Week 8 (11/16/09)

As we're closing in on the original completion deadline (Nov 30) I'm realizing that we're not going to finish on schedule. To those who have done renovations on old houses this will come as no surprise! Even the general contractor who has stayed relatively close to his schedule will not hit the target date. The schedule has caused me a lot of headache over the past few weeks due to our loan committment deadline. However this week I was able to negotiate out of it (which is doubly good as rates have come down even more) and will re-lock our permanent loan after Thanksgiving. This means our construction loan will close early next year.

Loan locks and deadlines notwithstanding work moved steadily along this past week. The contractor shingled the entire roof, installed skylights in the sunroom, finished interior trim, and finished the porch floor. On our end we cleaned the cottage in order to finish and wax the floor--we decided to have a finished concrete floor rather than the less durable laminate floor option--and we also began painting the .

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Weeks 6 and 7 (11/2/09 and 11/9/09)

Trim and finish-type work continued this week in earnest. The sunroom / family room (we still haven't decided what to call it) received batton strips and window trim on the exterior; the interior was drywalled. On the front porch the roof plywood and ice shield were added.

 

 

 

 

 

Since the roof was added to the front porch we've been really happy about the amount of light still reaching the current dining and living rooms. We were initially a bit worried (particularly about the living room) being dark, especially now that the days are really short. However the porch ended up being set up high enough so as not to block too much winter daylight. Next week two skylights will be cut into the roof of the sunroom directly in front of the living room windows which will add more light back into the living room.

So overall the contractor is making good progress and is, for the most part, on schedule. On the other end of the spectrum, the tasks that we have taken on--the cottage upgrades and entry / bathroom--are dragging! I'm not sure if this is because we're running the show (as compared with the contractor) or because we encountered several unforseen conditions; lots of sill rot in the cottage and the large hole in the entry room. Whatever the case may be, the cottage is finally nearing the 'trim out' stage where I can get moving on the kitchen and where we can paint the walls.