i enjoyed your thread though not posting.
the view is nice, sure better than grass
once the habititation is unneedy does perfect life follow ?
cant answer this one
have to goback working on my (rented by me...) condo.

So, my sort of loose plan for the remodel is to have the floors installed in the living room, kitchen and office, and have the office painted. Then I plan on moving in and just putting all my stuff in the giant living room for a while. Then I want to have 1 bedroom/bathroom remodeled while I use the other one. Then, when the first one is finished move into it while the second one is remodeled. I sort of want to move the kitchen when all of that is done but I sort of wanted to see how everything else goes before I commit.

So, I started looking for contractors today. My plan was to go to a full service place where they have a showroom and they do the contracting.

I was able to talk to the owners of both places.

The first place had a sort of cluttered showroom. The owner was very friendly and talked to me for a while. I told him my plan and he was very open to it. He told me that I don't have to buy all of the materials from him. He will supply just labor if that's what I wanted him for.

The second place appeared to be more high end. The owner was sort of reluctant to to the piecemeal plan. And, I would have to buy everything from him. However, he had a design team on staff that would draw up plans and work with me on materials.

Both firms are very highly rated. If I went with the first guy I would probably save quite a bit of money but I would have to do a lot of work picking materials.

I think I would get a better finished product from the second guy given that he has designers on staff. But I'm guessing that not only does he charge more, but the materials would be more as well.

I need to think about it some but I'm leaning towards the first guy. As I said, both are highly rated and I think the first guy will be a lot more flexible, and save me a lot of money.

After sleeping on it, I'm now leaning heavily towards the first guy. But I'm sort of intimidated when it comes to choosing materials. Not so much materials, but colors. So I think I'm going to hire an interior designer to help me out. I don't think I need that much help. Really just some reassurance that I'm going in the right direction.

I've been searching for an interior designer and it is proving a lot more difficult than I thought. There are a lot that do stuff like pick out furniture for you. There are a lot that do total home designs but they are uber expensive. I just want someone that can help with colors and such, maybe some general ideas on bathroom layouts and fixtures. I can't find anyone that quite fits what I'm looking for. I didn't think it would be that hard.

I called the contractor that I want to do the work and they will work up pictures based on materials I choose but they don't really do the design. It's really up to me. I guess that is fine but I sort of agonize over this sort of thing and it will take me forever.

So, I have my eye on this floor for the living area. It's a pretty bold choice. It could look really cool. However, it could be a ****ing disaster. I don't know. This is a perfect example of why I need help.

Someone suggested that I just stain the concrete slab and not put any floors down. I probably wouldn't do this in the bedrooms but the main room maybe. I did a little research and some of this looks really cool. I'm considering this option now.

I'm currently staying in a flat with a bare concrete floor, i think. It's quite nice, and I definitely think that the hipster industrial chic signature is your natural look, BB.

My dentist went from a nice carpeted squaresville office to a warehouse type place with concrete floors, very jarring.

Here is the floor plan.

The living dining room space is bad. Looks like a cavern. The kitchen is squeezed into that tiny area. Both master bathrooms have walls where there shouldn't be walls.

So, the plan is to tear down the bathroom walls to make them more spacious. Then I'll probably move the kitchen all the way across to the other end. There should be water and drain connections over there (I hope). Then I'll make that kitchen area a big storage area.

I agree with the move of the kitchen.

Climate, insulation and energy consumption might have an impact on flooring choices. I would consider the extremes of summer and winter with respect to flooring - imagine what it might be like walking with bare feet on your concrete floor in winter? If it is ok - in both extremes and has no negative impact upon heating bills or comfort - then go for it.
I suppose the upside is - if you sell it - it would not be an impediment for someone buying as they can put down what they want in future.

All the bathrooms are in bedrooms?

Well, one has two doors. One door in a small bedroom and one door in the hall. I'm going to wall in the door to the bedroom because I'm making it my office.

I met the two contractors that I had talked to earlier.

The one I think would be cheaper came out to measure the place. I tried to explain to him what I wanted and he sort of made some arm gestures and said all would be good. He also tried to talk me out of using him to do the floors which is fine. He also brought up some good points about not doing this piecemeal. I took that advice but won't be using him.

I went back to the expensive guy and talked to him some more. I get a really good feeling about how the end product will turn out but it's definitely going to cost me. But he knows his stuff and had some really good ideas. And he has two designers on staff to help with colors and such. The other downside other than cost is he'll only do the entire thing at once. I'm ok with this now that I've thought about it some more.

I wrote the second guy a check for a retainer so I guess I made a decision.

There's not much of a winter here so that's not an issue. Both contractors I talked to today suggested this option might not be a good idea based on the current slab so I've sort of given up on it.

I took a bunch of pictures this morning. It is really difficult to judge scale here so I'll just narrate. The bathrooms are virtually impossible to capture in a picture because they are laid out so poorly.

These first 2 are of the office. There are 2 doors to the outside, one of which I'm sure I'll never use. If you look closely in the second pic you can see goofy design 1. The door on the left goes into a small bathroom, as does the door on the right (from the hall). I'll close in the door from the office.

This is master bedroom 1. It is quite large. The opening you see is to the bathroom. On the left of the opening is a huge double sink. On the right is a shower and toilet. The second pic is standing in front of the double sink towards the shower. Horrible design 2.

This is the other master. I'll probably end up making this my bedroom.

In the first pic, the opening on the left is a walkin closet that also has a washer/dryer in it. It's a good space.

On the right is another goofily designed bathroom. The tub shower and toilet are in the back, the sink is on the left, and there is another unusable room on the right.

These pics are of the living room and kitchen. The living room is like a cavern but the kitchen is squeezed into a tiny space. Yet more bad design.

A few pics of the outside.

The first is the front. I should have taken some more pictures because the complex looks like someone tossed an ocean of pastel paint on it. Yellow, salmon, blue, green - all pastel.

The second two are the back porch. It is quite large and I can find shade any time of the day.

The last one is the sunshine skyway bridge. It's pretty hard to see in this pic but if you squint just right.... It's somewhat of a landmark here.

haha that is a real squint.

I particularly like the three doors in 1sqm in the first post. But the outside looks amazing.

How can the house from the outside look like that on the inside? Man, perhaps you found a real steal b/c that will be super sweet once you make it like a normal house inside.

Your upstairs neighbor's staircase to the water cuts through the middle of your patio? They couldn't have put it on one side?

I thought that was all his. Is this a duplex or condo or something? I probably misread or have forgotten.

Yeah, everything is funky.

I know. Well part of it is the fact that it used to be 2 units.

Yeah, I hesitated about that but oh well. It's in the middle because I think it serves 2 units. I believe mine is the only unit that got turned into 1.

No, the upstairs is not mine.

The small area from my porch to the seawall is community properly. People walk through there all the time. I sort of like that because I'll meet people.

One more thing. I can't find the water heater. I opened every door about 5 times looking for it. It's not outside. I have no clue where it could be.