Morningside Renovation

Our Journey Through The Renovation Process Of Our Future "Forever Home" In Morningside (Atlanta,GA)

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Way Way Off

Being a fairly optimistic person I’m going to view the following as a positive step. They came back and re-graded today being that they were a little off in the needed depth of the foundation – 34 inches off!!!  How in the world does this happen?  Whoever is doing the measuring should be fired or find a new job.  At least it was caught. 

Received a funny call from our GC today, he wanted to know if we could let the plumber into the house, seems as if he can’t get his key to work (Julie at best is 104 lbs and has no problem, while he’s easily double her size). During the conversation he said that he’s only been inside when we were with him – that’s only twice and for whatever reason this seems concerning to me.


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Step Forward (baby steps count don’t they?)

Yeah, our GC said the plans were approved today by the city and are to be picked up tomorrow. Only a 10 day delay, we can handle that.

We’ve had a lot of rain lately and unfortunately some is accumulating on the hardwood floors in one of the bedrooms.  Seems that it’s coming in from the area covering what they demo’d.  Definitely concerning to see but when I told the GC he said that he would have someone fix the tarp and not to worry because it won’t hurt the floors, also that it’s common in these types of remodeling jobs. 

He also said that they’ll check the depth of the grading tomorrow (thank you), I’m curious to hear back about this because I truly don’t think that it’s deep enough for an 8′ finished ceiling which is noted throughout the plans and has been discussed numerous times.  He still can’t tell me when they’ll pour the foundation or lay the plumbing, my hope is soon.

Remember, originally we were suppose to be in the house in May, then July – now that isn’t looking too promising.  Are there really no schedules or timelines in residential construction?  This is starting to become pretty frustrating.


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Already Over Budget

Good news, our revised plans were submitted to the city today (a day later than we were told) so hopefully this holdup won’t last too long.  Still trying to get use to the residential construction world, it seems as if it’s more of a “it’ll get done when it gets done” mentality, a little different from what Julie and I are used to.

Get this, we were informed today that we’re already $2,000 over budget on cabinetry.    We haven’t even picked out our cabinets nor have we added any additional linear feet.  GC said that we will have to get creative on the kitchen cabinets; meaning get cheaper cabinets or we have to come out-of-pocket to get the quality of cabinets which were originally budgeted. 

How could this happen?  Oh, it seems our GC forgot to include the cabinetry in what is to be an office.  But those were in the original drawings and we’ve talked about them 100 times and you even stated in an email that you included them?  And didn’t we just talk about surprises?  A big reason why I wish we had gone over the plans and budget in more detail a week ago instead of being rushed through it.  Of course I asked him to double-check everything again to make sure that there are no additional surprises.

I just wonder if this extra expense should be our responsibility?  I’m thinking no and Hell No!


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Julie’s Having Fun

Today Julie was tasked with meeting our designer at Traditions in Tile in Buckhead for a preliminary look at all of the various tile choices and hopefully decide on a few options.  The two of them ended up spending the majority of the afternoon with a girl named Heather who Julie loved.  Amazingly Julie not only narrowed her choices, she actually decided on what she wanted!!   She was so excited showing me her selections that you couldn’t help but share in her enthusiasm .  Great selections and what’s even better is that she came in under budget!!  Fantastic Job and I love seeing her get so excited about the house as it’s been challenging lately with the various challenges.  Tile Box – checked!!!


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Not Sure What to Think

Ok, by now you can probably tell that I’m getting a little antsy about how everything has gone up to this point… as well as us getting in on time.  Originally we were supposed to be in our house by May, then June and now possibly July… so much for our July 4th party. 

One problem, per the agreement with our bank it needs to be completed by mid-July.  I’m sure they’ll be amenable to modifying the original agreement (more $$) but still…  I mentioned it to our GC and he says that “we’re on schedule” and that we should be in before our deadline. 

Trying really hard to have confidence, really really hard


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Positive Attitude

Ok, I’m trying to put the developments from the last few days behind me and focus on the big picture; the revised plans have been resubmitted to the City Planning Department so my hope is that it won’t be another 4 week delay.   We need to get this going, our GC hasn’t been very responsive and moving in by June is looking more doubtful – it kills me to see that nothing is happening at the house – it’s just sitting there with nothing be done.

Plans are to be submitted tomorrow, per our GC, so my focus needs to be on the overall objective and trying to keep Julie’s spirits up after all of the recent setbacks and delays.


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We Shall See

I met with our GC today at my office.  I’m hopeful that something was accomplished and that we’re on the same page however he didn’t take any notes and said a few times that “we’ll figure it out when we get to it” and that he’ll “give us plenty of time” with regards to advance notice in making decisions/selections. He didn’t stay very long, he said that he had another commitment.  He also couldn’t give me any sort of schedule or timeline, however I did give him a copy of the plans which Julie and I had marked up.  We shall see but I’m not feeling too good about it, just skeptical and disappointed – really wish that I could have discussed everything in more detail and not felt like I was under a time constraint or that we were such a bother.  Confused is probably also an accurate feeling, maybe I’m overreacting and this is how it’s handled with residential construction – but I sort of feel like we’re being held hostage. 

As for my concerns with the depth of the grading, he said that it was fine, still doesn’t make sense to me but then again I’ve never built a house before.  Guess that I’ll be doing some research on Renovator’s Place and Fine Homebuilding.  And thankfully I have a lot of wood to split, great way to take out my frustrations.


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Postponed

Our GC had to postpone our scheduled meeting until tomorrow – we’ve got to get back on track.  The last thing we want are delays and surprises…been told that’s not possible though with residential construction. 

We were also informed that we need to go ahead and decide immediately if we want an outdoor room on our deck so the concrete guys will know prior to pouring the foundation.  A little different from what we were originally told by our GC about being able to wait on deciding until after the deck is finished.

I’m really getting frustrated as it seems the wheels are slowly starting to come off.

On a positive note, a colleague of mine introduced me to a local company that specializes in selling floor models of Wolf and Sub-Zero appliances, XTRA Inventory.  Still might be out of our range but I can’t wait to see what they have in stock.  Love a good deal.