A little more comprehensive update, so will spoiler things as I ramble about the project.
Received another Invoice / Draw request last week for Framing Lumber and Framing Labor. This was extremely close to budget, as in only $556 over on $117,000. Pretty crazy.
| Line | Budget | Invoice #2070 | Over |
|---|
| 5301 Framing Lumber | $63,118.74 | $63,675.23 | $556.49 |
| 5302 Framing Labor | $53,880.00 | $53,880.00 | $0.00 |
| Total | $116,998.74 | $117,555.23 | $556.49 (0.5%) |
There will probably be a supplemental framing invoice because we had to have them come back and clean up a few small things. We added a small pony wall to the top of the stairs instead of doing an exposed stair railing. We've also slightly tweaked a couple of walls. Like, since we are no longer doing the hidden door / murphy door closet it gave us more room to extend the utility closets on both sides. Pretty small stuff though.
If nothing else, it just shows that once you actually start walking through the space and looking at walls and flow, a bunch of small things pop up and seem really obvious. And good to have a builder that is flexible and understanding, not ridged and pushes back if it doesn't make any sense and won't be cost effective. We do ask stupid things too.
Also, for the gables, I think we've decided to keep the gable eave open. Run tongue and groove on the inside and wrap the outlookers in cedar. Couldn't quite get ChatGPT to render it exactly, but this is the general concept. It still won't really be visible from the street, but walking around the house and looking up into the front elevation it should be noticeable and look cohesive against the underside of the porch, which will also be tongue and groove with cedar.
Which brings up the other conversations from last week, roofing. Pretty sure we've settled on
CertainTeed Landmark Weathered Wood. We had like 9 samples stapled to the side of the house. But, also, we realized that we do have metal standing seam in the original budget. We had initially said we probably wouldn't do that on the porch. Because of the 3:12 pitch though, it makes more sense and if we're doing it on the porch we can also do it on the gable so they might both read as secondary roof structures and keep the main roof mass the shingle.
There's too much crap to coordinate and this is why you pay a designer to handle these things.
We had an interview with one based out of Canada that wanted like $48,000 to help. That included $28,000 of interior renderings that we probably wouldn't ask for. We really just want consultation and ideas to help with the coordination. But, even then, her company was asking for other things, and my wife really wants someone local that can come out with her. So, we're declining that offer for the time being.
The MEP walkthroughs were a lot. Around 8 - 9 hours total for discussions with Insulation, HVAC, Plumbing, and Electrician. Insulation was pretty straightforward; we changed some very small things like adding a bit of sound proofing here and there. Nothing that will break the bank. Plumbing wasn't too bad also; we had a pretty good lay out and understanding of where things are going. HVAC was kind of a mess. They had put vents where we were going to put can lights. They had a return in the ceiling right where you can see it from sitting in the living room. I'm still not sure how HVAC is going to turn out, it all seems like a big guess.
Electrician also had issues. Or maybe it is a framing issue. Either way, there are floor joists for the 2nd story right where we'd want can lights to be symmetrical and balanced. It is extremely irritating that this part wasn't planned out ahead of time and just really reinforces the level of detail that should be planned. This particular issue is in our master bathroom where we want 4" can lights centered above the vanities. But, directly above the center of the vanity is a floor joist so you can't just cut the joist and put the full can there. We can't really move the vanities because the cabinets are measured and the space / layout we want is decided. We could move to a flatter disk type puck light but then we won't get the dimming control or temperature control we want. Sort of the same thing with some switches. You just don't know until the framing is up that a spot you were going to put one can't be done for one reason or another.
Swerving into rambling territory. Just a lot going on at this stage trying to get everything in and ready for drywall! One positive and cool thing is that we are going to get porch heaters for the back. It was under $3,000 for two 61.5" Infratech to be installed between the joists and flush with the ceiling. Had ChatGPT do a potential render, we're both getting excited for this space and to make it useable more year-round. No joke it took me 4 tries to get ChatGPT to render this because it didn't understand that a "quad" slider has 4 doors. It kept putting 3 or 5.
View attachment 644252
Cad
mentioned as that's the norm in Japan. 
