Lights, Tile and a Pending Bid

It's Sunday night, the end of a weekend, which have become synonymous with house-goings-on.

We're in a bit of a lull right now. Not in the sense that nothing is going on, but we don't have anybody bearing down on us for critical decisions. Our Architect, Ryan, feels he's got enough information to get a pretty tight bid from our builder of choice, Mike Otto. Mike had his subs walk through the house almost three weeks ago and now we're just waiting for the results. Tuesday (3/24) is the day. We've got a meeting with Ryan and Mike to review the bid.

Ann and I seem to be a bit pessimistic. The low end of Mike's original ballpark bid was above our budget number. And while it's certainly possible he could come in on the low side, I doubt it. It's showing up to be a situation of either what do we cut out, or how do we get Mike to go lower.

Back to this weekend. We do still have some decisions to make, namely around Tile and Lighting. We're able to bid these out using allowances that assume we'll make selections within a certain price range. I think the tile selection is more elusive than lighting, but that's not simple either. At the core, we just need to find some pendants we like and be done with it. As with most things, easier said than done. The right combination of look, price and light output seems to be a challenge. We're taking a bit of an unusual approach to lighting in the bathrooms and are hanging pendants in front of the mirrors, so we've got a fair bit to pick out. We'll do things like find a light that "looks" cool, but at 3W, these LEDs aren't going to kick off much light. So, maybe these guys are better. But $260 a pop isn't cheap when you need 8 of them. And on it goes.

The lighting trip was fine, I suppose. We eliminated a few and we'll call that progress for now. Next up on Saturday was tile. We've actually got some tile picked out and I'd post links... if they existed. The tile world doesn't seem to be online yet. So, we went a looked, and looked, and looked. Only two stores, so not bad, but with tile, we confirmed what we liked but didn't really narrow the gap for what we needed. Slate. That's the direction right now... it's just a matter of which ones.

And how to break the stress!? Demo!! Yes, more has come down since my last foray with the hammer. I took done several closets and consolidated my many piles of wood paneling. On the South side of the house, instead of three rooms in succession, I now have one. And when you walk in the front door, rather than closets to your right, you can now walk right into the bedroom there. Good stuff. I so want to go in and do more, but I've got electricity in my way. And my track record with the stuff ain't to good. I suppose I just need to cut the juice, cut and cap and I'm good to go. Easier said than done. That's the next task though.

I'm not sure whether any more of this demo is actually worth while. But, I'll say it's fun! Since I've got no building skills, I might as well partake in some way.

That's enough rambling. I'm trying to figure out how to get back out for more demo, but work is getting in the way. Damn work.