Words from Master Dave: part four

Contractor to the House under the Rock: Part four 

From the contracting side of things, there’s been a little progress over the past week. The electrical panel is scheduled to be replaced next Friday at a cost not too far off the estimate I gave several weeks ago. I was worried that I had grossly miscalculated based on what my electrician was going to have to do, but after working through his estimate, it was apparent he had included many items for the kitchen and master suite upgrade. It should take him about a day to swap everything out, and it’ll put us in a great position to bring the rest of the house up to standards. 

Rebecca met with the structural engineer on Tuesday, and he is drawing up his plans for us and for the city. This also frees Rebecca up to design some spaces around what he considered key areas in the house—“…don’t move this…” and “…leave that alone if you can…” type of instructions. The best part is that we are one step closer to having a stamped set of recommendations for how we are going to accomplish the eventual floor plan, and one step closer to having something we can estimate. 

I’ll let Julie describe her shopping sprees, but I know she’s made some decisions on appliances and plumbing fixtures, all good progress. I hadn’t heard from Roger because he hates me—this is waaay too slow for him. I did look at his deck railing, however (news to him!) and have a fairly easy band aid fix to get him through the next several months, or at least until he gets a budget together to figure out how far to take the deck and railing. 
I got all my paperwork into the town of Castle Rock, so now I are a licensed contractor. In Colorado, every municipality has it’s own requirements for contractors which is both frustrating and expensive. In Douglas County, for instance, proof of insurance and a fee of $250 makes you a licensed contractor. (It should be noted that the license fee has been revoked by the county for the time being—perhaps making it easier to get permits?) Castle Rock requires the same insurance, but also a valid license in any other municipality requiring a test. Oh, and another $150. You know…for luck. Aurora tests, but does reciprocate with Denver, who also tests. But Denver doesn’t reciprocate with Aurora, so…well, you get the picture. 
Next step is drawings, estimates and submission to the city…