Now that the floating home was purchased, it has been two months of finding contractors, building out the plans for the renovation and purchasing everything that was needed for the renovation. None of these tasks are ever like those renovation shows on TV, that’s for sure… OK, maybe the drama, the drama is real. The glamour? Not so much.
Find a Contractor
To get ours started, I put in a number of requests through Home Advisor for general contractors and then as backup, also submitted more requests to different specialists if I had to break up the renovation into small jobs. In the end, I did find a contractor that was able to do the work to the dates and quality we wanted, but I was in charge of getting all the product outside of the kitchen cabinets, which he would supply.
The reason I chose our contractor, Isaac and his company, is that he asked very direct questions, thought through the process we were planning and didn’t waste my time. I’m not about the fluff, I’m about the outcome and how to get there efficiently and effectively- this guy delivered in his reviews and in person, so he was the one I chose.
Get the Schtuff
Now, onto the renovation ordering. I already knew what I wanted, so it was mostly finding it for the price that I would accept and in the time I wanted it in. I had three weeks to order everything by. I’m incredibly frugal and planned on having everything shipped to the house as much as possible.
I started out with my first order through Wayfair, but upon submitting the order, I updated my home address to ensure it was delivered to the new floating home location. This must have triggered something at headquarters, as instead of contacting me to ask the account holder to verify the change, they simply cancelled the order. Although I have a technical contact over there to assist me in the future, (thank you Andy Mallon) it made me very hesitant in the short timeline to have any other challenges, so Amazon won my business and I began ordering like a banshee.
I started with the following items, all through Amazon sellers:
- Free standing soaking tub and fixtures
- Lights for both bathrooms, over the island and at the top of the new stairs
- Fixtures for three bathroom sinks
- Two sets of bathroom shower fixtures
- New stove fan ceiling-mounted hood
- All new black, matte door knobs
- Pedestal sink
- Two vessel bathroom sinks
- Farmer’s apron sink for kitchen with new black kitchen fixtures
- All matte black fixtures for all the cabinets in the house
- New outdoor house fixtures, house numbers and “brackets” for eaves
All of these orders were being submitted, verification of orders, shipping dates, etc. all at different times, so keeping track of them through Amazon’s “My Orders” portal made it easy for me to keep up to date with what was where and when I need to track something down. To be honest, I’m unsure how I would have done that with another seller.
From Home Depot, I ordered a few things I didn’t find online or I just fell in love with there:
- Three interior doors, one exterior
- Two replacement sliding glass doors with interior blinds
- awesome decorative tile for both the master and second bathroom floors
- white subway tile for the bathroom wall showers
- black, matte door stoppers
- black, matte sink stoppers
- All interior and exterior paint- A LOT of PAINT
Best Buy came in handy with my great credit for 18 months same as cash and free delivery, allowing me to get what I needed in appliances now and have it delivered on the dates I needed without forgetting as the chaos becomes all too real:
- Larger, stainless steel, side-by-side refrigerator with ice and water
- Large, stackable, gas washer/dryer combo for the new upstairs laundry
I ordered the new staircase from Paragon stairs, which was a kit and easy to assemble. With the more minimalism style, (very Scandinavian-Boho) I wanted a simple stairway, floating design to ensure it didn’t take away from the open feel of the new floor plan. The staircase can take up to 6 weeks to complete, so I ordered it back at the end of July and am expecting it to be delivered in the next two weeks.
The last, open order is on the front window. Due to support concerns that are still being investigated, we haven’t decided yet how the opening will be done, so the window/door/bi-fold hasn’t been ordered yet until the contractor verifies what we’re looking at for options.
Search and Rescue
With all of this, it’s been a sheer hell of picking up orders on doorsteps, one-by-one, from post offices, mail stops and convincing delivery people to actually deliver something quite large down to the floating home. I appreciate the patience and endurance of some of the guys, (especially the Home Depot Delivery guys with the sliding glass doors. You earned that $50 tip!) It’s low water time on the river- lowest it will be all year, so the ramp is at a much steeper decline than any other time, resulting in a daunting challenge for anyone bringing down a heavy load to our floating home.
As of today, no packages are missing and everything has been delivered in one piece! I have delayed the delivery on the Best Buy appliances for two weeks while the team finishes out a few things in the house, but by then, Bonneville dam should let loose a bit more water, too into the Columbia, raising the ramp a bit to the docks!
The benefit of all this work, is with my great bargain shopper skills, I’ve been able to come in around 45% under budget on the purchase price of everything for our home! With the quality work that I’ve seen in my contractors other projects, I’m really looking forward to update the blog with the progress and it should be something we’re very happy to reside in for a long time.
