Ahead of Schedule

Last week was very productive for the building team.  Stan say's, according to our Gantt chart, we are a week ahead of schedule.  This Thursday we have the electrical walk-through where we get to talk with the experts (electrician, a.v. person) about wiring, lighting and switch locations.  Perhaps all the drywall will be up by mid April.  We meet with the architect and project manager on Tuesday to get a better idea of the time line.

I spent most of the week in bed with the flu so my achievements aren't worth mentioning.  I made no decisions and researched very little.  Today was my first day at the house since last Monday. I walked into the house and remembered I don't like the framed part, didn't like it last time either.  Everything looks small and sort of like a puzzle and dark!  Huge holes in the floor where plumbing needs to go.

It is an amazing spring day in San Diego, clear as a bell, wildflowers a bloomin, everyone outside. Since I accomplished nothing, wasn't even around, I'll let the photo's do the talkin.  (Do you know if you double click on the pics they enlarge - I didn't realize that....neat :-)  More later this week.....

Backyard hill full of Acacia and rat's nests (YUK!)

Stripped bare (well almost), awaiting nice trees, succulents, cactus, natives, etc.









Dumpster - this is the third or 4th replacement for a full one.  We've lost track.

View of the new wall separating Stan's office/guest room from the kitchen/my work space.

The laundry room - picture red washer & dryer :), white/grey counter and floor tile to be determined this week.  Going to be a happy little place......












Framing, framing...... holes in the concrete for plumbing.  Looking at the guest and powder room, beyond that the dining room and entry.

Hell Week

So where was I.....

Moving again was just hell. We weren't ready to do it a second time in one month. I'm promised we'll hire movers to take us back into the house, we had no business doing this alone (even with Steve's help moving the furniture). I'm an exhausted, blithering idiot and although he might argue the point, Stan is no better. Our large 3 car garage is packed to the rafters with boxes and furniture. In the driveway lives a porta-potty, a huge dumpster and a load of lumber.

On Wednesday demo began, by Friday night all the walls, cabinets, plumbing, drywall and some of the floor were gone. How they worked so quickly is beyond my comprehension (most of them without masks!). Monday and Tuesday floor removal will continue and framing will begin.  (Pics shows a view of the "family room" fireplace area before and after plus a view of the "breakfast nook" soon to be my work space)



Fast tracking the decisions has also been exhausting and frustrating. We seem to be all over the County of San Diego looking at floors, plumbing fixtures, doors, granite, Caesarstone, etc. ( I sent you a link to our granite choice in the last post but I understand it didn't work - perhaps because it was misspelled. I'll try to improve my skills with this blog thing.) Caesarstone is a product made up of 95% granite, the rest resin - some of it with recycled glass. It is less expensive than granite, more contemporary looking (to my mind) and has all the qualities of granite - durable, hard, easy to clean. We're using this material in several locations. In the kitchen all the counters, except for the island (the Jurrasic Green granite) will be Caesarstone, color "Buttermilk". It will require 2 slabs with nothing leftover. Since my office/work space is adjacent to the kitchen, the counter will be of the same material. In the laundry room it will be "White Ash" (white with flecks of gray glass), a remnant that will look great with the red washer and dryer. The guest bath and powder will be remnants of "Mocha". We've also selected glass tiles for the backsplash in the kitchen, glass mosaic tile for the bath backsplashes and a polished limestone tile called "Seagrass" for the floors and shower surround. Selecting a wood floor was the final bit of insanity for last week. Too many choices and after standing in the showroom for two hrs. in Santee (out in the middle of frickin nowhere!!!!), I would have picked just about anything to get it over with. We brought samples home (a more relaxing place to make choices) over the weekend and were able to make a decision - Brazilian Tiger Mahogany. Reddish, lots of grain, I hope it works cause we're both over it!

Sorting out our issues with Marrokal, our contractors, is difficult and anxiety producing. Basically we're used to having a line-item budget and regular meetings with our contractors to know where we are visa-vie the budget. When we nixed some of their great plans for this house and said we'll spend X amount, what exactly did they cut to get us to that number? One cost reduction (without our prior knowledge) was fixtures - turns out we were supposed to pick toilets, sinks and fixtures for two baths and kitchen for $2000!!!! HELLO OUT THERE- what were they thinking??? There was no discussion regarding our choices or likes and dislikes. At the outset we made it clear this house is to reflect champagne taste on a beer budget ..... it can be done. Marrokal is more interested in the champagne budget because, duh, they get more money. I get that but I don't get creating a budget and not sharing every item with the homeowner. Annoying. Obviously we didn't ask all the right questions and make our desires known - a problem created by hurrying the process and minimal brain cell activity on the part of the homeowners!

I started this blog entry Saturday evening and here we are on Monday morning. Things look brighter today. It helped that we did nothing yesterday, absolutely nothing. We'll take a field trip to L.A. this week to look at doors, maybe rent a truck to bring them down here unless we find something equally as good at the right price. We have to return our samples to the floor store in, OMG, Santee and sign off on the final plan revisions. Need to select knobs and drawer pulls and make some decisions about window coverings and/or replacing some of the windows. Might get in some garden design and implementation - that would make me happy. And Stan needs to golf this week!

Maybe if we were younger the fast pace would have been easier. I liked having time to researcher everything well in advance of choices, not a luxury we have now. Having said that, we can't wait for all to be over. Stay tuned...........






Bless that man I love - he just had to bring his Ikea chair to the rental house and I'd already left in the Volvo.

Decisions, decisions.....

We're having drinks and watching Charlie Rose (taped, with Nancy Pelosi), another drink is certain!

Yesterday and today were full of decisions. Since we're on the fast track with this remodel, we're also fast tracking the decision making process. In the last two days we've finalized the cabinets, counter tops, back splash as well as the bathroom cabinets, plumbing, tile etc. and placed the order for appliances. There have been communication break-downs with Marrokal (our remodeling company), naturally we think it is their issue. We also had our meeting to "pass the baton" - their description for the transition between design and actual remodeling. Our "Project Manager" is Mark, low-key and organized and very nice. He presented us with a Gantt chart showing the schedule/time line of tasks, completion date is 6/10/10 but we are assured (their term) that the house will be usable by Memorial Day weekend. This is a whole different ball game from building in Cambria!! Gantt chart - I don't think so.

I would always prefer to make decisions quickly. It is less stressful for me to decide then let it go. I'll always see something else (if I look) that I'll like better but if you wait around for that perfect thing you get stuck in the mud. I'm surprised that Stan is comfortable working this way. He's happy to leave some decisions to me and I'm quite happy to let him go over every frickin' word of contracts and argue, with Marrokal, the meaning of "supply" in one sentence. Was he this way at work? This is not a side of his personality I've experienced before. I think he's really enjoying his involvement with this project where as when he worked there was no space in his mind for such things.

Today after two meetings we went to Old Town and had Margarita's and lunch at Casa Guadalajara. Great place. As long as we can find time to do something else and not take the stress out on one another we'll be good.

Photo's to come soon. Here are some websites to check out some of our decisions:

Refrigerator - Leibherr - German, bought floor model (big splurge - will go into our trust :o)
Liebherr Refrigerator
Jurassic Green Granite - pic probably won't do this justice but think prehistoric, think making a statement

We Begin....

I'll start by saying that we know we're crazy!!

February 2, 2010 we moved from Cambria to San Diego. We bought our new home knowing we wanted to remodel the kitchen and clean up the yard a bit. We love the "bones" of this house, the great view and it's location near Steve, RJ and Jenna.

Since we are strangers to the area we chose to hire a "remodeling firm" that does everything - design, interior design support, construction, etc. No doubt this is a more expensive way to go but will allow us to accomplish our goals quickly. So far we have interacted with the architect and, as Stan puts it, the chief salesman. Their job is to listen to our needs, then suck us in to adding more to the project. I'd say they are very good at what they do! The architect, Michael, has been great. He loves what he does, listens well and respects our "ownership" of this project. A very different experience from the one we had in Cambria.

Tomorrow the team increases to include the "project manager" who will join a walk through of the house in advance the actual start. There are others on this extended team but we don't yet know who they are (stay tuned...). Monday they begin "staging" which lasts for two days. We've been told our project will be completed, or close to completed, by Memorial Day weekend when we plan to celebrate mother's 95th birthday.

The extent of this remodel now includes knocking down every interior wall save one. It encompasses the kitchen, moving the dining room, moving the laundry room, moving the powder room, redoing the guest bath and replacing ALL the flooring. We move out on Monday. Demolition begins on Wednesday next week after staging. Our understanding is it will take two days to accomplish the tear down. Incredulous!

For the record I've gone from being calm, cool and collected to having a major breakdown. Today it was so bad that I went on-line (supposedly) to see if our buyers in Cambria had sold their house. Before I knew it I was looking at pictures of our former house, longing for unpacked boxes and organized spaces. This will pass, but not for awhile.