Gift of Gab

My husband can strike up a conversation with just about anyone . Until we had started this new house project this " gift " of his , had actually been a little annoying . I couldn't tell you the number of times I've sat , fuming in the car
, waiting for him to wrap up a conversation with a total stranger .
Because neither of us were familiar with codes we decided to sub contract the electric and plumbing . I ran an ad in a local publication , for plumbers and electricians . The response was overwhelming . Construction in this area of the country had dropped off considerably , and a lot of these guys were out of work . Judging from some of the bids we got they wanted to stay that way . It hadn't hit them that the "Boom" was over , and that they were going to have to go back to charging more , "realistic" , prices for their services .
My bid process was pretty simple , I had the contractors come out to the house and as we walked through , I told them what I wanted ,they took notes , and a couple of days later , they would send me their bids . I also used this walk through as a sort of interview . I knew that when it came time to do the actual job , I would be the one on site that they would be talking to , and if they couldn't , or weren't will to communicate with me on a level that I understood then I had no use for them . I had done my homework (thank goodness for the Internet ) and had become somewhat familiar with a lot of the housing industry jargon . I think I might have even impressed my husband a little ...no easy task after almost 25 years of marriage .
Any how after shifting through all the bids , and we had decided on an electrician , I was having trouble deciding on a plumber . We had bids from $10,000 dollars to $4200.00 all of which struck me as ridiculously high . As far as the plumbing went we had a very simple lay out , all the plumbing was on one side of the house in a straight line . Not that much in the way of materials or labor .
So while I'm trying to figure out if , and how , we could do this ourselves , my husband puts his "gift" into action . While stopping to get gas one day at a local convenience store , he had a plumbing company van pull up next to him . Being his normal self he struck up a conversation with the driver . Turned out that drive wasn't the owner of the company just an employee , and because work was really slack at that time his employer didn't mind that his guys did side work ( the company went out of business several months later ). He actually followed my husband home . We walked him through showed him what we needed , he went home worked up a quote and called back with it later that evening . He came in at a little under half of the lowest quote we had gotten . He wasn't licensed ,So we had to get the plumbing permit , but in our county the home owner can do their own plumbing and have who ever they want to assist , as long as they meet the codes . We didn't know the codes , this guy did . That problem solved .
His gift of gab came in handy several more times over the course of building our new house . Just from striking up conversations he found unemployed people in the insulation field , general labors , finish carpenters , painters ,the list goes on . Some we used , some we didn't . So my advise is TALK , to friends, relatives, co-workers , people you run into shopping . With the high unemployment numbers , there are oodles of talented people out there who would be grateful for the work , and you can save yourself a bundle of money . Post ads in local newspapers , community bulletin boards , home improvement stores . Ask for references .

Cutting Out The Middleman

The first thing we did when we finally receive the insurance pay out , was pay off the existing mortgage . Luckily we only owed a little under $30,000 . So our main goal , from that point on , was to remain mortgage free . Which played a big part in both , the how , and what , we were going to do about replacing our home . So now we're on a really strict budget .






The decision to build wasn't reached easily . It seems that , not only were my husband and I not on the same page , we apparently weren't even reading the same book . It took pretty close to a year , and many, many , trips to view model homes , talk to contractors , going back and looking at things a second and some times a third time .

After consulting with numerous contractors we came to the same conclusion , these guys were just middlemen . Almost all of the contractors we talked to , didn't have their own crews , they sub contracted all the work out . Hmm ...we could do this ! Now all we needed to do was , figure out how.

Most home improvement stores offer material packages , these packages include everything you need to build your new home . You can pick from their plans or use your own . We decided to go with a local, family owned building supply company . Mainly because we liked the salesman . We probably could have saved more money by going with one of the bigger chain stores , but like I said , we liked the salesman . He didn't treat me like some dumb female , and answered my numerous questions in a way that made sense to me . This was important to me , this house building business was foreign ground to me . He didn't have an , oh crap , here she is again attitude , when I showed up , or called , with questions .

As I said before you can either use your on plans , or pick from one of theirs . Some people can look at blue prints and start salivating , I look at blue prints and all I see are a bunch of lines on paper . If you tell me a room is 12' x 12" , unless I am standing in that room , I can't visualize the actual size . So we chose one of their plans , which I tweaked a little .

We decided on a Cape Cod . For practical reasons we also decided to have them , put the shell up . Now , we could have sub-contracted this our selves , and , if our situation had been different , we probably would have . But winter , was setting in .. again , we were both working , and we were living in a 40 year old trailer that was pretty much falling apart around us , and I , flat out refused to sink any money in it for repairs .

So in mid August, two years after the fire , ground was finally broken for our new house .