And so it grows

I know that the costs for these types of projects usually go beyond the initial budget. But ours increased by over 25%. In one day. Before the work has begun. Before the materials have even been ordered.

Here’s how it happened. We’ve been losing some sleep over all the little details that our initial budget didn’t take into consideration – building a wall to support the oven which will be installed at an angle, designing and building a support for the table top at the end of the island, patching the ceiling where the soffit is removed, etc. We’re also beginning to wonder how realistic it is to think that two working parents will be able to coordinate the sub contractors to make sure that the work flows smoothly and is done on time. It would be really nice to put all of this responsibility in the hands of a general contractor. So we got a bid from the company that is going to install the cabinets and now are leaning in that direction.

We had a plumber come out the other day to give us an estimate on extending a gas line from the pool heater about 12 feet to the kitchen. We always thought we were so lucky to have a gas line so close to the kitchen (we’re on a concrete slab, so to extend it from the water heater we’d have to go up through the walls and ceiling rather than under the floor). But it’s going to be much more costly than we thought – $2,800 which is more than twice the cost of the cook top. We wanted to see if someone else would bid it lower than the general contractor. The estimate was essentially the same. And the guy even told us that unless one of us was a stay-at-home parent, we would be crazy to try to do the whole project without a general contractor. Even then, he thought, it would still be best to hire a general contractor.