I feel your pain. We have an 1825 house and did a major house remodel. So much money was spent on things you don't see - support in basement, rewire house, new pipes, support through out house... Hang in there. You will feel much safer in your house after it's done.

One suggestion--you need to decide right now who does the official communicating w/ the tradespeople on your project. You or BF. Otherwise, you're heading for a lot more communication problems.

And, take heart. Most of the really big surprises reveal themselves during demo. And be a little happy (if that's possible!) that you discovered them now when they're easier to fix rather than later when fixing them would mean creating a whole new mess.

Thanks for the support guys/gals.

And Ci, you bring up a very good point. I made it very clear to my BF afterwards that he is not to get in the middle of anything, not discuss prices, unless I specifically tell him it's ok. And, to call me asap about anything he has a question with.

The thing was, we had been in agreement about firing the electrician, and he had offered to make the call for me because I'm at work and he was laid off and is the one at the house, and has the time to do the leg work for all these things which I can not do (and believe me, I am doing plenty - but making phone calls constantly from my desk is problematic). We use Twitter and text message to keep in touch, which has been working rather well but this time, he just really didn't communicate to me that he had not literally fired the guy himself, as discussed and agreed upon between us. I guess - he wussed out when the electrician said he has assumed he was coming today, as expected. But for me - not having a clear message from him prior to receiving that call from the electrician was the mistake he made. It would have saved a lot of trouble for everyone.

And yes - old homes are a love and a curse as I'm finding out. I knew a lot of what was wrong with it before going into this because I've been working in architecture for nearly 30 years, and could see pretty well what it's issues were. But, you just never know until you rip walls apart what's going on underneath. Boy, do I wish I'd asked for even more money off the price of the house now!

Sivyaleah, are you living in my house! I have the same problems plus some. I've been living with construction since Oct. My house is over 100 years and had few upgrades. Your bathroom tub is my kitchen, which was torn down and rebuilt. My entire first floor has been gutted.

But...there is a light at the end of the tunnel. I just see a sliver but I just tell myself one day at a time. Fingers crossed that cabinets will come this week, that tiling in the bathroom will start and that maybe just maybe it will all be done by the end of June.

Hugs and good wishes

MadamG2U

Sounds like a blessing in disguise that you had to open up that ceiling and discover the unsupported tub!

I hope the electrician issues work out.

/me sends MadamG hugs :)

Electrician has worked out - yea!

#1 is on board, will be there tomorrow - no hard feelings.

#2 has been told thank you, we appreciate your help in coming out on short notice, but we're sticking with #1.

Now - hopefully I can finally make a cabinet and countertop decison.

Man, I need a vacation.

I'm not sure how you can do a remodel and work full time! I had wanted to do a remodel for years, but just didn't have the time or energy to think about it. Now, hoorah!, I'm laid off so I'm forging ahead while I have the time. When I started, I thought it would be easy to just pick out my things and get going!! Little did I know! But I really can't complain because it is going relatively fast compared to some of the remodels I've heard about.
Good luck with the rest of yours.

I can do it because:

a) I know my contractor very well for 15 years through business and trust him completely to do the right thing in all respects (including, giving him a key to the house).

b) I don't live in the house yet - thank God!

c) BF is currently unemployed, so he's picking up the slack, and also doing some of the work which we don't want to pay people to do (such as refinishing woodwork at the moment).

d) Thankfully, my job is pretty good about not caring about phone calls for the most part as long as I keep it to a minimum - and also, having text messages to use, and Twitter is very helpful for questions back and forth between the BF and I, that can be answered easily. Pictures uploaded to, for visuals.

e) I'm also not picky about certain things at this stage since I know, working in the industry, and because of the age of the house, that there just are going to have to be concessions made in certain aspects that aren't worth nit-picking over. I'm pretty laid back overall - it takes a lot to really make me crazy.

g) Having a BF who knows how to apologize when he screws up :)

h) I had saved up a lot of vacation time, and have been using it cautiously for those days when I do really have to be involved.

i) Valium - I don't drink (only kidding).

siv..It sounds like things are going to work out with the electrician. And also I'm glad that the bathtub situation has been discovered and will be rectified. Thank goodness you have an awesome contractor to travel this road with:)

Soon you will be posting pictures for all of us to oooh and ahhhh over and the construction will be a faint memory. Really looking forward to that with you!

siv, glad to see things are working out. I too am working full time but its just me. I've known my GC for maybe 10 years, I call him my angel he is really helping me out with discounts but still doing a great job.

Just keep the faith for this too shall pass!

MadamG2U

My carpenter was an old friend, too, and I left him in charge while I was at work. I knew going in there were going to be surprises in a 120+ year old house. He made Everything work and I'm like you, mostly laid back on things that I can't change. I knew he's already seen it, dealt with it, done it, and moved on so I was comfortable leaving construction decisions to him. I had chosen everything that showed. My kitchen is perfect.

pinch me I feel the same way about my GC. He's made some construction decisions as well as designer decisions that work for me.

I got the best surprise when I got home from work...CABINETS!!!!! I've never been so happy to see boxes they are still working as we speak. I've been asked to stay upstairs and out of the way. OK with me long day at work and I'm tired.

I look at it as an HGTV reveal tomorrow morning before I go to work.
MadamG2U

So glad electrician #1 could come to work!

And really...though it's an awful shock...so glad you discovered that unsupported tub in time. So scary!!

I'm worried we're in for a similar shock. We have a "curse" in our house. It's apparently what people call a really slanting floor. Our foundation is level, but our GC is concerned that a load-bearing wall was cut short when a previous owner put in the basement bathroom. That would explain our severe slope in that one spot.

I'm not looking forward to demo time when we find out just how bad things are. I've always wanted an older home, but sometimes, I wonder in what sort of mess are we.

Pickle, take a deep breath now - you'll need it.

I had begun this journey estimating about $60,000 for repairs to the house, and I really thought I had a good grip on what it needed. Then, after taking possession and taking a better look around (it's hard when you just have short periods of time with your Realtor now and then), I upped that to $80,000. I was still comfortable with that figure, tho not thrilled.

Once contractors got involved, it kept escalating due to the age of the house, the surprises we're finding, need to bring things to current Code and I realized I had forgotten a few things (cost of materials for instance, duh! Like $8000 right there - but on the other hand, my main contractor is only charging me a cap of $20,000 for ALL the work needed in repairs for the house complete - but still I had anticipated him around $10,000 so I messed up by $10,000 there alone *gulp*)

Those hidden things behind the walls and floors are what get you I'm learning. Right now, aside from the structural findings there are electrical issues to resolve as well (knob and tube wiring in the kitchen which will be ripped out, but we need to make sure it wasn't feeding into any other places for instance). And, that situation with the tub, wound up knocking out some floor tiles in the bathroom above (not too many, I think they can be easily repaired). And...we discovered the waste stack has no venting, is way too large, so I gave the ok to replace the whole thing (we were going to replace part of it already anyway) which is a good thing for the kitchen as the pipe was in the way of my counter and I was seriously worried about how it would impact counter/cabinets spacing, however, it runs up to the bathroom on 2nd floor and they MAY have to open up the wall - which has gorgeous art deco tiling on it to do the repair. Said tile, is lilac and black, and the border trim tile I'm sure can not be replaced at this point in time (let alone, the lilac tile in general probably can't be found either).

*sighs*

For all I know, it may lead into me having to re-tile that bathroom eventually too now. Oh well, the shower already had to be re-tiled as it isn't working, and my plumber has to install all new fixtures and install a new shower pan (leaking into kitchen). There were cracked tiles around the room already and we were going to have my contractor remove the wallboard so we can take down all the tiles, and use some to repair the wall tiles, buy new tiles and use those and whatever was left of the old tiles to re-tile the shower in a new pattern. That was on the list from the get go lol.

I'm just hoping I won't be house poor at the end of all of this. I have enough money to do the repairs, but I had this certain amount that I had hoped to keep in cash at the end of it, that is dwindling as each day goes by. Not like poor house dwindling, but enough to make me frown. Good thing my job is safe or I'd be freaking out for sure!