Construction: Week 5

This week we ripped out our main bathroom.  As in, now we have no shower. This was with the expectation that a new shower would be installed (either in this bathroom or the guest bathroom) this week.  Turns out, one was not installed, and now we are without a shower right as school is starting... 

Chris quite enjoyed the demo of the bathroom, though I was pretty skeptical about his prowess with a sledgehammer.  He did a nice job, and a few giant construction trash bags of debris later, we have a blank slate to work with.

The contractors came in the next day and started to frame in the future tub site, a pantry closet, and the side of the breakfast nook.  We really enjoyed how much this opened up the space and how bright the kitchen got as a result.  I have to remind myself, however, that once the walls go in things will get a little more closed in.  

The guys also spent some time cleaning up the site, as it got a little messy over the last few weeks.  The materials were piled nicely in one spot, the ground was raked, and we started to look a little more civilized.

The final thing that happened this week was that we met with the contractor and owner of the company about our plan for beam repair.  Their initial estimates were around $5,000-$10,000 to do both beam repairs, but when they wrote it all out, their estimate now comes to $35,000.  We asked for some clarification, obviously.  When they broke down the numbers, we were able to correct some mistakes (such as the time the fellas said it took to complete some of the work) and that did reduce the total substantially.  We have $10,000 in our loan built in for contingency, and were able to modify our original work list to eliminate some costs (such as going to cadet heaters instead of a heat pump) to save a substantial amount.  We still have a hefty check to write, though, which sadly means a barn and arena are now even further into the future.

That said, at least our house won't be held up with beams that look like this anymore: