birdly... makes total sense that you had to redo stuff if it were that one employee - you should have heard the subcontractors complain about that employees work :) The nice thing is Mark had them redo stuff without argument - a friends contractor fought him and tried to charge him on every little thing that he asked to be redone (and we are talking some obvious things) If you want I can let him know that my glowing review of his work was slightly tainted by a deck that took too long - he won't like that! Its sad that he was late for yours becuase both the person at international kitchens and the person I got the sink from commented on how hes on time. For me he was about 1 month late but given the circumstances that was not bad. Its surprising about the communication - he was great for me. It does sound like he was putting all his effort into my project - did you let him know that you were doing a kitchen and becuase he didn't handle the small project well he misses out on the bigger one? (FYI the contractor that was awful for my friend was Chermak construction - it was a 100k+ project and they tried to charge him when the electrician put in a 3 bank switch that only needed 2 switches so the electrician left a switch that did nothing - they told my friend that a "do nothing" switch was an "acceptable solution" - that was the worst example but there were tons of things like that). I am 95% sure Mark got the doors through PCS Millwork. They were WAY cheaper (talking less than 1/2) the cost of the equivalent doors through the lumber yard he normally uses. gwent, nightowl was asking about the dining lights - if you search (ctrl+f) the thread for "nightowl" and read those posts you should get all the details on the lights. For the pulls, believe it or not we got them at Loews. I went to all the fancy shops for a couple weeks stressing about hardware and finally stumbled on them at Loews of all places.

Wow, here I am almost 8 months later and there is very little progress toward our bathroom! No word at all from Jim, the contractor. I wonder if he is still doing the commercial job or if he even wants our work. Plus, Toby, our dog, is even older now - 16 - and on prednisone, so he is peeing a lot. He has doggy dementia, too. He is not terribly confused, not enough to put him down, but there is no way I want new, clean grout on that floor. The bathroom is on hold until he decides to take a trip over the rainbow bridge. I have just contracted to replace the last four windows in the house. The aluminum sliders will be gone in 6 weeks or less! We are getting an awning window for the bathroom with a blind in the glass that can be raised and lowered. It is our sunniest room, and light from that window lights up the whole end of the hallway. I wanted the option to raise the blinds up. The three bedrooms are getting double casement windows with blinds in the glass. Hey - I don't clean, so the blinds are a major, major plus for us! Now I have to get windowsills for all three bedrooms. And for the bathroom, the need for a windowsill is forcing me to decide on the counter top for the vanity. It seems to me that they should be the same material. Tomorrow I am going to try to find the Cambria Quartz source for the area. I want the place where I can get a leftover piece of someone else's slab, since I need such a small piece. My vanity is only 18" x 46". I am hoping for the color called Parys. [houzz=https://www.houzz.com/photos/cambria-countertop-2010-traditional-kitchen-phvw-vp~2704735] Since I still have not chosen the color for the wall tiles in the bathroom, the color for the vanity top is going to determine what direction we go, since it is the next critical decision that I have to make. I like Parys because it is dark and will contrast with the white sink. It will also contrast with all the different wall tiles I have considered. I especially love the glowing blue bits in it. It reminds me of my favorite stone I use when making jewelry, Labradorite! It has that chatoyancy, that glow when it catches the light just right. Opal also does that. Parys just glows in any light. Other things I have made progress on have to do with the vanity. I have sanded it and have decided to replace the original drawer pulls. No way will we enjoy finding the little bail that recedes into a groove on those babies. I am going to fill the holes and then drill one center hole and use a glass knob with chrome in the center. I had already purchased three of them to use on the new cupboards that I was adding into the wall across from the vanity. I have also removed the metal floor protectors on the bottom of the 8 vanity legs and discovered that the small feet that can be leveled that I purchased will fit into the ends of the legs. Holes have to be drilled for them. Because the floor will be made waterproof, and sloped toward a drain, if I did not put levelers into the feet of the vanity, the whole thing would be unlevel and the sink would not drain properly. A and C below make up my leg levelers. Yes, I do try to think of everything. When you have THREE YEARS to do nothing but plan, you do a lot of planning! I have also purchased the shower plumbing - the rainhead, the shower temperature balancing valve, and three volume controls, one for the rain head, one for the shower head, and one for the hand-held, and the controls will each have those labels on them! I already had the shower head. I still have to decide on the hand-held system. I also purchased a really cute hand towel holder. I don't like the rings because the towel gets bunched and does not dry well. This one is from Ginger and it has two bars that move on a swivel, independently of each other. The bars are 12 inches long and the holder holds them a good 2" away from the wall. Plus, since they swivel the whole way around, if one is particularly wet, you can pull it away from the wall and it will hang perpendicular to the wall as you wait until it is dry. In this picture, they show the arms out away from the wall. Normally, they will hang closer to the wall that the thing is mounted on, I would think. For instance, I plan to hang it on the wall to the side of the vanity. The arms would be folded up close to the wall most of the time. I suppose you could install it on the wall next to the medicine cabinet and have the towels hang over the vanity area, if you liked.

mobuddy, SketchUp is a great free program from google. It has lots of support and works great and I do think it is easy to use. There is lots of videos and tutorials out there from someone trying to learn. Personally for me I'm much more computer literate than than average person. I've learned various coding languages and I have classroom training in both 2D(autocad) and 3D(solidworks) software. So my view might also be a bit off on how easy it is. Almost all of the furniture and appliances you see in my pictures I actually downloaded for SketchUp Warehouse, aka they were designed by other people and are free to download and import into your project. I built all of the cabinets though so I could get exactly what I wanted for sized and such. You can actually find alot of the exact appliances/furniture that you are looking at already designed and to scale. Makes planning your house out much easier. dkcnbla, I do have some concerns about the butcher block and water. I've done a great deal of reading into it and am still willing to use it. I just love the look of a beautiful piece a wood and nothing compares to the warm feel in my opinion. Plus I have the skill/place/tools/ and hopefully time to actually make my own saving me loads of money. If I make the counter is should only cost me about 19 sq/ft. palimpset, I don't think I would be comfortable letting dishes drip dry in a drawer. I think that you are introducing a lot of moisture into an environment not suitable for it.

Useful comments coming in. Thanks. 1. The unit will be used for mom, but also may double as a rental, or place for my wife and I to retire as well, and maybe an AirBNB , etc... Yes, ADA makes sense. 2. ADU: Not sure if it was clear, but we are also trying to add on two bedrooms to the main house. In this case, does an ADU still make sense,? 3. I think HOA prevents a completely separate unit as well: "No more than one dwelling shall be built upon each such lot. " but I wonder if a breezeway solves this, however, the goal is to NOT have mom/tenants be able to have access to the main house. Wife does not get along with MIL.