Today we decided we really needed to pick a remodel firm; time is passing and we both start school again soon and won't have much spare time. I finally got tired of trying to gather more information about which remodel firm to go with and caved into Jeff's preference, Green Hammer.
I would say the main reason I gave in is because when we mentioned some of our reservations about hiring them, they actually offered us a guarantee that if we don't like their initial design work, they'll refund our first $2500. So, they have $2500 to convince us they'll get it right!
Craftsman Design and Remodel would have cost $6,000 if we had them design our remodel and then didn't have them do the work—and we wouldn't even own the plans to take elsewhere. So, I guess we'll give Green Hammer a try.
There's just too many projects we are hoping can happen before the rains, and we don't want to spend money on repairs and then end up ripping up the repairs next year when we remodel. I'm hoping we can get enough design work done that we can hire out those small bits this fall. Specifically, the roof over the driveway leaks. Probably because when they put on the new composite roof they didn't bother to reroof the back side; it is still an old metal roof. And clearly there is a bad junction between the two.
Also, the front steps leak into the basement. I'm hoping we can put in some less permeable steps up front, maybe concrete steps with a brick veneer, like in the picture.
If Green Hammer manages to send over contracts tomorrow without any stupid errors, we will presumably sign them and write our first check. I really hope this works out....
We are currently talking with the neighbor about some possible post caps for the fence posts. I'm hoping for something along the lines of copper caps or, even better, a french gothic cap like this, because then it would match the fence on the other side (that shared with the other neighbor).
We bought 34 pounds of peaches earlier in the week and today the fruit was finally ripe enough to can. We put up four pie fillings, one batch of jam, and a large batch of peach slices in jars. We should have finished them all, but we actually only managed to finish one full box and part of the other. Tomorrow morning we'll have to finish up canning the rest of the fruit before it spoils.
Jeff got a new toy in the mail today! (I thought I had ordered green, but it came and it's sort of a turquoise color. Oh well.)
Unfortunately, my ¼-inch bias tape has quite gone AWOL. I ordered it and I know I received it, but I spent over a half-hour looking and it is nowhere to be found.
We had wonderful rainy weather today, so painting was definitely off the task list. Instead, we turned our attention to indoor tasks.
I was surprised by how crooked that fabric was and I didn't do a good job getting the measurements exactly right. The shades are all about ¼-inch too narrow for the windows. I'm definitely not loving them, but they'll do for now. At least with the cooler weather, the upstairs is habitable again and we're hoping to sleep in this bedroom tonight.
I also managed to work my way mostly through ironing my William Morris fabric binge. (Just one big piece left!) I definitely have to stop buying fabric; I'm sick of ironing it. Time to sew some of it!
