On October 28, I told you where we were with the fireplace replacement. A week and a half later, we now have an estimate for rebuilding the chimney so that it has four sides, not just three sides abutting the house with wood exposed within the existing “chimney.”
At one point, I said the best case scenario was the cost would double, and it would not be done before Thanksgiving. Ah, gentle reader, it is not the best case scenario. It will cost more than college tuition would. Not a year’s college tuition. A degree’s worth of tuition.
A revised estimate came with a big block for removing/replacing the chimney and no line items. As my beautiful wife is a government assessor (a line I use with all contractors now–we need clear break downs of everything), she wanted to see line items. Which basically was broken into “Marking an X, $1. Knowing where to put the X, $$$$$.” But: It did expose some sizeable gaps and miscommunications between the fireplace people (the top level contractors) and the construction guy (subcontractor to the fireplace people–the masons are subs to the construction guy). Apparently, although the demolition of the existing chimney makes it possible to connect the fireplace to the HVAC, it was not included in any estimates (the construction guy does not do HVAC and has no subcontractors that do). Apparently, nobody had any plans to close up our ceiling where the existing ducting was removed.
I was operating on a lot of trust. I thought they knew what they were doing, but I get the sense that they don’t often, or ever, encounter this many issues with their jobs. But now we’re riding herd on the fireplace company and want a total plan for the steps to be taken and the order of operations and who will do the work. I had not expected I would have to be the project manager, but so I am.
So, three times the expected cost and done by Christmas is now the best case scenario.
Oh, and to get to the chimney, they have to take down the safest part of our deck. So I’m taking bids on the deck replacement now as well, and it’s likely to come ahead of the roof replacement. Boy, it would be a nice time to have an income.
On the other hand:
- A BIOS/firmware update seems to have fixed my computer’s power loss problems. Knock on wood.
- A heating element arrived for the oven, unbent, and I installed it, so we do have an oven.
- The illness I had lasted about 24 hours. It came, I talked funny for an afternoon and evening, and then it disappeared. I’m sure the stress of the last month hasn’t helped, but I am feeling better.
I need to focus on the little things, I guess, since the big things are out of my hands.
You have my sympathy, Mr. Blandings.