Remodel: Multiple Bids
Of coarse with any home construction project you have to get multiple bids to get the work done. Our regular contractor is going to remodel his own home this summer, which means I am on the hunt for a new one. A family member whose a real estate agent hooked us up with a list of local contractors that are recommended by local agents. I went through the list and picked the one’s who had a few positive reviews online. I also asked around to friends and family for some recommendations. A friend recommended someone she’s used very often and most recently to remodel her restaurant.
One of the real estate agent listing was a small construction company. I won’t name names! The owner is extremely friendly and was pretty up front he’s expensive but that’s do to his business model. He doesn’t offer a general bid like most contractors. Instead they offer a all encompassing price, so no matter what, we pay the base. There is no added amounts during construction. For example, with the bath remodel, the bid was for around 10K and we ended up spending around 18K with all the extras. So this company would just quote us one price and consume the excess if needed, or so I thought!
I went to this companies office to go over the bids but for some reason they insisted that Clem be with me. I ultimately showed up alone. Then came the paperwork. I was handed 3 sheets or 3 options, basic, upgrade from basic and complete remodel. We’ve talked about flipping the living area so the kitchen is facing the back of the house but we’ve shelved that idea because we knew it would be expensive, and was it! Their basic option was 75K, the upgrade was 95K and the complete remodel option was 110K. Obviously if we did choose any of the 3 it would be the basic. But all I could think was, the custom cabinets are 20-25K where is the other 50K going? Something was stinky! Then I asked about, what if we went over the 75K. his response “oh well we would have to cut our cost in some area of the budget?” I replied with “So I would have to buy cheaper stone or install less lights?”, “Yes” he answered. Okay then!
Besides that meeting i did have 2 other bids and still waiting on a third. We are leaning towards the friend’s contractor at the moment. Doesn’t hurt he’s easy on the eyes, as our friend mentioned. But he asked a lot of questions and when I met with his cabinet maker I got a sense of friendship there. No not that kind of friendship. Simply they liked working together. Late last week I was pretty sure I was going to hire this contractor but wanted to mull it over some more. Then this weekend 2 of the doors fell off the existing cabinets. Luckily they did not completely fall of hurting someone. It was obvious sign I needed to get cracking. So Monday I fired off an email to Mario and he’s hired. So this ends the first blog post for the remodel.
(todays photo is shot of the door that is missing)