Last Friday, Dec 13, the owner, Billy, his two construction supervisors- Stephen (a brother) and James, his "money man"- Danny (another brother), and the reps from his sub-contractors (Edgar-electrical, Arturo-plumbing, and neither one of us remembers the HVAC guy's name) all met at the house for a "get familiar with the project" walk-through.
After the initial walk-through, we looked over some of the plan pages, then their questions began. They were all good questions about either things on the drawings, things in the project specification, things they had thought of, etc. Lots of zinging around among topics. Fortunately, I think we had immediate answers for all of their questions so far and we'll handle any other questions as they arise.
When it gets time for the electrical, we will do a separate walk-through since the architect's drawings are somewhat confusing (which we understood when presented from the electrician's point of view). But since I know the existing electrical pretty well (we mapped the electrical panel, after all, and designed the big panel expansion project in 2000), it shouldn't be a problem. We don't want them removing our porch and patio's down lights in the soffits, for example, thinking that is what they are supposed to do (courtesy of the confusing drawings).
They all seem like people who know their stuff - and aren't afraid of homeowners who know theirs! They had some nice comments about how prepared we are (almost 100% of the product specifications have been ready since September and have been given to the contractor in spreadsheet form - there are only a handful of things that we have yet to pick for which they are responsible for procuring).
Saturday, we met with a couple from Baytown who looked at our former dining room table and chairs. They were originally primarily interested in the chairs (but would take the table off our hands, too) as he had recently purchased wood to make a dining room table. But they decided they liked the table pretty well, too. I sold her on why we had purchased it all those years ago, all reasons why it will make their family a great table for years to come. (Here is its very sturdy double-pedestal base, sans top.)
Sunday afternoon, the man brought his three sons, two trucks and a long trailer to load everything up. It was bittersweet to see it all go, but it doesn't fit in the new house and we needed to sell it. With their growing family (one son is already married), the matriarch was happy to have a table to seat all of the current family members with room to grow. With this change of ownership, the table has moved on to its next life stage.
We have the Elfa shelving pieces to finish packing up and moving out of the old house along with miscellaneous other small stuff. We should be able to get that done between now and Jan 6, even with our trip to the Liberty Bowl to watch Rice play (haven't missed a bowl in our lifetimes and don't plan to start now!).
The Old House remodel is scheduled to take approximately 16 weeks from commencement.
