I’m kind of a hypocrite. I have a very strong dislike of wood paneling. But if I call it bead board and plan to paint it white…suddenly it’s chic to me. I can’t explain my thought process. At any rate, the stairs and laundry center are lined with bead board. And I like it.
For me, one of the hardest parts of a project is outsourcing the stuff we can’t do ourselves. It’s not a control thing. I like skills…but really, I don’t have a desire to be a master plumber or a wiring guru. It’s definitely not that I think I could do better. Some things I would gladly leave to the pros. Maybe it’s the money. Maybe it’s that I don’t know enough about construction to know what is fair or what is necessary–so I get flustered. It’s just hard.
But, there comes a time on every major project that a contractor is needed. So, after the studs were up and the walls were framed in…it was time for me to make some calls. I guess that’s the other hard part about contracting jobs out: the calls. I don’t know who to call. Half the time I don’t even know where to start. And after a terrible experience with an electrician during the bedroom remodel…I’ve been a little wary that I’d get another dud.
When I look for a contractor here’s my basic process. Step 1. Ask for referrals. From real people. That I really {at least kind of} know in real life. The Internet is good for reviews, but I trust a face to face review over five stars on Google. I ask around at church, the gym, the coffee shop…basically anywhere I can get a small-talk conversation going about my latest project.
Step 2. Internet. I like to cross check word of mouth referrals with the what people are saying online. If asking around didn’t yield any results I go to Angie’s List. It’s a bonus if they are registered with the BBB.
Step 3. Call at least three. Get them to come out and give you a quote. See what they think would be best for your project. I give preference to contractors that don’t look at me like I’m an idiot when I explain that we’d like to do part of the work ourselves…and who don’t seem judgy that a girl is lining up the project.
We got three quotes on electric and three quotes on plumbing. And as luck would have it, they were able to come during the same week. That was really nice because once the studs were up there really wasn’t much we could do ourselves until the fancy stuff was taken care of.
During their estimate visits, the electricians brought a slight code violation to my attention. Turns out you can’t put a circuit panel in the back of a closet…awkward. Really, it makes perfect sense…but we hadn’t thought about it. As to prevent a fire hazard…we changed the layout of our closet.
You can see the closet in the photo below. The panel is that open boxy thing right under the joists to the right of the window. Originally the closet would have gone all the way to the ceiling and been flush with the side of the circuit housing. To leave it exposed we created a shelf/cubby closet next to the full height closet. Make sense? I don’t look at it as losing closet width, but gaining a cubby and a shelf. {Lemonade, am I right?}
The electricians came and did their preliminary work and told us to call them back to the job once we had the drywall and ceiling in place.
The plumbers came and did something similar. They roughed in the basic set up then came back to finish. This meant we got to go shopping for the fixtures we wanted. After weeks of 2×4’s and toe nailing getting to even think about shower stalls and sinks made it feel like we were getting places.
The plumbers were kind enough to let us fix the concrete that they had to jack hammer up in their process. It took an afternoon for Derek to get it done…but in the end we saved about $300 by doing it ourselves! {And it was pretty easy with the help of that darling baby cement mixer we rented for $20! Notice the girl with the bad back…who was unable to lift or help in the concrete process at all was calling it “easy”…}
Next time I write about the basement I’ll show off the bathroom {it’s nearly done now!} and I’ll tell you a very embarrassing story. But right now, I’m off to sort some more senior photos and cut some door casing.
Amy
