January 15 house updates
We've picked a contractor, and I'm 90% sure about our electrician. I'll be making a few calls tomorrow to make sure that we want to go with this electrician, then it's full speed ahead.

On Wednesday, January 13, Shaenon took the plans that I'd drawn up to the permit office and we got the go-ahead for our bathroom renovation plan. It costs just over $1,000 to file for a bathroom permit, which explains to me why so many people just do these projects without filing with the city. Our realtor says that we'll be much better off in the long run, though, since proper permits make it a lot easier to sell the house, if we decide that we want to do that at some future date. If all of your home improvements are up to code, the next owner can buy with confidence that the house is safe and in good condition.

We're going with the contractor that we liked the best (personality-wise), and he happened to put in the lowest bid by a significant margin, which is an added bonus. He came recommended by a friend, and I already happened to know the contractor, too--but we didn't know about his day job until our other friend recommended him. I'm still waiting for e-mail confirmation that he's available right away and can take on the bathroom renovation, but I'll mention his name here once that's official.

A really important thing with this contractor is that we know we can work with him. He's not going to tell us to put in things we don't want, he'll walk us through the things we can do ourselves, and he'll be really helpful when it comes time to buy all of the fixtures and things we need for the bathroom. Having never purchased a house before, having never renovated a bathroom before, and having never purchased a tub, sink and toilet before, we really wanted to have someone who'd be willing to walk us through this, make some recommendations, and really help us to make this project work.