Breezeway 8: the nuclear option

Well, it's not quite square one, but it's close...Here's the view this evening:

Today we met with our builder, who is awesome. We talked about a few small details and then the big elephant in the room - our raised floors. He admitted that he'd miscalculated on how to do the floor and that he took full responsibility. We had two options on the floor:

1. Sand the maximum 3/16'' of the floor (before the groove part of the tongue and groove slats) and put in wide gradual transitions to help ease the difference in floor height. The wood under the oven would be cut back so the oven would match the counter height and the dishwasher would be freed.

2.  The floors and subfloors would be ripped out completely all the way back to the framing, which would be shaved down (and possibly also require the heating guy to come in, since the pipes ran through the wood joists. The trim around the garage and french doors would need to be removed, the doors lowered, and then re-trimmed. And...well, you get the idea.

He estimated that option 2, which he called the "nuclear option," would set us back about 2 weeks. It would cost us nothing, since it was all his fault. We'd need completely new flooring and trim, plus tons of labor.

I probably would have caved in and settled for option 1, but since level floors had been a priority since we kicked off the research on this major project, D bravely chose 2. You would think that would have infuriated the builder, but nope - this guy is pretty awesome, if apparently a bit unreliable on his calculations. And so we take a few sad steps back. I know it will be worth it to have something we really love at the end. 

It's a shame to waste so much material, now sitting in a trash heap on our patio, and to regress - after having access to the room all weekend, we've really been enjoying it.

They got right to work, ripping up all the floor. Tomorrow they'll probably rip out another layer of floor or maybe trim or...who knows!

In the meantime, we have beautiful hardware like electrical plates, AC vents, etc. plus a great attic. But I'll save those pictures for another time after I'm done shedding a tear for all that beautiful wasted oak floor.