters warehouse (thanks A!). In any case, the point being, the object of all of this empty space is ---- HOLES. And lots of 'em.

They've now opened up 2 ft. square holes all around our house, and a larger hole inside Milana's previous room. The purpose of these holes is to add additional piers to the foundation of our home. The purpose of adding additional piers to the foundation of our home is so that our home doesn't collapse in an earthquake. Thank you City of L.A. for your care and concern.

In other news, we woke up to a major clog in our kitchen sink. Because just doing a crazy amount of construction, 3 dogs running free around the neighborhood due to downed fences, slamming, banging and drilling - just wasn't the enough commotion for one day.

Day Eight - Perceptions, Misconceptions and Stupid Pipes

Day Seven and the work moves along - despite a minor freakout.....

A

....and a stupid old clay water main pipe!

Here's how I operate: dream, plan, research, decide, take action, freak out, calm down, carry on. That's me in a nutshell basically. So I expected at that some point - make that many points - in the process there would be a fair amount of second-guessing going on. I've learned to absolutely NEVER ignore my instincts. That's not to say that my instincts are always 100% spot on mind you - they are on occasion wrong. I believe that to be the case here. 

As the work progressed last week I ended up with 2 big ole piles of dirt basically -- one in the front of the house (where the addition is going), and one in the back of the house (where the existing patio is being redesigned and we are adding a patio to our master bedroom). Dirt and then trenches where the outlines of the rooms/patios would be. I started looking at the mounds of dirt and the trenches and suddenly thought that everything was starting to seem really small - almost Lilliputian! Thus freak out numero uno. Despite the calm reasoning from my husband to "just read the blueprints and look at the final dimensions", my freakout escalating into a mini-meltdown - complete with hand wringing and pacing. Eventually I took his suggestion, stopped starring at the dirt mounds and moved into the house with the ruler. By measuring existing rooms against the proposed dimensions of the new room, it was obvious that while the room is by no means large - it's fine for my kids bedroom. After speaking with the architect, builder and foreman, who assured me that the square footage of this room was adequate --- AND that dirt mound freak-outs are common place in their industry, I began to breathe again. We were once again reminded of the physical constraints of our house and this project. We took everything out as far as it should or could go - therefore making any dreams of a huge new bedroom fruitless and ridiculous. I have to remind myself that our current "go big or go home" philosophy in this country does NOT apply to homes. Bigger is not always better. I can vouch for this based on the many Calabasas mini mansions that I've been in - bigger can sometimes just be bigger. Carry on.

In other news the foreman and the builder broke the first piece of bad news to us (who knows - maybe the last piece of bad news!). Our 1941 house has a 1941 clay water main pipe running directly through the addition that will need to be changed to plastic. $$$$$.

My new doors shipped from China today. They are now officially on the boat! 

Day Three - how long did you say this would take?

The front of our house - lava rock removal, front porch torn apart and trenches are just beginning!

Day three. Banging is beginning to get to me. I walked around like a Crabby McCrabberson today until I figured out that the chaos of the interior of my home, combined with the constant din of banging was affecting my last nerve. I'm going to try and control the controllable - the interior chaos, since the exterior chaos is unavoidable. We thought that it would be just fine to shift a bunch of furniture around and pile stuff up here and there, but I've come to my senses. Man cannot live amongst piles of crap for 4 to 6 months, therefore we have to come up with a plan B. (Which will either be rearranging our garage for storage, storing stuff in my sisters warehouse, or - last resort - spending $$ on a POD type thing.) 

My sanity is worth every penny. 

No turning back now!

Day Two. First day of demo went swimmingly. Sure there was some blood, sweat and tears - and lots of banging, banging, banging, but for the most part everything went beautifully and accordingly to plan. Guys are back now this morning - we're talkin 7:30 AM! Let the banging and the destruction continue! 

And Away We Go....Day One

Our Good 'Ole Patio. We'll miss ya!

Detail of the original patio steps. Make way for something completely different!

Let the demolition derby begin! Goodbye to you old patio - you've served us well. Breakfast and cocktails - outdoor movie watching - sitting under the fan reading a book, and parties, parties, parties. You've seen a beautiful intimate wedding, a faux Playboy party, a 10 year anniversary tiki party, more barbeques than I could possibly count, endless swim parties and of course many, many happy, amazing and memorable kids birthday fiestas.  Yes, patio - you have most certainly earned your keep. But you've grown old and tired and I'm sorry to say - need to go to that great patio in the sky. Please don't be angry with us.

So....on to phase 2 of our family home! On to bigger, better, brighter things. Let the jack hammering begin!

我疯了吗？

Which translates to "Am I crazy?" in Chinese. One of my earliest design choices in this process was the decision to scrap our perfectly lovely, tres expensive, and in perfect condition, sliding wooden French patio doors. They've bothered me since day one. There's just something about sliding a single door and thus only being able to open up 1/2 of the space that is just so annoying. I decided that when I remodeled I was springing for a set of those super-coolio sliding folding patio doors. I knew that it was going to eat up a HUGE portion of our budget. For years I heard rumours of expecting to pay around 10K for a 10' door! Ah! Apparently the rumor mills don't know what a bargain hunter I can be.

So after scouring the Internet and finding that most local vendors wanted about 6K for these doors I turned to --- where else? China! And after about 75 emails back and forth with about 1000 questions (honestly the woman had the patience of a saint!), I placed my order. Am I nervous? Uh...yes. But I look at this way -- if the doors aren't right, or they're crappy or whatever, I'll sell 'em on Craigslist and I've still only paid a fraction of what it would have cost to purchase them here in the USA. So I ordered a 10' patio door, a set of double French doors for the master bedroom, and 2 single French doors for the new addition, and the new office - all aluminum in black. Total cost should be less than 5K for all --- and that includes all of the expenses for duties, tariffs and customs broker. The funniest part is that I was being quoted 7-10 weeks lead time from the USA and they're going to be shipping in 21 days!

Fingers crossed! Bargain hunters unite and claim victory! Disclaimer: sorry all of you "Buy American" types out there. Apparently I don't have the budget to buy American.

Farewell My Lovely Trees!

I'm a tree hugger. There I said it. I love trees. The idea of chopping down a perfectly lovely, perfectly harmless and perfectly healthy mature tree is not only ridiculous to me, but cruel. It literally brings tears to my eyes.

I've put it off as long as was possible, but my contractor, ever so gingerly since he figured me out, mentions it on a weekly basis. As in "Val, I know this is a sore subject, but you're really going to have to remove the trees soon." So...I made the call and my fantastic gardener and his team are out there right now - chainsaws in hand, like something out of a bad horror movie, destroying --- and yes --- murdering my amazing magnolia tree, along with a 30' fan palm and a 25 year old Yucca tree. I can't decide who I'm going to miss more. The magnolia produces huge fragrant flowers that plucked from the tree, and placed alone in a glass vessel have produced more oohs and aahs at parties than I can recall. The huge glossy leaves made amazing platforms for cheeses as well! The fan palm is a Southern California staple and quite honestly - I don't care much for them, but when we planted it we knew nothing about trees. Lastly, my beautiful Yucca. This tree must be well over 25 years old. It's like a quiet, but elegant old woman with it's twisty bark. I'll shed a tear to see that one go.

So I hear the buzz of chainsaws and the shouts of my gardener and his workers, and I choose not to look. I know that you can't stop progress. I know that you've got make some changes to make other changes, I know that the trees must be removed to make room for the addition, but still, I really can't bear it.

Waiting.....waiting......waiting

In the words of Tim Gunn -- "Carry On"! Whilst we await the thumbs up (or thumbs down) on our blueprint approval we shop - and we prepare - prepare and shop. City of Los Angeles -- our fate lies in your red-taped hands!

So here's the haps. I've updated the cost section to include the permit fees. Not so bad after all. At this exact moment I have electrician extraordinaire Herman of Bright Lite Electric (shout out) working feverishly at moving our butt-ugly electrical panel. It'll be in the tiki area, and may I add will still be butt-ugly - only now butt-ugly in a more obscured location. (Hopefully we'll manage to cover it with a cool tiki too.) Once that bad boy is gone we'll be able to install double French doors where now there is a single door. Sweet.

And speaking of doors....who knew that picking out windows and doors was such grueling work? Honestly it's probably THE hardest part of this job. We have beautiful vintage steel French casement windows in our house -- terribly inefficient, but I don't care cause I love 'em! But matching them is proving to be a bit of a challenge. This may end up being a bigger part of the budget than anyone expected.

On the plus side....I sourced out a bunch of doors from China. Yes, you read that correctly. Much to the dismay of my contractor, who thinks that I'm certifiably insane, we are ordering our doors and windows from China. Worst case scenario - we threw a way a fraction of what it would cost us to get our doors from the U.S. Best case scenario - we absolutely love them and we save mucho dinero.

That's it for now!

God I Love Shopping...

...for house stuff that is. (Not so keen on shopping for clothes anymore.) The best part of remodeling your house is that you get to SHOP! And shopping with a purpose is super fun. So I have a few more items to add to the "done" list. One of them is.....drumroll.....toilets! Never thought I could get so worked up over a loo, but I am! I scored the awesomeest crapper on the planet at Costco the other day. Everything I wanted - dual flush, small and low profile, automatic closing seat for an amazing $79.00!! Hold on - I've got to catch my breath...

Other scores - an awesomely unique bathtub - vintage stylin' and super cool. I can't tell you much more than to say I got a drop-dead deal on this baby. Plus a mirror for my son's bathroom that should come with smelling salts as it may induce fainting. It's rock and roll and masculine and very cool. I got it at Home Goods and talked them down from $100 bucks (which was already a steal) to 50 bucks. Also at Home Goods a side table for his room. I won't say no more - you'll have to wait for the reveal to see these scores!

I'm also having a ball designing my teenage son's room. I won't give anything away except to say that the "theme" (and I use that term loosely since he's almost 15 and a "theme" room would be kind of juvenile), is London. He's a big time Anglophile and music lover, so I have some very cool ideas for this room. Which BTW - will be the new addition. Originally this room was slated for our 5 year old, but since Nick is a night owl and has been keeping us awake - AND - she likes to wander into our room at all hours, we decided that this arrangement makes more sense. She'll get her own room and bathroom when - sniff-sniff - my son departs. Hold on - I've got to catch my breath...

In other news the plans are finally finalized. I'll post a copy of them as soon as they clear through the city! And then....DEMOLITION!!!! Woot woot.

Remodeling 101: Contractor Shopping

Who knew? The learning curve for remodeling your house is HUGE! But I'm learning and really enjoying the process.....so far. I look at it like this - I haven't taken a course or a class in about 15 years. I'm a self-admitted graduate of the school of hard knocks, but every time that I take on a project, whether it be building a Tahitian over-the-water playhouse for my kid, or restoring an old tent trailer - I learn a little bit more. And continuous learning is a good thing, right?

So, this installment of Our Big Fat House Remodel will begin the first in a series of "what I'm learning" posts. Hopefully, if you're taking on a remodel yourself, you'll gleen something from these posts. BTW - please feel free to jump in and comment if you've learned something that YOU want to pass along!

Contractor Shopping:
After months of interviewing a parade of contractors and architects I finally started to put it all together, and here's the skinny. It took a while, but it was like a lightbulb going off in my head when it all became clear. Hopefully you won't have to go through the same thing! You have a few choices when you remodel your house:

1. Design/Build - Basically these folks claim to do both "design" and "build" (as you might have guessed from their name!). They either work with a draftsperson, or an architect on a regular basis, or they believe that their years of on-the-job experience, coupled with a few basic drafting courses, give them the knowledge they need to design your project. These folks are perfect for small jobs where creative thinking doesn't necessarily come into play -- your basic bathroom addition, deck, master bath remodel. You can save a little $$ when you use design/build.

2. Builders - These guys (I say "guys" cause I've never run across one that isn't, so forgive me for being sexist!), will execute your plan or the plan of your architect. They'll bid on your job using what is called "cost plus" or just plain ole "cost". "Cost Plus" is when they tell you what needs to be done and you go out and shop around for the sub-contractors. Generally they'll have a few suggestions as well. "Cost" builders hire their own sub-contractors. My intuition tells me that the "cost plus" situation, while it sounds attractive at first, may net the same end result cost wise, and take way longer to execute in the end.

3. Architects - Well, my personal experience was that they are extremely knowledgable about design and mostly very creative individuals. Consequently, they can be very costly and depending on the project - either very necessary, or completly unnecessary. Look - if you're doing a whole house remodel, you'd be pretty stupid to overlook hiring an architect, but if you're tacking a new master bath on to the back of your house, you might just get away saving the 4K that a good architect will cost you. Architects will design your project and present you with the plans. You can then "shop" your builder with the plans in hand. This is where the real sticker shock can happen. Architects can often be very pie-in-the-sky with your house and your money. Often your 100K budget is an architects 180K plan - rendering the plan itself - useless.

So who did we choose? We went with a build/design firm that works with the same architect for all of their projects. I say "architect", but the real truth is that our guy is a full fledged, card carrying architect in his home country of Israel, but here in the good ole U S of A, he is not a licensed architect, and therefore has to call himself a "designer". But the bottom line is that HE is what sold us on this particular builder. After seeing his design website and his portfolio, I was convinced that he would fit our needs and our budget.

And so far, that's true! He has presented us with an original blueprint for our remodel, as well as a revised blueprint. He is currently working on the 3rd rendition and hopefully (fingers crossed) this will end up being the final.

In closing I just want to mention that it's a good idea to have a couple of each type visit your house. It'll be worth it in the end to get a bunch of opinions and prices. I also learned a bit from the architect that I was referred to. Even though he basically dissed my plan, he had some feedback about it that, in the end ended up being a part of our final design. So throw out the stuff that you don't need. Take away the stuff that you do, and you'll end up doing fine.

The Checks in the Mail!

Literally. OMG. Can't believe it. We're really doing this! After years of dreaming, schemeing and planning, we're actually going forward with this. I'm as nervous as I was the day that we bought this house!

Wish us luck!

I haven't had feet this cold since my wedding day! LOL!

O.M.G. The blood. The Sweat. The tears. And we haven't even signed the contract yet! That is, until - today! I'm not gonna lie, I'm a nervous wreck! This is a HUGE amount of money. Did I mention that my husband is a musician? We are NOT wealthy, by any stretch of the imagination. I've always been ridiculously crafty/cheap/creative. Those 3 C's, luckily, have added up to what we think is a pretty damn cute house. So, in keeping with that theme, I'm hoping that our 100K budget looks a lot more like a 200K budget in the end. Only time will tell.

But....first steps first right? After many contract changes, we feel that we're finally at a mutually happy place with our contractor. There were those that were cheaper, and those that were more expensive (lots of them!), and in the end I suspect that they probably would have ended up at the same place, but we chose our contractor mainly because of his sheer persistence. He was there answering questions and showed genuine interest in the project since our first meeting. Only time will tell.

So, we're off!

p.s. I'm posting my first entries into expenditures today. I'm planning on keeping a running total so that people can see what it REALLY costs to remodel, decorate and furnish a home in 2011. This at the risk of my husband seeing the final total and probably having a heart attack.

We Need A Contractor!

So, let the contractor search begin. Mind you, our track record has been less than stellar. The last contractors apparently got bored and walked off the job when we redid the kitchen and we suffered the same fate with the unlicensed guy we hired to redo our master bedroom a few years back. This time, I'm taking a bit more time during the interview process.

Here's what I found out: you get what you pay for. Since we're dealing with a, a-hem, less than unlimited budget here, it narrows down the choices substantially. Only time will tell if choosing contractors based upon the fact that they CLAIM they can do it within your budget guidelines, is the truth. In the end, I suspect that there's a good chance we'll end up paying the same for any contractor we chose.

So....our search. Let's just say that it was like the United Nations of contractors parading through our house for 3 months. The South African guys, The Isreali guys, The American guys, The Mexican guys and maybe even a few other unclassified nations were represented too. Absolutely Americans tend to value their work the highest. Either that, or they're the most realistic about final costs. Again - time will tell.

We finally made a decision. We based it on these facts:
1. We gelled with the guy.
2. He was hungry and willing to bend a bit with our budget.
3. He was the only person that "guarenteed" that we would not exceed our budget by more than 5%! What that means, we're not exactly sure, but we like the sound of it!
4. We liked the "architect" that he works with. (More on architects later!)This was HUGE. Since we're messing with the front of our house, we knew that we needed to select someone that understood that we could either vastly IMPROVE our house, or completely ruin it!
5. He came close to our budget.
6. His total persistence in not giving up on us. He did what he needed to do to get the job. Yep - the guy wouldn't give up. He walked a fine line between bugging us, and just being present, and for that I give him credit. There were others that just bugged me -- calling too much, no additional input, just "are your ready to hire us" kind of thing. Just annoying. Eric was not.

So, he's refining the contract just a bit for a few changes that we made when we met 2 days ago. Then we'll sign and give him the $1K deposit that is allowed by law. After that we'll meet with Roni, the "architect" and begin the design! Can't wait to get started. It's going to be a mess, and there will be tons of tears, but we're hoping that keeping a positive attitude and anticipating what's coming up will ease the stress a bit and make the project move along with precision, speed and accuracy!

In the beginning....

...there was a family. Seemingly happy in their 1940's home, they plodded along with life - day in and day out. And then something happened - the families son became a teenager and started to grow...and grow. And as the boy grew, the house oddly became smaller. And then something else happened - the family adopted a darling little sweet potato from Russia, who obviously needed a bedroom to call her own. Not having the room, they did the best they could with what they had and transformed a lovely, but seldom used formal dining room into a bedroom. Voila! Rarely did guests discover their little secret, the room was adorable and they lived happily ever after. Right? Wrong! Teenage boy keeps getting bigger (will he ever stop? Stay tuned!), little girl will someday be a teenager in need of her own space and possibly even her own (gasp) bathroom, and the family is kinda bumping into one another!

What to do.... So, like others, we explored the idea of moving to a bigger, better house. Here's why we didnt: 1. We love our charm-filled little house. 2. We love our neighbors (not the neighborhood so much, but definitely LOVE our neighbors. 3. We love our backyard and live a fairly outdoor lifestyle. We spent a small fortune putting in a nice pool and have spent a large fortune on landscaping through the years. I just don't have it in me to start all over again, and the houses I was looking at had horrible backyards. 4. Houses in Los Angeles are not so easily affordable. Basically 700K buys you a fixer-upper in 2011. :( So, like others, we explored the idea of expanding our house. I won't bore you with the details other than to say that I'm the type of gal that does her homework. I have ideas. I'm a planner. I'm a list maker.

So, after 4 months of planning, exploring, learning, budgeting, planning some more, and finally ---- interviewing a parade of contractors (more on that subject later!), we are finally ready to begin! So if you're interested in doing the same thing, or just dreaming about "someday", or simply enjoy design and decorating - stick with me! It's bound to be interesting. Will the family stay together? Will the mother lose her mind? Will the father declare bankruptcy? Will the children be able to withstand the torment? Only time will tell! ~~~