July 17, 2006

Finally, a plan

So, when last we saw our heroes, they were curled in the fetal position, sucking their thumbs, rocking back and forth, repeating mantra-like: “But we could buy a three-bedroom house in Buffalo for the cost of the master bathroom.”

We had a long meeting with Ms. Architect, consumed a lot of pizza, and drank a lot of beer (well, not me, I figured someone at the meeting should be sober, otherwise we’d end up with an elevator, a roof deck, and no bathrooms). We knew that we didn’t have enough money in our budget for what we had been planning to do. We’re fairly simple people, we weren’t looking to do anything fancy. On the other hand, we wanted to make our home as comfortable as possible, and comfort is expensive. Bathrooms are expensive. Organization (closets, pantries, built-ins, cabinets) is expensive. Convenience (laundry rooms, laundry chutes) is expensive. Air conditioning, kitchen appliances, fixtures, new wiring, new plumbing – all expensive.

We had some tough choices to make. We could do all four floors, but skimp on what was being done.

We could do two floors completely and totally the way we wanted them, and leave the rest until later. But which two? If we did the bottom two floors, then we wouldn’t have clothes closets or laundry facilities, and the two full bathrooms would be left as is (pretty ugly and fairly gross, but useable), and there would be a stinky old kitchen next to the master bedroom.

We could do the top two floors, giving ourselves three new bathrooms, laundry room, and all closets, but we’d basically be left without a kitchen (the one on the garden floor is unusable, but that must be just my opinion because the last residents of the house were indeed using it).

So what did we decide in the end? A little from all columns. We’re going to do the garden floor completely (the floor which will in all likelihood get the most use, but cost the most money), new kitchen and half bath and all. We will do the upper two floors most of the way, but only do the top bathroom (kids’ bathroom) for now, leaving the master bathroom and guest bathroom for some time in the future (although the guest bathroom will be demo’d and the plumbing roughed in; we can’t do that for the master bathroom because we’ll be using it for our temporary kitchen). We will put in window ac units in the upper two floors and leave all the radiators, with the intent of getting a ductless ac system for the entire house sometime in the future.

With the exception of a little demo, we will leave the parlor floor alone. This floor has no bathrooms or kitchen, and the main purpose of this floor will be for sitting and watching TV, playing piano, playing with the kids, and hosting delightful parties where we serve martinis and guests listen to a string quartet while nibbling delicate hors d'oeuvres served by tuxedo-clad waiters (the people who've been to our parties are having a good laugh right now). We can do all of these things in there in its present state (after a good cleaning, of course). So this floor will done at some time in the future – we have no idea when. This may work to our advantage regarding the details, too. If we did this floor now we definitely would not have the money to save most of the details. But in the future, who knows?

Everything outside, garden included, will be left for the future as well. But after this phase, three floors will be mostly done, and we will basically be able to live our lives without major disruption, just having a bathroom done here and there, and eventually clearing out the parlor floor and having that done too.

I feel good about this plan.

Posted by Amy at 11:59 AM | Comments (10)

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