We attempted to bring down his price by focusing on what really NEEDS to be done now instead of the whole exterior. The contractor certainly tried to work with us on that, but the reduced job would have just been too small for his crew. It was pretty frustrating for us, but I completely understand that contractors, carpenters, etc. would prefer jobs that last longer than a week or two. We took it as a compliment when he said we were not like his typical clients; he also said we would get more bang for our buck by doing the work ourselves.
To anyone out there considering a 203(k) rehabilitation loan, I would say that I wish we had included more remodeling work in our mortgage amount because it will be several years before we can qualify for a home equity loan. After regrouping and working out a smaller loan amount, it feels like we're back on track :)
Time for good news! Since the last post, we hired out the job of laying the foundation needed to bump out the exterior wall for the dining room. Just last weekend, we got some neighborly help with running new low-voltage cables - thank you Craig and Allen! It's pretty awesome that these new cables are neatly hidden and not running along the siding/foundation like the icky old one.
On Tuesday, the electricians came out to consolidate our trio of breaker boxes and bury the lines running to the house. The trench for the buried lines would have to run across a public gravel alleyway, so of course the "Call Before You Dig" folks came out before things got started.
Yay for buried cable trench! |
Doh! Call Before You Dig somehow missed the neighbors' water main. |
Lastly, the electrical box from a downstairs bedroom (left) and the two in the garage (right) have been replaced with a single box in the laundry room, a.k.a. future utility closet. Hooray! |
Sweet! Makes much more sense to have all this in one place :) |
We've got a big project planned for Saturday, so I'll do my best to post an update before the weekend is out. I'm so excited!
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