Phase 1 Contract Signed

Final version (2.2) of the layout for the new master bedroom and bathroom.

We signed the contract to construct the new master bedroom and bathroom on December 6th.

Hooray!

After getting a couple of cost estimates (which were in the same general ballpark), we narrowed our choice down to the contractor that we liked the most and that had good references (TriStar Construction).

Even after we selected them, it still took several iterations of refining the cost estimate before we were ready to sign the contract.

Most of the iterations were related to things like finding a vendor that could supply the same wood siding currently on the house (as opposed to using Hardie-board) so that the new addition will blend in and look like it was part of the original house.

Now, TriStar is having architectural drawings made (based on the layout drawings we provided) to submit to the city to get the building permit. That process will take several weeks.

We are hopeful that TriStar will be able to begin actual work on the new addition in January. Weather permitting, they estimate that it will take around four months to complete the addition.

You say attic, I say Attica

The old (broken) attic access stairs, in the process of removal.

 One of the "infrastructure" projects that needed to be done on the fixer upper, was replacing the old, broken attic access stairs.

So, I went to Lowes and purchased a replacement. I opted for the aluminum stair variety because they were rated for heavier weight and because they were actually lighter than the wooden variety.

Normally, installing replacement attic stairs is a two person job. Given my recent experience, I would advise that you follow the "two person" recommendation. However, I had read through the installation instructions, and I had a pretty good plan for how I could install them by myself.

After I had taken out the old, broken access stairs (which proved to be as hard as installing the new stairs), I started executing my "self installation" plan.

In my defense, everything went beautifully with the plan. I was able to lift the new pull down stairs up into the attic through the empty hole using a scaffolding of multiple step ladders. After the new stairs were up in the attic, I installed the temporary cross braces that would hold the new stairs in the hole while I bolted them to the frame. Of course, to bolt the new stairs to the frame, you have to be up in the attic to lower the new stairs onto the temporary braces.

I crawled into the attic through the empty hole from my step ladder, lowered the new stairs onto the temporary braces and bolted them in.

Violia! The new stairs were installed.

However, that was about the point that I realized that I couldn't open the new stairs from inside the attic, because the temporary braces were in the way.

Luckily, I had my cell phone with me. I was able to call my oldest daughter's fiance that lives in a condo a few blocks away. Fortunately he was home and available to come over to the house and remove the temporary braces from the opening so that I could open the new access stairs and climb out.

Turns out, when I went back and looked at the installation plans, you are only supposed to overlap the temporary braces by 3/8", just enough to hold the stairs up by their frame and still leave enough room to be able to open the new stairs after you bolt them in. The devil is always in the details.

It was such a good plan ...up to the point that I imprisoned myself.

The newly installed attic access stairs.

A House of a Different Color

Paint samples on the house.

Now that I've completed scraping and priming the outside of the existing house, it's time to pick a paint color.

Zita and I had a general idea of the color that we wanted to paint the house. We had seen some other houses around town that we liked that were painted grey. Zita also had the idea of trimming the house in black.

Of course, when you get to the paint store (Sherwin Williams), there are about a thousand different colors of grey and black. Picking colors is not really my strong suit. Fortunately, Zita is quite good at that kind of thing. She fairly quickly narrowed it down to just a couple of different shades of grey and a single shade of black that she liked. However, looking at paint samples in the store and looking at them on the house itself are two different things.

Sherwin Williams sells "samples" of paint (just under a quart) for a small price that you can have mixed to your color choices. Then you can take the samples and paint them onto several different places on the house so you can see what they look like. It's surprising how different the colors can look on different sides of the house and in different light.

Once we had the paint on the house in several places, including on the brick, it helped us decide pretty quickly that the darker shade of grey looked the best.

Now, if the weather stays decent over the next few weeks (or months), all I have to do is paint it all over again, this time with top coat instead of primer.

Soon, we'll have a house of a different color.

Front porch freshly painted with new house numbers just installed (and silicon still drying).

It Pays to Shop Around

Chippers Tree Service taking out the hollow, rotting hackberry tree.

After the sticker shock I got for removing the trees, I decided to call a couple of other tree service companies.

I looked up tree services on Yelp for Denton and checked out their ratings. Fortunately, I found a couple of tree service companies that had high ratings and did work in Denton.

The first company was called Monster Tree Service out of Flower Mound.

They gave me a good price for removing the two trees that had to go (the pecan that was touching the house and the hackberry that was in the way of the new addition). He quoted me a price of $1,500 plus tax to take out the two trees and grind the stumps, plus he threw in removing all the brush piles I had accumulated from the trimming I had already done.

Unfortunately, they would not take out the rotting hackberry tree that also needed to go because he said their insurance company wouldn't let them work on rotting trees. Since his price we so good and they could get the two trees out before the deadline that our homeowner's insurance required, I told him to go ahead.

They did a great job and had the trees removed and the brush piles cleaned up within a couple of days from their initial visit to give me a bid.

All that I had left to worry about "tree-wise" was the hollow, rotting hackberry tree that really needed to come down too.

I went back to Yelp and looked through the tree service companies again. I found a comment on one company where a customer had mentioned that the company had removed a rotting tree for them. I called that company (Chippers Tree Service out of Irving) and they sent out their rep to give me a bid. Luckily, they handle rotting trees.

Also, on walking the property with their rep (Varo) we noticed that there were a couple of large branches hanging over our house from the other side of the lot and one other large hackberry tree on that side that was going to cause us problems when we put up our fence since it was way out of alignment with the other trees on that side. His bid to remove the rotten tree, the other large tree that was in the way of the fence, grind the stumps and remove the two large branches that were threatening our house from the other side of the lot was $1,900 plus tax.

I said "do it".

So in the end, after getting an initial bid of $7,000 plus tax to take the two trees that were in the way of the new edition and the rotting hackberry tree, I ended up getting all three of those trees removed, plus another hackberry tree in the way of the future fence, plus two large branches over the house, plus four stump grindings, plus all brush piles removed, for $3,400 plus tax (less than half the initial bid).

In addition, both the companies that I ended up using were licensed and insured (as was the first company) and very professional. Both crews worked efficiently and safely and were very friendly and customer service oriented.

Sometimes, it really does pay to shop around.