Yesterday, after traffic court but before a visit from my dear friend Janelle, the contractor Phil showed up to discuss our bathroom options. Something must be done about the current state of our upstairs loo. It didn’t take long for the conversation to go from a couple thousand dollars to a zillion dollars. But when you to say to a contractor, “It would be a dream if only you could…” Guess what, he can. The next step is to get a plumber in the house to tell us how difficult and expensive it will be to do what we want to do. Can’t wait for that. Tom and I are really excited about the prospects. Being able to brush our teeth without bumping into a wall will one day be a reality.
Shortly after the contractor left we got a visit from this cutie…
I recently put a giant addition onto my house. Whatever you figure you want to spend, add 20% to it cuz that’s how much you are really going to spend by the time it is all done. That’s OK, though, Liz, you work for a bank – they love to give out home equity credit lines!!
Paul, your message made me laugh! And Liz, what’s sad is that I’m sure he’s right about the 20%.
That baby is adorable!
Step 1 – find a solid referral!
Step 2 – get MULTIPLE QUOTES! (even if you had luck with step 1)
Step 3 – get it in writing – that applies to you to, don’t wishy-washy the contractor, know what you want and stick to it.
You can possibly get that 20% down a bit by doing your homework. In your case however, due to the age of the house, you never really can tell what you will find until the walls are down and the floor gets pulled.
City-C out yo!
City-C hits the nail right on the head! And be very specific in your contract with the contractos(s). You may think some items are a given, but next thing you know, the contractor didn’t realize you wanted something done, then you have to do add-ons to the contract….and that means more money. My extra 20% didn’t have to do with age of the house, but rather my wife changing her mind along the way, so that has just cut into her “new pair of shoes money” and “new purse money”….wait a minute, on second thought, she just modeled a new pair of sandals for me last night…I can’t win!