Thanks again for the feedback, everyone. I'll start by reaching out to the two GCs I was in discussions with before I realized I kind of needed an architect. I appreciate the insights and the advice re: localized prices. Given the scale of 2p2 and the knowledge found here, seemed pretty likely that someone would be able to give me a notion of price range specific to my market. All good. I'll likely wind up looping back here prior to picking floor plans and such as others have done and gotten great advice.

Cheers.

They took it down to the studs and then rebuilt. I bought all materials myself, The laborers the guy used were paid $15/hr by him in cash (over heard it).
Took 2 guys like 5 weeks.

Being only months away from 'paid in full' is such a WONDERFUL feeling...

I would not think the project turned out great if it was two $15 guys doing the work. Now if they were just a lead guys helpers then it it could look great.

Bought first house couple months ago and need some refrigerator advice. We like the French door style.

The cabinets above that space are exactly 68.5 above the floor, so the actual case part of fridge can’t be taller than that, but fine if the door/hinges are a bit taller as they don’t need to fit under.

Prior owner had the Samsung RF260BEAESR 25.5 cu foot one. Looks like the case height is 68 and 3/8inch so it fits, but issue is a lot of reviews online claim it’s super noisy. Seems like all the other similar better rated ones from other brands I look at are 1/4 to 1/2 inch taller case height so wouldn’t fit.

Anyone happen to have that fridge and can comment on its noise? Or any other fridges that would have this slightly smaller case height? It’s hard to look up online as all the retailers seem to go by the door hinge height, so I have to manually look down to each specs.

is your bedroom next to the kitchen?

No, thankfully not, but the living room and kitchen are open to each other so don’t want it to be super annoying if watching TV or whatever. This is the sort of situation where having all these reviews/ratings make things harder because otherwise I probably would have bought and not thought much of it. Now I’m obsessively reading fridge reviews lol

assuming you have volume control on your TV?

do you know the sound power level and the sound pressure level of your dishwasher?

do you also obsess over those?

how loud is your microwave?

how loud is your garbage disposal?

how can you sleep at night?

in summary, you'll be fine.

I would like a super quiet dishwasher but I never heard of a loud fridge. Just look for fridges you like and then go to the spec dimensions.

Are there still loud dishwashers? My fridge (Samsung) is occasionally noisy. The icemaker being the usual culprit, but nowhere near as bad to consider dropping a few, or more, grand on a new one.

While newer ones may be quiet, there are still many in place that seem noisy. I'm not sure I would have considered my 15+ year old one noisy UNTIL it was running WHILE I was trying to watch television (same situation described above with a kitchen that opens to living room). The recliner is more or less in a line of sound path between the dishwasher and television. Sitting in other parts of the living room is not as bad...which makes it easier to continue with the current unit until it gives up the ghost...

Only real noise I can think of with the fridge is when the ice-maker fills with water, someone dispenses ice/water from the door, or the ice-maker dumps. The lake house had a noticeable 'thunk' when the compressor cycled on a 20-year old Kenmore unit, but even that was an isolated event.

Line of sound path?

Humble braggin' itt.

Yeah...if you drew a line between the television and the dishwasher, the recliner is basically in that line. So you get dishwasher in one ear and television in the other since recliner is somewhat angled...same sort of annoyance exists when someone runs water at the sink in the kitchen.

what's the line of sound path between your home recliner and your lake house refrigerator?

So today I spent two hours in our crawl space running a sump pump.
Seems we have bum drainage and water was pooling along the garage wall under the house.

Anyone have experience installing a permanent auto-sump or a French drain?

Yeah, if its pooling into an area that you can collect into a sump pit, its not particularly hard to figure out, its just labor intensive depending on how much excavation has to be done.

Maybe you could just chip a hole in the floor,dig a well about two feet deep, about two foot in diameter, put in a layer of gravel and hook up a pump with a float and hopefully have a power source within 10 feet of the hole.

Then run a pipe from the pump to a location that gets the water away from the house.

Biggest factor would probably be the size of the pump.

It doesn't have to be pretty if its not in an area easily accessible.

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I like using a Zoeller m53 for the pump. A few things to consider are size of pump pit and where to drain it. You want it to pump up out of crawler then drain by gravity. Ideally you would dig a trench, lay pipe in it, and grade it somewhere to where water can drain without affecting your house. If you install a bigger pit and put pump on blocks in pit it won't go off as frequently. Drill a weep hole in line so it does not vapor lock pump. You will hear noise when pump shuts off quickly. That is one reason for larger pit.

what part of the world do you live in and what's the typical rainfall/snowfall each year?

the first preference when it comes to preventing water from entering a basement is to stop it on the outside and not 'deal with it' once it gets inside.

We reinvested in our home, renovating our kitchen and bathroom. Which were beyond dated - 40 years old.

Really happy with the entire project.