Progress, more time, money, and oh so many muddy paws!
It’s been 16 months of progress at our home. SIXTEEEEEEEEN months!!!! Even I’m freaking out on calculating the time that has gone on, we’ve accomplished so much despite the unprecedented times. Not only are we still dealing with the aftermath of the pandemic itself, we have a whole new set of obstacles caused by it’s related events…. Material shortages, huge cost increases and labor shortages….all mix in to create a very large time and budget adjustment. If you’re a client of ours reading this, I UNDERSTAND the pain you have endured.
If that wasn’t enough, when inspecting the site walls, our engineer thought it may be a good idea to put the swimming pool in at this juncture. So, back to permitting we went…in the City of Atlanta, this is no small task. The pool permit itself took 12 weeks.
As we embarked on foundation walls and the pool in May 2021, our family was excited at the prospect of a new pool by the end o the summer, so we started ordering items for our pool; tile, pool deck material, etc. Little did we know, our custom and “perfect color” selected pool tile would need to be made three times. After 12 more weeks of waiting for the revisions from a small boutique tile company in Mexico, we pivoted, ordering an alternate tile.
It was a long and muddy summer. I found myself begging for a car wash, enjoying immense amounts of laundry and loving cleaning day in our home to remove the muddy paw prints form our 8 dog paws and 8 human feet. It was literally the beach house I never knew I wanted with all-the-sand and all the dropping of shoes at the entrances to our home.
But, good news always comes to those who wait long enough….instead of swimming on a hot summer afternoon, our first swim was on Christmas Day! Our landscaper was also able to get the planting in around this area for us to enjoy along with some unseasonably warm temperatures. It seemed things were starting to work in our favor….as well as a great family memory for sure!
2022 has brought us back to reality…more concrete slabs for the first framing of the project costing DOUBLE what they would have 8 months ago. You win some you loose some. We are on the path so the show goes on. We also ordered the steel for the framing which is now double or more than just a few short months ago. These price increases are no joke. As I’ve experienced before, prices aren’t coming back down anytime soon. Best to strike while the iron is hot (pun intended).
Stay tuned for more progress.
-ESD
