House Update #4

Construction has begun on our house! After much debate we finally chose a contractor based on a good reference from the structural engineer who inspected our home and drew up the plans for repairing the fire damage. As it turns out our contractor is not the greatest at keeping us in the loop during the repair phase. We have been trying to work with him to include some upgrades on our house including replacing the back deck with synthetic wood instead of redwood. We also wanted to replace the kitchen counters/floors while they were already tearing everything apart. Unfortunately the contractor was not answering our questions or even letting us know what was going on at the home so we decided to drive down and check in on our house. We were surprised to see the amount of work that had already been done: 

Here is the living room:

Another view of the living room

Living room

Kitchen still intact

All the carpet has been removed throughout the house

Basement where the side framing and first floor framing have been replaced

New deck is almost finished and is not synthetic! Luke was really mad about this because we specifically asked for synthetic wood to be used and they put redwood in.

All in all it was a frustrating visit that subsequently turned into a nightmare. Luke had a concern about a certain beam that we thought needed to be replaced and was not, so he emailed the structural engineer to double check. In talking with the engineer, it was discovered that the engineer had originally recomeneded that our kitchen floors and cabinets be torn out in order to replace the floors as he specified in his drawings. The engineer had even spoke with our insurance agent who was ready to pay for our new kitchen. Well... guess what?? The contractor found a way to replace the floors without having to tear out the kitchen. So no new kitchen for us after all. It was really disappointing. So much so in fact that we wanted to fire our contractor and find someone who was more on our side. It took a while, but everything blew over and now we're focusing on the finishing touches to the house such as the new carpets and and paint. It should look really nice when it is finished...even if we are stuck with the old kitchen.

Since we were in the area, we decided to stop by Garden of the Gods. This is my favorite place in Colorado Springs and I used to walk this trail almost every day when Jack was a baby. It was really fun to visit again with Lily.

Here is a recent video of Lily with the iPad. She has two favorite games to play, a drawing game, and a bug game. She is so excited by the bugs that sometimes she doesn't even play the game!