The ball is rolling

Yesterday was a big day for us in moving towards getting back in our house. We've decided (ok, we're 90% sure) to go with our neighbor, who is a contractor, to remodel the house. He came over yesterday and was at the house for over three hours. That was the first thing that impressed me about him. Aside from that, he thinks outside of the box. He's not just your general contractor who will install sheetrock, carpet, cabinets, etc. He's also a builder, so he has the knowledge and the "eye" for certain looks. And I loved that about him. For instance, in the master bath, he says to me, "What about an arch above the tub?" Um... I had never thought about that before. Simple, yes, but a great way to class up the bathroom a little. The other thing that I am very excited about is the ceilings. We wanted to get a quote on what it would take to sheetrock the ceilings (the current ceiling in the living / dining room is that old-school, 70's, particle board type tile, that I hate). He got up in the attic and looked around, and says, "There's nothing really for us to stick the sheetrock to, but why don't you just open this up and make this a vaulted ceiling? You have all the boards here, and it wouldn't take much. We do this type of thing all the time." Hello?!?! A vaulted ceiling!!! Holy cow! Who knew? Not to mention, he's going to be able to drop the floor in the back room rather easily (which we weren't so sure about). It was like that throughout the rest of the house. But he wasn't over the top. He knows that we don't have all the money in the world (otherwise, he'd be building us a new house rather than remodeling this one), but he knows what little things to do that can make a big difference. And, while we were there with him, he got his electrical / HVAC trades guy (who happens to also own one of the best A/C businesses in League City) to come to the house to look at the electrical and HVAC since we have to replace all of that as well.

So, we're pretty sure we have a contractor in place. Now all we need are the building / construction permits. But that's a whole separate issue that I won't go into right now. I'm just happy that the ball is rolling (albeit slowly). I did get a homework assignment out of all of this... I need to figure out what look I want in the house. I have lots of decisions to make, everything from cabinet door fronts and countertops, to what type of wood beams, and from windows to french doors. Decisions, decisions... I'll be looking at a lot of magazines in the near future.