Heard a new term this past weekend - scope creep - the art of expanding your original renovation plans to add new and wonderful (and expensive) things to your project. I assured the person who mentioned this lovely new term that scope creep was unlikely given the sheer scope of this project - I keep saying renovating, we are gutting - so how much more can we do, one must ask?
Well, I think I have a problem with scope creep. Spent some time in the backyard today, first time in months, examining our stand-alone garage. Aside from the small fact it needs to new stucco, new paint, and a really good cleaning, I have always thought that while we are it, we should shuffle the thing back 8 feet. Our backyard is fairly small and the 8 foot gap at the back is used to simply hide things like the splash pool or the sand box - couldn't we just move the whole garage back, put in better storage inside the garage and have a bigger, more useful backyard? My husband thinks I am crazy! [My father things it is a brilliant idea.]
I also was scurrying about the house this morning getting Deckie (home sick today) ready to go the midwife appointment and notice the condition of the bedroom doors. Our contractor, in his initial quote, had planned to save many of the solid wood doors in this house to conserve a few pennies. I am not sure it will be such a great idea to keep these doors - our door has heaved and split, and Kathleen's door is peeling badly and 'chipping' wood. I swear every door in this house must have at least 10 odd coats of paint (lead paint, somewhere in there, given the age of the house). How much can 8 need bedroom doors costs, anyways?
The contractor is on his way over today to hand-off the lovely contract. We are probably making our first mistake and signing on the first contractor (and only) contractor we ever met. Our architect does like him a lot (but then again we were referred to the architect by the contractor) and says there are only three reliable contractors in our little 'hood'. Husband does golf with the guy and knows many people at the golf course who have used his company to renovate their houses. His signs are up everywhere in this neighbourhood - most jobs are much bigger (and costlier) than ours so he does have an excellent reputation. He has also been wonderful so far (who isn't, I know, before you sign on the dotted line!) - coming by to explain the process, providing initial quotes, taking us through other jobs he has done, and even working on finding us a place to live. We would otherwise go with someone we don't know. Lesser of two evils?
The other good bits o'news - our Committee of Adjustment meeting is set for May 17 (hopefully the neighbours and the Committee take pity on my big belly at that time!) and the contractor is ADAMANT that this project will only take 7 or 8 months. We could move out in September and be back in April!
I refuse to even contemplate the cost at this point.
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