The place has potential but it's trashed right now. There have been tenants in there for like 10 consecutive years and it shows. We have to pull up all the carpets and paint the whole interior and also do some work in the kitchen. There's crazy sound transmission between the first floor (where my sister is living) and the top floor (see above), so we have to put down soundproofing material. We got 2 bids for this. One wants around $4,000 to do it and the other guy wants $17,500 in cash - no checks or credit card, like hand him stacks of $20s wrapped up in those little paper sleeves. SHAY DEE. Anyway, so yeah, that 13 grand difference kind of takes Guy #2 out of contention. I've never house shit before but is this standard? There's a 400% difference in bids to do the same thing? What the fuck?This whole thing is going to be fucking expensive and everyone's all "Oh, you should paint the interior yourselves" but fuck that, I'd rather pay someone and have it done right than do it myself.
ANYWAY, this is already a snooze so sorry about that. I'll try and have better content in the near future once this fucking stress bolus has passed through my system.
I'm glad you are aware that you're one step away from posting updates on how your hypothetical children took their first steps or made the softball team. Anyway, I would say get a third estimate? Or just ask your sister to turn down the volume on her screaming matches/drum practice?
ReplyDeletethat dog is so cute!
ReplyDelete;)
I'm one of those unfortunate people who has had a few bad experiences with shady contractors because I didn't do enough homework. The different amounts definitely show that you need at least two more estimates from other contractors. You never know, $17,000 could be the right price, but the wrong person. Less is not more when it comes to bids.
ReplyDeleteI've been learning how to do the whole homeowner thing too, and I think there are two important parts to the puzzle:
ReplyDelete1. Know when to hire an expert. I mean, I probably *could* install all new windows in the back of the house, or I could just hire somebody to do it right the first time and 10x as fast as I could.
2. Hiring a contractor is a business deal, get all cold-hearted-business-man on it. Just because you like somebody personally doesn't mean you shouldn't get more bids, demand it in writing, hold them to standards, and expect to get what you want.
I guess not handing over 17k in cash is another important part, but who knows, the guy could be a master craftsman who just hates banks, right? right?
Karen -
ReplyDeleteShe's OK. My dog is way cuter.
Sally & Subframe -
Thanks for the input. Everyone told us we should just paint the interior ourselves but neither one of us has ever done a big painting job and we decided to hire someone and have it done right at least once. We can fuck it up a room at a time next time.
I'll do it for $16k. No cash needed; I'll just shoot you my PayPal info!
ReplyDeleteSrsly, homework/research is key. I could go on about our House Project, but quite frankly, I'm trying to block it all out of my memory since it's such a constant project...
A subscription to angieslist.com should be a requisite for every new homeowner.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.angieslist.com/companylist/san-francisco/