There has been some progress to report. I’ve finally come to accept the cost increases I reported in my last post.
We have hired a plumber to upgrade the water service to the 1 1/2″ required. Our contractor has worked through the final details of the permit, and we finally have the official permit. The police department will allow us to park our car on the street during construction. The contractor has finally given us a rough start date for the foundation work for the addition (in the next week or two). The project timeframe has been extended from 38 weeks to 1 full year.
We have received color samples for our kitchen cabinets. White (chantilly lace) for the outer cabinets, blue (watery) for the island.
We’ve been worried about our fruitless mulberry tree for some time, and our contractor confirmed our worst fears: it must be removed. Below is a photo showing a rough idea of the location of the addition. The outer line is the overdig. The inner line is roughly the outside of the addition. The tree trunk (just outside of view) is definitely in the way, so we’ll be removing the tree.
The entire back garden and path must also be dug up, so we will try to relocate as many plants as possible to other locations before work begins.
A final challenge we face is determining the grille patterns for the windows and door of the addition. These must be custom-made to match our existing grille patterns.
I documented the existing grille patterns on our home, and was astonished at the variety. The 1st and 2nd floor grilles tend to mirror each other. The sides and front/back have different patterns, as do the doors. And, special windows such as bathroom and basement windows have unique patterns. Our main doors are not original, and there is no way of knowing if they were built to match the originals.