Thursday, October 12 (A penny saved...)

A couple of weeks ago, I went to get pricing on granite from a recommended vendor. Since it's just a single long, straight counter, I was hoping to get a single piece of pre-fab to save money. Unfortunately, the counter is too long, so I would have had to get two pieces. For the granite I wanted (Santa Cecilia), the material would have cost $820, before installation (which is the costly part of installing granite). Since the counter is one of the latter parts of the project, I put it on the backburner until this past Tuesday. I got a Greensheet and called a granite fabricator - the one with the largest ad first. His price/sq.ft sounded good, so I scheduled a time to meet for a bid.

To my surprise (and his), we are both Vietnamese! I immediately started chatting away in our native tongue, hoping "my peeps" would not let me down on the bid. After taking measurements, Danny gave me price of $850 for the material and installation. Moreover, he would do a custom fabrication with a single piece of granite (i.e., no seam), add bullnose trim on the edge, and cut a hole for the sink. I was very happy with the price, but the "little Jimmy" (not the cricket) on my shoulder told me I needed to ask for a discount. Danny knocked off $50 and said he would charge an even $800; he even apologized for not being able to give a larger discount. He usually gives more of a discount to Vietnamese clients, but since the job was so small he didn't have as much flexibility. I saw samples of his work, and it's really well done. Hopefully, my counter will turn out as I anticipate so that I can use him for future jobs.

Also on the saving money front, the bid to tile the kitchen was way too high - $1000 just for installation and probably another $500 for the tile. While I was going through my to-do list and thinking about how I needed to find another tile person to see if I could get a better price, I had one of those light-bulb moments. Hmmm, I wonder what's under that nasty linoleum? I pulled it up, and lo and behold, it's the same wood floors that are in the rest of the house. I called Cristofer (the person doing my floor refinishing) to see if he could bid on the kitchen and breakfast room since it wasn't part of his original bid. I met him this morning, and he can do both rooms, including removal of the linoleum and new shoe molding, for $425. Sweet! Side note: Cristofer has a bit of a reputation for being an asshole, but I have to say he's been great to work with. Very polite and friendly, punctual, and accommodating on times I can meet.

The painters are making good progress. Because of the wet weather, they've been working on the interior. Kevin gave me a good suggestion on some of the exterior window trim. After scraping, the trim still looked "alligator-y". Rather than sanding down to bare wood (which would leave the wood still not looking new and would cost a good amount of extra money), he suggested I have Jesse just replace the trim. For $140 (materials/labor), I was able to replace the trim on four sets of windows. Jesse knocked it out in a couple of hours , and it looks great. Kevin also pulled me aside and said the sheetrockers did a great job - one of the best he's seen on any of his jobs. I thought Tomas did great as well, but it's good to hear it from someone with much more experience in these things.

The house looks amazing now that the interior trim has been painted. I'm so pleased, I can't even tell you how much. It just looks so different - a completely different house.