Day 198 - more updates

Today we were very busy and didn't have time to go out to the land. It was a beautiful day, and the crew was working at the house. We hope that most of the crew was able to work today and make good progress. It is forecast to rain from now through to Wednesday (it's just started raining now).

Other updates from the meetings I posted about on Day 194:

• * We picked up the exterior locks from Preston Hardware. We actually only ended up having to buy one extra lock in order to do the split finish. So that was really good.
• * The California Closets lady came by on Tuesday and gave us a quote for the closets in the master bedroom. It was quite a bit higher than we had expected. Given the trend for some of the major expenses (i.e. over-budget), it seems unlikely that we will be able to get a fancy setup like that. Although California Closets started with a young guy and a truck in California, it is now a Canadian company. (surprise surprise!)
• * We didn't have a budget review as planned on Wednesday evening as Charles hadn't completed the expense computations, etc. I did a very rough calculation and guestimated that we have already used up our entire contingency allocation. We talked about the stone work. Conrad's labour estimate is 50% higher than our actual budgeted amount for the stonework, and that's without the material cost! So that quickly blew the lid off the contingency.
• * We have rebooked the fireplace appointment (I think the new appointment is next Wednesday).
• * Today our new snowblower was delivered. It's a Bolens, so that means it is green with a cream coloured auger. As far as I can tell, the colour is probably the only thing that distinguishes it from the other brands manufactured by MTD. The other MTD brands are Cub Cadet, Troy-bilt, Yard-Man, Yard Machines, Bolens, White Outdoor, McCulloch, and Cub Cadet Commercial. MTD doesn't make a snowblower in all of these brands.

When Charles was here on Wednesday, he gave us a list of homework:

• * Plumbing fixtures: as noted on Day 194, we have an appointment at Mondeau to review our fixture list before ordering. We wanted to do this anyway to make sure it is all correct, but the guy at Mondeau insisted on it. We will place the order on Monday.
• * Exterior door hardware: as noted above, we have picked this up. This means that the doors can be locked and the house can be secured once all the doors are installed.
• * Garage doors: we have narrowed the field down to two people, and have a couple more questions for one of the suppliers just to make sure we are comparing the same things.
• * Light fixtures: we have selected all of these products, and will order them in late November/early December.
• * Flooring: we have selected all the flooring, and will have a meeting with Mike Burley (of Burlco flooring) in a few weeks.
• * Cabinets: we have selected the cabinets. Once the interior partitions are in place (drywall doesn't have to be installed), Heinz will come out to the house and take accurate measurements so he can build the cabinets to the actual dimensions (which always differs from the planned dimensions).
• * Propane supplier: we need to find one!
• * Communications: need to call 310-Bell to get some cable delivered. Also need to get some coax to hook up the cable (although we may get a satellite dish).

So the only things we need to do (that we haven't done or are in progress) are select a propane supplier and get the communications cable.

We also need to do some research for a chain link fence installer, and Freda is thinking about the paint colours.

So many details.... we are sooo glad we made most of our selections a long time ago.