So we’ve come to the conclusion that there is not a single surface in the Merc that is straight. F’real. So many #mercperks.
Our framer had the walls and ceilings in pretty quick (like 4 days!!!) but we keep having him come back for more work. The latest is the ceiling in the kitchen. I was meeting with our AMAZING cabinet guy (can’t wait to tell you all about it!) and we realized that while the new opening into the entryway was level, the ceiling was in fact not, and the whole thing looked a little wonk.
The reality that we keep running into is, if we don’t fix the perks than the whole space is just going to seem off. For instance if we didn’t spend $500 fixing the ceiling than all of our cabinets that we are spending $20k on are going to look completely ridiculous. So we just have to bite the bullet and spend the money. GAH BUDGET WHY DO YOU HAVE TO EXIST!?
Another area that we are facing this issue is the back bedroom.
We are converting this doorway into a window, which didn’t seem like an issue at all, until we uncovered the wall and discovered that there is a massive metal beam holding the concrete block up. BLAHHHHHHH.
The plan is to take out the metal beam (that is hidden behind the white wood beam right on top of the door) and the concrete block so that the window can be the proper height (it will start about 6″ from the ceiling) otherwise its going to be teeny and look so weird.
Oh and we got our concrete bill. We had no idea what we were in for when we started. The cutting alone came in at $5700. Sure…I’ll share my paper hyperventilating bag with you. Deep breaths.
Luckily when our fantastic contractor did our bids he had a few different categories that we were able to creatively move money around it.
Our demo and concrete budgets were allocated like this:
The first 2 columns are the bids and allocated budget. The 3rd column (in blue) is what the actual cost was, and the last column is what we still have available in those categories, so we’re doing alright, but its stressful when you see the numbers come rolling in, because honestly who wants to spend money on concrete cutting!? Tile is WAY funner!! Because we did almost all of the demo ourselves we were able to take that $3k and use it toward the massive cutting bill. Luckily, we still have about $5k in our demo/concrete budget which is good because we had a huge snag with our HVAC system. Not to leave you hanging but it deserves a post all its own.
Sometimes making decisions with all of the #mercperks feels a lot like a 400 lb person sitting on you so you can’t breathe and aggressively tapping your forehead until you can name 5 vegetables that start with the letter K.
Also, I’d love some feedback, because we’re doing video with the reno, I’m still trying to find my groove when it comes to posting on the blog. I feel like there are every day updates that maybe get clumped together and glossed over a little because they don’t have a video with them. Would you guys rather see larger updates like I’ve been doing or do you want the day to day and a video stuck in when its done?
The post Why Our Framing Bill Keeps Getting Higher and Higher…and Other Budget Updates appeared first on Vintage Revivals.
via Mandi at Why Our Framing Bill Keeps Getting Higher and Higher…and Other Budget Updates
