Electrician and Architect 2

This past Sunday, we met with the electrician for an hour to go over re-wiring the house. We have aluminum wiring and it's been bugging me since we moved into the house. There have been many updates to the code since the house was built, so we'll need to be adding GFCI's, new circuits and perhaps a few other things. We also asked to have additional lighting, some new outlets, and apparently we need a 220 for the new oven we need. The stove/oven is original to the house and you can't get the same style any more. Tom also wants to install solar. About half-way through the meeting, I started getting very nervous about the cost. I've been thinking we don't need the lighting, maybe fuses in the garage subpanel aren't so bad, etc.!

The architect was originally going to bring 2 designs that we could choose from as a base. He ended up bringing only one. He said the space was much more difficult to work with. That made me feel better since neither Tom nor I (nor any of the friends I asked for help) could come up with anything that was perfect. Luckily, Tom and I both liked the design. The only thing I didn't get was an additional hall closet. What I did get that I LOVE is a corner tub with windows on both sides! I'm keeping my fingers crossed that it doesn't fall out of the plans as we deal with money and city requirements. The architect found out that we can't build over the entire balcony with applying for a variance, which will most likely really extend things.

The next step will be to meet with the architect and finalize the designs so he can start on the engineering plans. By then he'll have met with the city to see what our options are. We may have to shrink the size of the space we're adding on (keeping my fingers crossed that we somehow don't because I love the design the way it is!)