A lot has been accomplished in a short amount of time on the second floor. On Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday, the three contractors fixed up the drywall (mud and primer), laid the bamboo floor, hung doors, installed trim and finished painting one of the rooms. Was all of this work within my abilities as a DIYer? Probably. I did get a little overwhelmed when it came to patching the subfloor, but, as it turns out, it wasn’t a difficult fix. However, had I finished upstairs a couple of years ago, my efforts would have been wasted given the amount of structural repairs in the basement and on the main floor, so it is just as well that I had put everything on hold.
Could I have finished the second floor myself now? Sure. Could I have done it in a week? Working alone? Probably not. I could have saved a few thousand dollars by doing it myself, but I would have never finished it in a week. And there comes a time when one has to factor in how much one’s time is worth.
The bamboo floor in our daughter's room
Entry door and bi-fold closet doors in the guest room.
By the end of Friday, we should be able to start moving some stuff upstairs. We’ll likely hire a mover early next week to retrieve a number of things from our storage unit.
So, what’s left now?
Here we are, in the “whatever week it is, I lost count” with the end in sight. Yet despite being able to see the light at the end of the tunnel, it doesn’t seem to be getting any closer.
- The upper cabinets and hardware need to be installed in the kitchen.
- The kitchen tile needs to be laid.
- The granite counters need to be installed in the kitchen.
- The hall tile also needs to be laid.
- The drywall in the hallway on the main floor needs to be finished.
- There is also plumbing (in the kitchen and the basement) that needs to be finished.
- The in-floor heating, baseboard radiators, and rads in the basement all need to be connected.
- The front and back doors need to be hung.
- Carpeting needs to be installed on the stairs.
Budget? What budget?
Before we started, we were given a ballpark figure for the renovation and an approximate time of completion. Of course, I knew at time that the estimates weren’t even close to being realistic, and I doubled both of them. We have since surpassed my estimates. Worse than that, I am starting to get a little worried about whether we will have enough money to finish the project. The one thing I keep telling myself, as I see my dream of a new garage slipping farther and farther into the future, is that we are at least paying for the renovation with money that we have. We have not taken on any consumer debt, or added any amount to our mortgage. That in and of itself is a relief. The stress I feel now will not linger past the time when these renovations are completed.
