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vicarzYesterday we had another contractor come out - Scott referenced a range of contractors. Well, this guy was clearly - even to me - out of his league for the type of work I was looking at. It made a good 2-day marathon; Saturday the contractor was a gc who is also an engineer, familiar with the permit process, and easy to communicate with; Sun the guy's english was mediocre (and he defaulted to yes when he didn't understand - a Latin thing that leads to a lot of confusion if you're not used to it), and he was up front that he was more a "tell me what to do" type than design and build. However, he did instantly note an option similar to an expert - instead of adding to the foundation, just build in from it - this is cheaper and faster, but reduces your floor plan.
A versatile contractor will charge a premium, but it's looking like it is worth it.
I'm getting test pits this week to see where the foundation is, and our contractor from Sat gave ideas on good places to do them. I informed my first bidder (THE CUTE ONE) I was moving to contractor grade fixtures and doing test digs. I actually told him if he wanted to throw out a figure it might change, but that he didn't need to redo anything...he instantly volunteered to redo the bid. I have one more contractor visit Wed, and that is about 5 contractors potentially providing bids and at least 3-5 who bailed. I am not just looking at price, but who I can work with. Expertise is important to me as I expect to find stupid behind every wall.
The range of the basement looks like 60-100k easy.
It may be 15-60 to renovate a kitchen or bath; probably 15-25 for my level of fixtures (I consider Ikea essentially top of the line - if you see a $3,000 fixture in my home it will be for $50 used from community forklift/2nd chance/dumpster diving/made of driftwood-beer cans-xmas lights).
That means my house desired renos are also 60-100k easy.
A renovated home is around 800-850.
Also yesterday we guestimated a timeframe to possible move-in: 6 months from now.
Every month I don't live there costs me approximately $5,000.
I think if this house isn't getting high rent and worth nearly a mil in 5 years I may have made a mistake.
Sadly HGTV had an episode I mostly missed of love-it-list-it where for 70k they were going to renovate both a basement with digout and a kitchen (how!?) but a local ordinance prevented digging within 20 meters of a tree...
I toy with the idea of gutting the kitchen-bathroom-laundry area, because a powder room in the back with kitchen than opens to the main huge room is more appealing to me...but tons more expensive. By the time I do that, redoing the upstairs bath is a no-brainer...but if you're doing all that why not also add the master bath?
My current broken dishwasher and experience washing dishes by hand is making me lean HEAVILY to doing something to the kitchen, but do I renovate in place or start moving pipes and walls? The biggest PITA I've created is moving the sewage line (and I have not even looked for support walls).
I not-secretly wonder if I'm in that trap of spending time making my nest and no time filling it. I noticed people who work too hard get big decks for parties they never have - they have a space to invite people but alienate themselves. I'm always working and tired, making this nest inviting.
I should note I'm happier with the friends I have though. I have less friends, or count better, but the friends are real and far more fun to hang out with. Also, my conversation fetish is well satisfied.
More on point - yesterday I started to swap out all the locks until Scott noted my brass door handle was not far from my kitchen hardware and what color was that going to be? I did the whole stand back and look...and it was going to be ugly. I returned 5 full lock & deadbolt sets in brass to replace them in brushed nickel (ugh it's silver ok?) There were only 3 choices in HD, the remaining was black (which is what is in there now). Today's working-while-sick project is simple, to replace all the locks...but I don't have a drill (forgot to charge, 9 hour first charge time) and the new plates are 4 screws rather than 2. Also, I've already had one not quite line up right...and am I really going to adjust the plate in the wood or just nudge it by banging on it with a hammer & flathead screwdriver? I did get 3 matching keyed locksets (top unit) plus 2 matching lock sets (basement f/b) which rekey easily. Keys are $2 or so to make at home depo with the new computerized machine.
I tried to take a nap in the house yesterday. Had a daytime haunted feeling; am trying to bond with the place in stages. I also took photos of everything to remember when it's a regular boring nice house. Noted the fixtures where gas likely came into hall and bedroom lights - may try to do something with them.
No doorbell - found a bell by the stairs and button outside, but cannot find any wiring and it is silent.
A versatile contractor will charge a premium, but it's looking like it is worth it.
I'm getting test pits this week to see where the foundation is, and our contractor from Sat gave ideas on good places to do them. I informed my first bidder (THE CUTE ONE) I was moving to contractor grade fixtures and doing test digs. I actually told him if he wanted to throw out a figure it might change, but that he didn't need to redo anything...he instantly volunteered to redo the bid. I have one more contractor visit Wed, and that is about 5 contractors potentially providing bids and at least 3-5 who bailed. I am not just looking at price, but who I can work with. Expertise is important to me as I expect to find stupid behind every wall.
The range of the basement looks like 60-100k easy.
It may be 15-60 to renovate a kitchen or bath; probably 15-25 for my level of fixtures (I consider Ikea essentially top of the line - if you see a $3,000 fixture in my home it will be for $50 used from community forklift/2nd chance/dumpster diving/made of driftwood-beer cans-xmas lights).
That means my house desired renos are also 60-100k easy.
A renovated home is around 800-850.
Also yesterday we guestimated a timeframe to possible move-in: 6 months from now.
Every month I don't live there costs me approximately $5,000.
I think if this house isn't getting high rent and worth nearly a mil in 5 years I may have made a mistake.
Sadly HGTV had an episode I mostly missed of love-it-list-it where for 70k they were going to renovate both a basement with digout and a kitchen (how!?) but a local ordinance prevented digging within 20 meters of a tree...
I toy with the idea of gutting the kitchen-bathroom-laundry area, because a powder room in the back with kitchen than opens to the main huge room is more appealing to me...but tons more expensive. By the time I do that, redoing the upstairs bath is a no-brainer...but if you're doing all that why not also add the master bath?
My current broken dishwasher and experience washing dishes by hand is making me lean HEAVILY to doing something to the kitchen, but do I renovate in place or start moving pipes and walls? The biggest PITA I've created is moving the sewage line (and I have not even looked for support walls).
I not-secretly wonder if I'm in that trap of spending time making my nest and no time filling it. I noticed people who work too hard get big decks for parties they never have - they have a space to invite people but alienate themselves. I'm always working and tired, making this nest inviting.
I should note I'm happier with the friends I have though. I have less friends, or count better, but the friends are real and far more fun to hang out with. Also, my conversation fetish is well satisfied.
More on point - yesterday I started to swap out all the locks until Scott noted my brass door handle was not far from my kitchen hardware and what color was that going to be? I did the whole stand back and look...and it was going to be ugly. I returned 5 full lock & deadbolt sets in brass to replace them in brushed nickel (ugh it's silver ok?) There were only 3 choices in HD, the remaining was black (which is what is in there now). Today's working-while-sick project is simple, to replace all the locks...but I don't have a drill (forgot to charge, 9 hour first charge time) and the new plates are 4 screws rather than 2. Also, I've already had one not quite line up right...and am I really going to adjust the plate in the wood or just nudge it by banging on it with a hammer & flathead screwdriver? I did get 3 matching keyed locksets (top unit) plus 2 matching lock sets (basement f/b) which rekey easily. Keys are $2 or so to make at home depo with the new computerized machine.
I tried to take a nap in the house yesterday. Had a daytime haunted feeling; am trying to bond with the place in stages. I also took photos of everything to remember when it's a regular boring nice house. Noted the fixtures where gas likely came into hall and bedroom lights - may try to do something with them.
No doorbell - found a bell by the stairs and button outside, but cannot find any wiring and it is silent.
