Thursday, June 16, 2011

General Contractor/Consultant

Old Durham Dairy Milk Bottle found in the crawl space of 614 N. Queen

Today we met with Miles Honeycutt to hire him as the General Contractor on record, and as a consultant to make sure Jessie and I don't make big mistakes which will end up costing a lot of money. Miles has worked on two important home rehabs in our neighborhood, including a limited role on the Clapp-Ferguson House, and as the primary role on the Petty Home. He has also won a Pyne Preservation award for the Furman-Nunnamaker House in Old West Durham.

Miles is a really upstanding guy and we're looking forward to working with him. Based on how he has conducted himself with our friends at the Petty Home, we really can't recommend him highly enough. Please contact us if you're looking for a general contractor and we'll put you in touch.

Creating a rough budget was on the agenda for today, and it looks like we'll be able to stay inside our original projections, although the structural condition of our basement could be a very big problem. Currently, the wood floor joists for the basement are sitting directly on the dirt floor. We will need to consult with our structural engineer to see how much work it would be to create space under there, and then we'll need to determine if it is worth it. Our spacious 4 or 5 bedroom house might change to a two bedroom with an unfinished basement.

We also found some fire damage in the attic, it looks like our chimneys are beginning to crumble, and the tin roof might be beyond saving as well. None of these issues are surprises though. On the positive side, we have a good subfloor underneath our hardwood on the first floor, and there were not any major surprises from our first inspection with Miles. The test will come next week with our inspector/structural engineer pokes and prods a little deeper.

Work and posts should start to come more often now. Hold on to your seats.

3 comments:

  1. Nellie is very envious of your milk bottle find.

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  2. Yeah, I heard that her reaction involved some cussin'. ;)

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  3. I'm so totally jealous! I actually had finding an authentic milk bottle among my goals of living in the hood. Weird right? Seriously, as I was digging around our yard that thought popped into my head. I can only hope there's one buried in my back yard! Or I'll just gaze at yours enviously! ;)

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