HGTV is not just bullsh*t!

For years we’ve been glued to HGTV remodel shows. All of them. They all seem to have a common plot which is almost as predictable as Law & Order by now. 

Scene 1: sell homeowners on their dream within their budget

Scene 2: Start demo, family even comes in to help (we’ve did this too!)

Scene 3: OH NO THIS IS A PROBLEM :cut to commercial:

Scene 4: Host/contractor tells homeowner that “this” hasn’t in the plans and therefore it’s gonna cost them more money. Normally they then pitch removing one aspect of the project if they want to stay in budget. 

^Oh yeah. This is real. And it happens more than once. Here are the money sucking problems we have encountered. 

1. Garage wall with fireplace was shown as a soft partition (drywall) on plans. I could’ve told you that it wasn’t... but my shell guy went by the plans- $2000 extra demo cost between labor and dumpster

2. Hardwood floors used masonary nails instead of normal finish nails. These things look like railroad ties and they keep the floor attached realllll good. - $1000 in labor

I GOT THE CALL FROM SCENE 4!!! Well it was a text. 

3. My subfloor and floor joists are shot to shit. Instead of rebuilding with wood the contractor is recommending we fill in the crawl space and pour a continuous slab for the whole house #goals #secretdesire - approx $4000 NET. I say net because first we (my dad and I) are doing the demo of the floor, second it brings some cost savings in some other aspects of the job, mostly plumbing. Additional benefits is we can lower the height of the house now and eliminate a step down to the garage and coming up to the front door. Less steps into the garage mean more space!!!!

So today we find ourselves with 1 standing wall and no floor. LOLOLOLOL. WTF IS LEFT AND WHAT HAVE WE DONE?!?!? 

Enjoy the pics!