Nov 2007
Trees For Fees
Nov/27/07 11:22 PM
While browsing Craigslist I came across a guy who does tree-work for trade. And since I need the cedar tree in the front yard removed... I went to digging to find what I could trade. Turns out I had an extra gas grill laying around that, in fact, would be something extra that I would have to move anyway. So I sent him an email about it and he jumped all over it. What was a potential thorn in my side had just become an easily dealt-with solution with just a couple of clicks on the internet. My wife argues that I have some sort of iron-clad luck when it comes to such things, but I call it being resourceful.
Anyway, this gave me a great idea. I’m a graphic designer! I could trade my services. Most of these subcontractors, are guys that worked somewhere long enough to start their own one-man company. Most of which have a typical black on white 80lb stock business card that was designed in some template, or on their home computer. A virtual gold mine of potential trade. So I posted an ad on Craigslist stating that I am remodeling a house and I provided a list of things that I needed done, and in exchange I would do a logo design and business cards and also for extensive work I would be willing to do a website for them as well. I mean you haven’t REALLY made it until you have a website, right? So I posted the ad with a sample of a business card that I did for another local contractor, and not but 4 hrs later (after all it was 4:00 in the morning when I posted it) I got a phone call. Ironically enough, it was the tree guy from before! He needed a logo and a business card. So I thought about it, and I remembered that there was a 50 ft. maple tree in the back yard, that was dead and precariously overhanging the neighbor’s house. Turns out that the guy is insured and everything.
So to sum it up, I got $750 worth of tree service, I don’t have to worry about my neighbor’s house anymore, and I’m getting an old grill hauled off for me. And all it cost me was a few mouse clicks and a couple hours of my time.
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Architecture Lecture
Nov/21/07 11:21 PM
Yesterday I met with the architect, Bret Park, at the house. It was our second meeting and our first on site. Also in attendance was his intern Steven, who sketched the layout of the house and recorded all the numbers. Overall It went well, I even got to help out with some of the architecturing. Basically, I held the end of the tape measure, while they did all the important stuff. It was interesting, none-the-less, to see the process that goes into it even if it is just a bit of measuring. It was also interesting to hear Bret explaining the significance of certain architectural features of craftsman style homes to Steven, who was soaking it up like a sponge.
Bret told me he was following the blog and encouraged me to keep it up. I guess that means I better say nice things. Speaking of saying nice things, He told me that it was “a great house”, at that I unintentionally laughed out loud. He assured me that he meant it. So I guess that if an architect tells you that it’s a great house, you can take that to the bank.
My wife and I are excited about getting started on the house. We plan on doing most of the work ourselves, but we feel that it is necessary to have an architect to provide us with a road map. I mean, you wouldn’t just jump in a car and drive to Outer Mongolia without a map, would you? Anyways, we are going into this holiday with anticipation to see the proposal that Bret is working up for us. If I wake up from my turkey induced coma, I’ll let you know how it goes.
The Termite Situation 2
Nov/17/07 11:20 PM
I had thought that this situation could possibly end up going horribly awry. I couldn’t have been more wrong...
First off the original quote for the termite situation had been grossly over estimated, thus when the sellers found someone else that would do the job cheaper, they offered us more money to fix the foundation. Originally they could only afford a portion of the $10,000 it was going to take to fix the foundation.
Friday, I had the new termite guy and our foundation specialist meet and I have to say, it couldn’t have gone any better. Both the foundation guy, and the new termite guy confirmed that, while there was evidence of past termite activity, only superficial damage had occurred to the structure. The termite guy noted that it was possible that the termite activity was over 50 years old. He also agreed to do the dig-out for what the seller was paying him and discussed this with the foundation guy. He too agreed that it should be done.
The foundation guy indicated that the sill, where the supposed damage had occurred, was solid oak and completely intact. In fact, I witnessed him smacking the hell out of it with a hammer. While there were bits of termite mud-tunnels flying everywhere, the sill and joists were solid. Apparently with real termite damage, you could pierce the wood with a screwdriver. This, in turn, indicated that no carpentry needed to be done to repair termite damage. It would have been easy enough for anyone of them to convince me that there was indeed termite damage to the structure and that thousands of dollars in work needed to be done. This is the benefit of having good recos. And also having multiple subs inspecting the problems at the same time, keeps them straight.
So as it turned out. The new termite guy will put a policy on the house, prior to closing. He will dig the dirt out from under the low porch. The seller will pay for it. The termite guy will spray after the foundation guys are done. No major carpentry is needed for damage repair. My foundation guy gave me the approval on the work the termite guy is doing. On top of all of that, the seller is giving us 2g more...
Praise The Appraisal
Nov/15/07 11:19 PM
Woohoo, our appraisal came in $5,000 above the purchase price. However, originally we did have the seller come down on the price by $14,000. Would we have been over the appraisal had we paid the full price? I dunno, it seems that every time I’ve had an appraisal done it has come in right at the purchase price, but I’m guessing that is purely coincidence. Anyway, a couple of good ‘ol boys at Boston Mountain Appraisals did the work. They have done some work for me in the past and I was sure to request that our lender use them. The company belongs to Chris Hamaker, who owns a couple houses in my neighborhood, so I fully trust his work as to the value of the house. If you need an appraisal, I would call these guys.
Tomorrow morning I have a meeting with the termite and the foundation guy. One is saying one thing and the other is saying something else. It will be interesting to see what comes of that. My wife conveniently has a “meeting” she has to go in early for and can’t be there for the showdown... Hopefully it won’t come to blows.
Moving Forward
Nov/08/07 11:14 PM
Ok, since the foundation came in higher than what was reasonable, we took it back to the seller in a counter offer. They agreed to pay for a portion of the foundation work but not all of it. This seemed somewhat reasonable to me, being that is an older home and such things are generally expected. Kristin, on the other hand... was not as enthused about it. And I have to say it was, at one point during our discussion, the “deal breaker”. She was set on backing out of the deal, but with a lot of convincing on my part we decided to proceed. I think at one point, I convinced her that if the deal didn’t work out that I would, in fact, do the dishes for the rest of my life... So now we’re moving forward with the appraisal in which case if the appraisal doesn’t come back satisfactory, we can still back out of the deal. This hopefully shouldn’t be an issue.
Quotes
Nov/02/07 11:12 PM
Well
the price quotes are coming in, The electrician
brought in a quote for $4,000 which is $1,000
less than I budgeted. But the plumber, the
plumber I’ve been using for years, quoted me
$15,000. Yikes I’d budgeted $8,000 tops. Then
good Ol’ Randy Johnson of Johnson Brothers
foundation specialists called me with a quote
yesterday. Remember when the inspector told me
it could cost $40,000 and then Randy said to
expect 10’s of thousands. Well, he quoted me
$10,000 for the foundation. I have to say I
never expected to be happy about someone telling
me that it was going to cost me $10,000 to fix
something. Honestly, while I should shop around
for this I think that having someone so thorough
and good at what they do, worth it. We’ll see
after it’s done.