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Post by Kimby on Dec 19, 2022 1:55:19 GMT
Pretty exciting, casi!
Are the builders able to offer an estimate of how long the whole project will take? You must be getting so impatient!
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Post by casimira on Dec 19, 2022 22:28:48 GMT
Pretty exciting, casi! Are the builders able to offer an estimate of how long the whole project will take? You must be getting so impatient! It's difficult to say and I doubt that if I asked, I would be told what I already suspect. It depends on a number of variables. Weather being the #1. Then, supply chain issues, availability of certain items e.g., appliances and other amenities and goodness knows what else. I think Mark could probably expound on this more having had a new house constructed in recent years. My ballpark guess would be 6 months but, that's truly just a guess. As far as being impatient, I surrendered some months ago as it dragged on and resigned myself to the fact that I am powerless over the process and getting bent out of shape or impatient serves me no other purpose other than putting me in a bad mood and a state of constant irritability and depression. It is stressful but, I need to remind myself to get some gratitude for what we do have, a crew of incredibly talented craftsmen, designer, and community support save the psycho neighbor that we are dealing with through our attorney. I don't even allow myself to get too excited because when I do something backfires and lets me down. I just tell myself "this will happen" and fantasize about the giant party we are going to throw when the time comes. (And, making merry very loudly for psycho neighbor to hear us!!) Also, despite living in a "shoebox", being tenants under someone else's thumb so to speak we really did luck out with being offered this place which is only blocks away from the site, being allowed to have our two animals here with no deposit, knowing just about everyone in this particular neighborhood and those that we have met since being here. The support and generosity have been enormous. And, that also includes the good people of APIAS! I think that just about sums it up.
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Post by bixaorellana on Dec 19, 2022 23:31:53 GMT
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Post by Kimby on Dec 19, 2022 23:40:34 GMT
Very sensible attitude, Casi. Don’t know if I could be so patient. Our house took 6 months to build in 1986. The lake cottage took more than a year. Our neighbors at the lake had to wait 2 years for their house to be finished. I imagine my Florida neighbors will also have a very long wait to move back into their hurricane-wrecked homes.
I hope your project goes much more quickly, but shop for appliances asap, to avoid supply chain issues.
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Post by onlyMark on Dec 20, 2022 7:05:00 GMT
I think Mark could probably expound on this more having had a new house constructed in recent years. We didn't have it done from start to finish in one go. We had parts done when we had the money - which means it took in total six years. It would have been quicker, and probably cheaper, to knock the whole thing down and re-build as a new place, but we knew there would be many pitfalls obtaining a new build licence rather than a renovation licence. We started with a UK builder who could neither give accurate, or even semi-accurate time or cost estimates. He as sacked after the first part was tackled. We then moved to a Spanish builder who gave an accurate time estimation, or at least within about a week or so, but the main thing for us is he would quote a price and it was fixed. No matter the risk of things going wrong or changing in price, the cost was the cost. This was a godsend for budgeting purposes.
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Post by bjd on Dec 20, 2022 8:28:23 GMT
It looks as though building a house is a combination of finding the right people and luck and it sounds as though you have the right people, Casi, so I hope it all works out and you'll be in your house by late summer.
Speaking of construction, one of our walks in town takes us past a place where there was a large empty lot with lake frontage but close to the centre of town -- $$$! Anyway, in early 2019 we saw that a house was being built there -- the foundations were put in and a couple of walls went up. Then nothing for months. The building equipment was removed, weeds overran the place. The man next door to the place told us the mason had gone bankrupt. After months and months of nothing being done there, we saw new signs up and finally some work started. On our many walks past, sometimes there were builders, sometimes not. About 2 weeks ago, we saw that someone had finally moved in, even though it doesn't really look finished and the garden is just fenced in with some chickenwire and concrete posts -- the same lot separations as those in our subdivision in the late 1970s.
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Post by kerouac2 on Dec 20, 2022 11:25:48 GMT
Today is Kylian Mbappé's 24th birthday. He is a long way from retirement, but he earns 91 million euros a year.
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Post by casimira on Dec 20, 2022 16:18:31 GMT
Thanks Mark and BJD.
I have seen several renovations and new construction projects abandoned midway or in the final stages and one immediately deduces that the owners have run out of money. In some cases, projects come to a halt because they hired a construction company who scammed them. Mostly because the owners did not do their homework and hired a company because the bid they received was low and it is all about not wanting to pay more for quality work.
In our case we really did our homework and everything kinda fell into place. There is one contractor we know, and we had always admired his work including a home for himself and family. I called him well before the fire as we were planning a renovation. He told me he wasn't taking on any new projects because he was involved in building a home in Puerto Rico where his wife owned property she inherited.
I then asked him if he were to hire a contractor who would he use. He gave me the name of our current contractor. He even said "hands down", and no one else save one other guy. He forewarned us that this guy would be pricey, but his work was so professional, and he was scrupulously honest and did not cut corners etc.
As soon as we contacted him and met with him did we discover that some of his jobs included two particular homes we were intimately familiar with and one project that involved merging two adjacent properties and the result was an amazing feat of brilliant proportion and aesthetically pleasing. Very fine details and respect for the architectural integrity of the home's historic value. When we learned that he was the one we immediately contracted with him.
From there we hired an architect who had teamed up with our contractor on several prior projects.
I could wax on and on about how pleased we have been working together with the whole team. There was only one guy who was involved in the demo phase and he made off with some salvageable items of value to us, but we dealt with that.
So, the adage that you get what you pay for is the bottom line in who you hire. There have been some invoices that I have initially reacted to with "ouch". but, when I examine them closely, I am then able to say
okay, that was a particularly major feat given all that it involved. A perfect example was the most recent phase involving the prep work for the foundation and then the actual pouring of the concrete etc. It was a major production and the company involved was so organized and we marveled at the precision entailed and how they pulled off some particularly potential harrowing disasters. (how they were able to maneuver the boom on the truck pumping the concrete and avoiding the many, many utility wires and cables running from adjacent houses without incident.)
As far as being in the new home by the end of the summer BJD, as much as I would love for this to be the case, if we are not in there by my 70th birthday (November 8th), and you don't see me on here, you may have to google New Orleans local news and look for a headline that reads something along the lines of "Carrollton Woman Goes 'Round the Bend" with a visual of me handcuffed in front of the unfinished house.
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Post by fumobici on Dec 20, 2022 19:24:30 GMT
I'd like to do a thorough renovation of our house here but the last thing I want to do is deal with sleazy construction contractors who know they have their client's balls in a vice. If I could get a fixed-price contract with them paying me a few hundred dollars cash daily for every day it went past promised completion date, I might change my mind. I don't want to hear their blackmail, whining, blaming others, and excuses.
edit: We did have a crew of Mexican carpenters do a great job building a new utility room and carport on-time and on-budget a few years back, but it felt like we used up a lifetime's worth of good fortune on that one.
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Post by casimira on Dec 21, 2022 12:41:22 GMT
I hope you are able to accomplish your goal Fumoobici.
HAPPY SOLSTICE GOOD PEOPLE!!
WISHING EVERYONE A HEALTHY, SAFE, PROSPEROUS, PEACEFUL AND JOYOUS NEW YEAR.
THANK ALL OF YOU FOR YOUR SUPPORT AND KINDNESS.
XX CASIMIRA
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Post by bixaorellana on Dec 21, 2022 15:56:09 GMT
Thank you, Casimira and all the same to you! fumobici ~ did you all feel any of the Eureka earthquake up there in Bellingham?
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Post by onlyMark on Dec 21, 2022 15:59:17 GMT
Difficult to know where to put this on the forum as it may fit in a number of places. Nevertheless, today marks the day that the man who invented Chicken Tikka Masala died. In Glasgow. "Ali Ahmed Aslam is said to have come up with the dish in the 1970s when a customer asked if there was a way of making his chicken tikka less dry." www.bbc.com/news/uk-scotland-glasgow-west-64055639
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Post by fumobici on Dec 21, 2022 16:08:22 GMT
Thank you, Casimira and all the same to you! fumobici ~ did you all feel any of the Eureka earthquake up there in Bellingham? No. Even relatives in NoCal didn't.
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Post by bixaorellana on Dec 21, 2022 16:12:27 GMT
Great! & thanks for the information about Northern California. I have a brother in San Francisco and a sister in Petaluma, but was waiting for it to be a little later there time before I called to check on them.
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Post by casimira on Jan 6, 2023 13:29:21 GMT
HAPPY TWELFTH NIGHT!!!!
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Post by bixaorellana on Jan 6, 2023 20:29:31 GMT
May you have a blessed Epiphany, my sister in Christ.
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Post by mickthecactus on Jan 6, 2023 20:55:14 GMT
Eh?
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Post by bixaorellana on Jan 6, 2023 22:08:01 GMT
(I grab my chuckles where I find 'em.)
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Post by mickthecactus on Jan 6, 2023 22:13:09 GMT
I was worried that you had got religion..
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Post by bixaorellana on Jan 6, 2023 22:13:52 GMT
Bless you, my son.
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Post by kerouac2 on Jan 6, 2023 22:20:22 GMT
Here it is just a matter of how many galettes des rois you have to eat. France is totally disconnected from religion but not from food, so they will sell these things at least until February.
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Post by bixaorellana on Jan 6, 2023 22:22:37 GMT
*sigh* That is the kind of king cake that I want to eat.
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Post by casimira on Jan 7, 2023 13:25:11 GMT
There are some restaurants/bakeries here in NOLA that offer up the traditional French version pictured by Kerouac.
Some are excellent, others mediocre.
We had the NOLA traditional brioche like king cake with the tri-colored sugar atop. (there are a gazillion versions of the cake, some so OTT with different fillings etc. "Gilding the lily").
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Post by mickthecactus on Jan 9, 2023 17:35:50 GMT
My Dad’s birthday. 111 today.
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Post by bixaorellana on Jan 9, 2023 17:59:27 GMT
Happy birthday, Mick's dad!
You had kind of an older father, Mick. Mine would only be 104 and he was almost 30 when I was born.
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Post by mickthecactus on Jan 9, 2023 18:03:03 GMT
Yes, he was 36 when I made an appearance.
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Post by bjd on Jan 9, 2023 18:57:53 GMT
My Dad’s birthday. 111 today. Does that imply that he is still alive? Or do you just remember him more on that date?
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Post by mickthecactus on Jan 9, 2023 19:53:54 GMT
My Dad’s birthday. 111 today. Does that imply that he is still alive? Or do you just remember him more on that date? Oh no. Long gone. We just always remember him on his birthday.
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Post by kerouac2 on Jan 9, 2023 20:00:59 GMT
I remember my grandmother on her birthday and she is 125 now.
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Post by bixaorellana on Jan 9, 2023 22:35:21 GMT
Both of my grandmothers were born in late 1899, meaning that they were always @ as old as whatever year it happened to be. I.e., my paternal grandmother was 44 when she died in 1944, and my maternal grandmother was 94 when she died in January of 1994. Both would be 123 this year.
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