The range of estimates is interesting or maybe frustrating is a better word. Ideally, I'd love someone to charge all material costs on my home depot account and give me an estimate of hours of labor with a rate per hour. After not receiving that, I've started asking for it up front and they will tell me that they'll get back with me in the morning on a good time to schedule an appointment to view the work area. They never call me back because they'd prefer to get away with these big unspecific quotes and an uninformed home owner that doesn't know any better than to blindly accept. I'm excited about a carpenter who immediately told me that he charges $35 an hour. When you compare that to one of the non-specific quotes estimating over $10,000 to replace 3 pieces of siding, 10 strips of molding, some fascia boards and paint the exterior- it makes you realize how wildly high some of those quotes are.
For the sake of giving someone the benefit of the doubt, say that supplies did cost $1000 (reality is closer to $500) how much would I be paying for labor? To rack up $9000 in labor at $35 an hour it would take over 6 weeks of full-time work. My job could easily be finished in a week by a professional putting 40 hours of work into it. So why on earth would I accept the random quote for $10,000? Well I couldn't think of a reason not to make about five more calls until I found a carpenter willing to give me an hourly rate. I'll be thrilled to post his name and contact number after I use him and can give a definite testimony of workmanship.
I'll update more after we get the utilites turned on when the city gets its check from yesterdays closing to cover all the back taxes and bills. LOL Heat would be nice in December. Oh how I'm praying that the $35 an hour carpenter/handiman works out. He is praying too as his day job is in ministry. :)
Saturday, December 15, 2007
The Race to Renovate House Begins!
Yesterday all paper work was signed and we are now the owners of a historic York Chester house in Gastonia. My better half left with the trailer to pick up cabinets at the Restore on his lunch break. I had done an exhaustive search looking for the best priced cabinets and nothing was coming up cheaper than $3000, which I budgeted to spend, but was hoping to do better. I remembered my friend suggesting the Restore and this changed.
Restore is the coolest thing. When people are renovating houses or have surplus unused materials they donate to Habitat for Humanity to sell at their Restore. All profits go to building new Habitat Homes. Since I couldn't find good looking cabinets for under $3000 new, I scouted Restore and found solid wood cherry stained ones for a steal at $950. I didn't want to buy them until we closed so when better half went by to pick them up yesterday the price had dropped to $700. Yeah!
Restore also has appliances, fixtures and all sorts of things. Our AC guys is going to see if some units there will work for the AC. If so that will shave at least $1000 off my budget for AC. Believe it or not they have stainless steal appliances for under $100. Granted their used, but the 15 year appliances in my kitchen that are older than what Restore offers, work just fine. I might end up being their best customer by the time we're done.
Thanks to Craiglist.com, I bought a great stainless frig for the property. New they are at least $2000 for the 26 cubic meter ones. It's nicer than our kitchen fridge. I got it for $360, then it wouldn't fit in the jeep so the seller kindly accepted $40 to use his truck and deliver it to our house. Super nice guy because he had his kids and it was already 8:30pm.
Owen (the best 15 month old junior assistant ever) and I have collected loads of estimates and Andy can choose to not do any of the handiwork. As I type that last sentence he is picking up the cabinets that wouldn't fit on his original run and taking them over to the property- so I know he'll be actively involved because that's just the kind of guy he is. I was telling Andy this morning it is dangerous for me to go to the property because the more I go, the more I love it.
I have one more carpenter that is giving me a quote on Monday morning, otherwise we are set to dive into the work. Due to the holidays we initially had said we'd wait until January to worry with things. But we've knocked out a bit of leg work already. Three days before closing I called the city to schedule electric and water to be turned on. I was wrong in that assumption. They refused to connect it even in my name as Bank of America (the seller) owed taxes for 3 years onbehalf of the person that they had provide the loan as well as some crazy $825 waste removal charge that was two months over due.
I feel bad for BOA as they trusted someone with a loan who was negligent and ended up costing them far more than these city bills. The borrower did not keep the house in good condition so the list price was greatly lowered and BOA received at closing about $40,000 less than they were owed by the previous owner.
I plan on posting the contractors that give me good results at a fair price, as I would have LOVED to have had a list of trusted contractors as a starting place. Right now, no work has been done so I can't comfortably give an opinion.
Restore is the coolest thing. When people are renovating houses or have surplus unused materials they donate to Habitat for Humanity to sell at their Restore. All profits go to building new Habitat Homes. Since I couldn't find good looking cabinets for under $3000 new, I scouted Restore and found solid wood cherry stained ones for a steal at $950. I didn't want to buy them until we closed so when better half went by to pick them up yesterday the price had dropped to $700. Yeah!
Restore also has appliances, fixtures and all sorts of things. Our AC guys is going to see if some units there will work for the AC. If so that will shave at least $1000 off my budget for AC. Believe it or not they have stainless steal appliances for under $100. Granted their used, but the 15 year appliances in my kitchen that are older than what Restore offers, work just fine. I might end up being their best customer by the time we're done.
Thanks to Craiglist.com, I bought a great stainless frig for the property. New they are at least $2000 for the 26 cubic meter ones. It's nicer than our kitchen fridge. I got it for $360, then it wouldn't fit in the jeep so the seller kindly accepted $40 to use his truck and deliver it to our house. Super nice guy because he had his kids and it was already 8:30pm.
Owen (the best 15 month old junior assistant ever) and I have collected loads of estimates and Andy can choose to not do any of the handiwork. As I type that last sentence he is picking up the cabinets that wouldn't fit on his original run and taking them over to the property- so I know he'll be actively involved because that's just the kind of guy he is. I was telling Andy this morning it is dangerous for me to go to the property because the more I go, the more I love it.
I have one more carpenter that is giving me a quote on Monday morning, otherwise we are set to dive into the work. Due to the holidays we initially had said we'd wait until January to worry with things. But we've knocked out a bit of leg work already. Three days before closing I called the city to schedule electric and water to be turned on. I was wrong in that assumption. They refused to connect it even in my name as Bank of America (the seller) owed taxes for 3 years onbehalf of the person that they had provide the loan as well as some crazy $825 waste removal charge that was two months over due.
I feel bad for BOA as they trusted someone with a loan who was negligent and ended up costing them far more than these city bills. The borrower did not keep the house in good condition so the list price was greatly lowered and BOA received at closing about $40,000 less than they were owed by the previous owner.
I plan on posting the contractors that give me good results at a fair price, as I would have LOVED to have had a list of trusted contractors as a starting place. Right now, no work has been done so I can't comfortably give an opinion.
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