let the details begin
I thought it was still early in the process for some of the nitty gritty details to be discussed, but now as we’re at the point of getting quotes from contractors, I quickly found myself in a pile of catalogs, sketches, rulers, pencils, erasers, and idea boards.
This past week has been filled with so many things that I really had to set out time to sit down and be sure to write about it. I feel like it hasn’t even gotten started and yet so many details are already happening that it’s a reminder how sucked in you can get to the whole process and how I really want to commit to being mindful throughout this entire thing. I want to really take it in, appreciate each step, and part of that is the reason for keeping this blog. Besides being a nice documentations for the future, it forces me to stop (my goal is to write at least once per week), look back, reflect and regroup.
As I’m being copied on all of the emails passing through between the architect, geometra, structural engineer, and technical engineers, I’ve kept up with how things are progressing in finishing the full packet of specs that we’ll be able to give to a few contractors for quotes. One of the several things they’ve asked my opinion on which will affect the pricing is where and how many prese (wall plug sockets) and interrutori (light switches) I’ll want. Of course things can be changed and adjusted later on, but for a more precise pricing quote, all of these needed to be taken into account.
Plus, they already knew that I’d be picky to which type of prese and interrutori were chosen so I very carefully thought through each room with J helping me talk through each scenario we could think of, while drawing out a floor plan with color-coded keys matching with each light switch, dimmer, big plug, small plug, floor plug, and external plug. Then I said that I preferred to source the actual hardware myself and that the quote could just include wiring and labor costs.
We went back to Florence over Thanksgiving this past week to celebrate with a dinner with friends… and for a couple of meetings. One was with the architect to discuss a few details which they’d emailed me about and I thought a short in-person meeting would be more productive than a chain of emails. So what I predicted to be about half an hour, turned out to be over two and a half hours discussing some of the details I never even have thought about before.
We discussed lighting options (which I could only give a general idea since I plan to have a proper lighting designer take a look at everything), adding a small extra window, even how I’d want to cover the windows - exterior sliders, interior sliders, curtains, if we should plan to have built-in recesses to store the curtains to the side or hide the rod and rushing above and if so, how many layers of thickness of curtains do I imagine because that will affect the depth of the recess to be built…
As much as I know it’s just the beginning of the endless list of decisions that will have to be made, and how consuming it can be, I really do love it, and am so thankful to have such a detail-oriented and thoughtful team behind the vision. Here’s to many more centimeters discussed, recesses measured, and sockets situated.