They are not planning to live here. They are currently staying in their daughter’s other bedroom while her roommate is on vacation. On Monday I think they are going to look for a short term rental. They’re hoping to move in October. Luckily I’m not getting pressure on when exactly we will be done. Kitchen cabinets haven’t been ordered yet so we are at least 4 weeks out.
The issue was more of extreme underestimating on everyone’s part. Daughter only hired one rental Budget moving truck and told a bunch of guys only one trip. After 8 hours of loading and unloading , only 1 truck load made it and both bedrooms packed to the ceiling. It took 2 full days and 3 truck loads. We spent most of the afternoon clearing garage, cleaning garage and getting ready for an onslaught of the final truck with even more ‘important’ storage cabinets packed to the gills.
Here’s an example…look outside in your yard and back patio. Over half of a truck is now piled in back by the pool. 8 huge boxes full of yard and gardening stuff. They showed up with 3 lawn mowers for one small strip of grass.
When my parents downsized 3 years ago, it took my aunt and I over three weeks to make a dent in the junk that had accumulated; my parents did what they could. When it got closer to the time for the estate sale people to come look, they were able to help us with what would sell and what needed to be giving away. My father was actually going through his file drawers, one piece of paper at at time, while the moving truck was in the driveway! Some items came to my unfinished basement as my mother had things she couldn’t part with.
Fast forward to our downsize a few months ago; we dumped anything and everything we hadn’t used recently; this including 9 pairs of the kids roller skates Not really sure why we kept those after they outgrew them, by with an unfinished basement, it was easy to just toss them there.
As @coralbrook said, start the purge now so your children won’t have to do it for you later!!
I hate to ask the “elephant in the room” question…but where is all of this crap,going to go when the remodeling is done? If it’s floor to ceiling in two bedrooms…there won’t be room for the three storage pods of crap too.
And really…all that paper…is a fire hazard. Tell that to the husband.
Oh yes, she was all proud of herself. Gave away 2 file cabinets out of the 6 they had. Four more are buried somewhere in the bedrooms. I think the “downsize” didn’t sink in. They think they are moving just to get into a single story.
Their daughter needs to have a chat with them…they are paying a pretty penny for a remodel…just to cram it full of stuff?
My inlaws had all that stuff. They couldn’t move in the hallways with all,the stuff…when one needed a walker…so,they had to move to a bigger house. Because god forbid they get rid of the stuff.
I have loaded some photos of our progress last week.
Entryway Vaulting - everything is complete, including having to rewire most of the lines down into the switches for the entryway because they were not grounded properly. Sides and ceiling are framed. Today the drywall will get installed to button it all up so we can quickly get it mudded, sanded and painted. “Nothing happened here”
Kitchen Beam was delivered on Thursday and by Friday afternoon we had the beam raised up and all the structure and metal supports completed. We were able to get it up into the attic with minimal drop beam down from the finished ceiling.
Paint crew is almost done. Thank goodness I convinced them to paint up the trim in white!
Still fighting a battle with scraping off the old glue that was underneath ancient lineolum tiles. Tiles came off OK, but the glue is a nightmare to try to scrape up to get smooth floors for the new wood flooring to be installed.
We finalized the kitchen layout. Don’t have a way to load that up, but I’ll try to print it out and scan it to a jpg for loading into Flickr.
Very helpful…of course we didn’t research best ways to get rid of the mastic. We’ve been soaking with water and scraping. Didn’t try any adhesive remover.
The owners were adamant they wanted cherry color kitchen cabinets. But we also need cabinets as soon as possible to get the owners back in the house . We cannot afford the luxury of ordering standard cabinets to arrive 6 weeks from now. It has been very hard to find cherry color cabinets from any vendor. The owners ended up at some retail type RTA store up in the Miramar area.
I called the store to give them my design and list of cabinets. I was told “you need to make an appt for measurement at your house, then we will make an appt for a design consultation, then we will do the total install”. I tried to beg them to just let us buy the cabinets.
So, I make an appt today and go into their store. Thank goodness they trusted my measurements so I can avoid the nonsense of someone coming to the project with a tape measure. They copied my design into their computer. $14,000 for cabinets and $2,800 for install. To me that is highway robbery!!! But none of my business because that is the cabinets they want.
He shows me the cabinets they selected. He tells me he is being paid to tear out kitchens in that style. They are a cheap looking orange red with very traditional ridged raised panel and dark ‘staining’ in the ridges. I think some of the doors may have been arch design. On top of that they want traditional orange red brown busy granite for countertops.
The owners met me there to review design and pay for cabinets. I gave it one last stab at showing them some other cabinets in different styles and colors. They had a gorgeous modern raised panel style in a subtle matte charcoal. Kind of a stained ash, not painted. They were gorgeous. They said yes!!! We avoided the dated kitchen before it even went in.
Believe me…both of the entire bathrooms need to go
He’s going to install fancy Toto toilets in the old bathrooms with chipped and worn cabinets that have a musty smell. Not to mention the fake marble plasticky countertops
Haha…funny you mention hammer accident. On three previous projects the gorillas have managed to have hammer accidents on brand new installed toilets. Try replacing just the top of the toilet tank!!! Its impossible. I end up buying a whole new toilet
CB, those vanities are just atrocious. Bet it is the frugal wife who wants to keep them… just like carpets. I wonder how’s the plumbing under those fake marble sinks… maybe it needs updating?
Not really sure why we kept those after they outgrew them, by with an unfinished basement, it was easy to just toss them there.
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