Onward!

I signed my contract today, so there's no turning back.

I met with Kevin yesterday and he went through the contract. I was surprised to see that the amount on the contract was $9000 more than the original estimate, and I asked him about that. He said it was based on some changes I'd already approved, plus the hot water heater upgrade. And that amount was increased by an additional $800 for electrical work that was not scoped out until I was able to provide the information on my electrical panel.

So when I got home last night, I did a line-by-line comparison of the original estimate and the new contract. There were a few things that came in lower than the original -- the plumbing fixtures I selected were about $700 less than the allowance -- and some things that were higher -- the carpeting was a little more than estimated, and the tile was a lot more. That plus the hot water heater accounted for less than $4000, but there was still more than $5000 I couldn't figure out. So I emailed Kevin and asked him to itemize the difference.

It's a good thing I did. Kevin called this morning and said that it was an error on his part, and he sent me a revised contract with the correct numbers. I mailed it back, and we're ready to go.

The final budget:

$57,406.56 + tax ($5109.18) = $62,515.74

At least the sales tax is deductible (because Washington doesn't have state income tax, we can deduct our state sales tax).

He's going to order the vanity and the fixtures next week, and we're scheduled to begin construction (or, I guess, demolition) on Monday, February 18.

Tomorrow I go to Fine Line Pacific to pick out the vanity top.