Trimming the Budget

After we sorted through all the permutations of trim that we could think of and consulted the trim recommended by our esteemed architects, we made our selections and waited for the bids to come back.

 

They were …. breathtaking.  The numbers were too high to fix by haggling over price.

After studying the bids for a while, the culprit became clear.  Almost half of the bid amounts were for door and window casing, so the solution was pretty obvious:  simplify the casing.

This is basically what we started out with.

A simple bead and a back band were simply too expensive.  We did a few quick calculator tricks and figured out that if we went back to the door trim I was initially drawn to:

we were magically back within the budget.

My only question was if going from one to the other

would look ok on a two panel door.  I found some reassuring images and away we went. 

(Okay, eggplant walls aren’t that reassuring. For more reassurance, see this)

And speaking of those two panel doors,  some of them were delivered today, so I had my wee tiny son try them out for size.

Seeing him in the frame of this 6’8” door made me glad that we had decided to go with 7’ doors in the upstairs and the basement.

He didn’t seem to like the 6’8” door,

but the 7’ door was juuust right.

It was kind of like Goldilocks only he’s more like one of the bears.

And speaking of just right, the floor to the porch started going on.

I’m so excited to be able to walk out on the porch at last, and I think the floors and the fireplace look great

The fireplace is just the right height for sitting but not too big to arrange some porch furniture around.

I had to run down and see how the v-groove effect looked through the floor joists from below.

I think it’s an awesome “ceiling” for the party pavilion/carport.

It was all made possible by Gary’s inventive idea to flash the edges around the brick and use the 2x6’s for the floor boards.

Pretty flashy, huh?