A crowning achievement

Today was a pretty good day. A REALLY good day, actually.

We found a contractor named Jose from Golden Touch Painting through our dear friend Ashley, who could not speak highly enough about him. We met with Jose a couple times last week, and he was a really cool guy. He's just one of those people that you instantly like when you meet him. The best part of the whole thing is, they have a crew. Which is pretty freaking thrilling, considering that Andrea and I are used to one guy puttering around the place doing what he can or what he feels like doing. Those days are now over.

Jose and his crew are completing everything that isn't electrical. Finishing up the kitchen, hooking up the disposal, doing the backsplash, finishing the bathroom, doing all the trim for the entire house. They started this morning at around 9am. We came back at around 5 and pretty much all the crown molding, baseboard, quarter round, and beadboard trim is in place. Doors too. It looks absolutely amazing. I can't tell you how much better crown makes a room look. So, I'll show you. They say they are going to be done by Tuesday, which totally blows my mind. Given the amount of progress they made today, I have no choice but to believe them.

Meanwhile, Waylyn Morgan is doing the electrical for the whole house (probably a familiar name for those of us who are South Cobb alumni.) He's been pretty great so far, and I'm really glad we got an actual electrician to redo our old wiring. There were a lot of potential pitfalls we could have fallen into and never known about. There was a lot of incorrect wire that had been run (thanks, former contractor!), oven wire was too small for current appliances, two prong outlets everywhere, not to mention the fuse box itself was both too small and a complete mess. All of that is fixed now, and he's also doing the rest of our lighting for us. So far we have recessed cans up in the master bedroom now, kitchen is coming soon. I really can't wait to see what the kitchen will look like all lit up; we'll have four different kinds of lighting in there. Recessed cans, pendant lights over the island and sink, under-cabinet lights, and LED strips just under the toekick.

So, we're busting our budget for labor like whoa. But I think it's worth it, since this thing is actually going to be finished next week before Thanksgiving. I don't think that has quite sunk in yet.