In my last post, I spoke about the scary quotes we've been getting. I really appreciated the input and support we received from a number of you -you know who you are!
Rest assured, we are preparing for battle (Thanks Greg) and we are going to perservere until we find a way to get this project done cost-effectively and without sacrificing quality. Put bluntly, we don't want cheap shoddy work. We may move up there and it needs to be of the best quality we can afford. And besides, if this project goes over-budget it cuts directly into the engagement ring fund. I'm sure you can imagine how fiercely I'd be guarding those reserves.
What can we do to help cut costs if we can't do the bulk of the work ourselves due to time constraints? Well, we are already being our own independant contractors and getting our own permits. Steve is the man on this job since he works for himself and has more flexibility than I do.
But what else can we do?
We came up with a few things that we can do to cut costs. Some of the ideas we got from newspaper and magazine articles. Feel free to throw in your own- we can use all the help we can get at this point.
1. Painting.
2. Removing the wood trim and the nails before giving to stripper guy.
3. Sanding and finishing the wood.
4. Doing the job cleanup every day will save $3000 in labor costs for a 2-month project.
5. Stripping the door and window jambs and window sills.
6. Tiling the kitchen backsplash and Bathroom.
7. Buying and managing delivery of all materials, supplies and finishes.
So as you can see, we'll have plenty to do in the 2 months the project is going on.
2 comments:
I have this habit of buying things I need for upcoming projects when I have a little extra cash....hopefully on sale. Then I store them in the basement. When finally have the time to do the project I don't have to spend it shopping & I don't have to lay out all of the cash at one time.
Have you thought of doing the electrical yourself? We remodeled our kitchen, and when we got the quotes for the kitchen, we thought, "NO WAY!" The quotes were ranging at about the $3,000 mark. My husband called over a friend who knew some about wiring (he'd done home projects himself) and the friend volunteered two days of full-time work to explain the basics, then my husband bought three books. All in all it cost about $300 for materials...just check on the code for wires before beginning 'cause he installed all the wiring, then had to pull it back out because he'd put in a higher voltage than was up to code (which we just didn't understand...isn't better good??)
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