Too many contractors
How many contractors working on your house is too many? I'm not sure but I think I'm getting there. Overseeing and scheduling their work feels like a full time job. I thought I had a plan in place for when to have who come but then my tenants threw a wrench into my plans. They gave me a move out date and so I worked out a plan and was about to schedule everyone. Then they emailed to see if they could stay a little longer because they had some sort of snafu with their new place. They are supposed to let us know this weekend their new plans. Then I can create a new plan, reschedule my days off and hopefully move forward. I really would just like to get done or get something done. If anything every gets truly finished I'm going to post photos.
Here what I've got going:
Roofing Contractor - This is where it all began really since the hole in my roof kicked off everything else. After having to cancel their planned start of work due to a big snow storm last month it now seems they'll be arriving on March 17 to begin work. It will take at least a week to finish.
Insulation Contractor - This must now be coordinated with the roofing. The attic can't be done until the roof is done but needs to be done before the floors are refinished. Our dining room walls need to be done once the old roof is off but before the new roof is back on. That should be easy, right???
Floor Refinishing Contractor - The upstairs wood floors need to be refinished after our tenants move out and after I repaint all the rooms and after the insulation is put in. It needs to be done before we install a washer and dryer in the upstairs closet.
Painting Contractor (oh, wait that is me actually) - Needs to be done on days I can have off from work and before the floors are refinished. I have to paint everything in the upstairs apartment as we let the current tenants paint in really bright colors which would match few people's furniture. I'm hoping that some of the trim will be okay though without painting since that can really take time. My plans to paint my own kitchen are on indefinite hold (maybe 2015).
Plumbing/Electrical Contractor - We need to have the plumbing and electrical done for installing a laundry in a large closet upstairs. I've been researching this like crazy as I want to make sure I have it done right so we don't end up with water overflowing into our apartment downstairs. I'm planning to hire one firm that does both plumbing and gas/electrical as I can only handle one company being on this job.
General Handyman 1 - We need to have him do a variety of remaining tasks. He has to finish caulking and grouting the bathroom tile once the apartment is empty (he needs to have at least one day where the bathroom isn't being used so it drys properly). Once the current tenants move and the roof is done he has to fix the spot in the upstairs kitchen pantry that has water damage. We also have 2 upstairs windows for him to replace as they are very old and energy inefficient. Eventually we have some downstairs windows that need replaced and some doors but those are lower priority as we need everything upstairs done so we can show the apartment.
General Handyman 2/Woodworker - He is cutting down our kitchen cabinet doors that we need shortened because our new oven is taller. He is also making a butcher block top for our dishwashwer to replace the plywood board that we have on their now. I just let him do his thing as there is no rush on this either.
Cabinet Refinisher - This job may be mine as well. All of the lower cabinets and drawers in the upstairs apartment have worn spots. I'm not too excited about cleaning, sanding and restaining them myself but I'm going to try. If I run out of time I may need to employ my woodworker for some assistance.
My advice is to never remodel your house unless you are rich and can hire a General Contractor to oversee all your other contractors. It is, of course, even more challenging with my jobs since half of the house is rented out and we need to give 24-hour notice for every time we need to look at something, have a contractor come for an estimate or to have a contractor do work. Earlier this week I even had thoughts of just getting one estimate for a job because I was tired of the whole make an appt, contact the tenants, take time off to meet the contractor for the estimate. I liked the person from the company and I felt like just giving him the job so I didn't have to do this a couple more time. However, I have sucked it up and will be doing the work to get other estimates. It's just takes so much time and I'm burning my precious vacation time which sucks (although I can't afford to go anywhere so it probably doesn't matter).
Add to that trying to figure out a strategy for how to rent an apartment with many projects that are not done. That's fun. I've showed it once and it was not my favorite thing since it required the person to imagine what things will look like when they are all done.
Okay, enough about that. In other news I have been finding some time for skiing. I got out to Lapham Peak this weekend on both Saturday and Sunday (unplanned but I forgot something there Saturday so had to go back on Sunday so I just skied some more while I was there). I did ski school again this week on Tuesday which was tough as always. I'm maybe going to ski Nordic or McMiller this weekend just in case next week's warm weather puts an end to the ski fun. I've been surrounding myself with the ski crowd as I'm not ready to have the season end. I hear of people who are riding or desperate to ride or whatever. I'm not one of them. I'm happy gliding along on the skis.
Some bike things have been going on though. I had the annual cyclocross promoters meeting and the schedule should be online soon. It's going to be a great season kicked off with UCI races at Angell Park.
I also made the decision that I would not be able to volunteer with the Practice Crits this year so someone else is going to have to wrangle the corner guard volunteers. I just don't see any way I can commit to every Tuesday for two months. It felt good to finally say No to something. I may have to do that some more!
Here what I've got going:
Roofing Contractor - This is where it all began really since the hole in my roof kicked off everything else. After having to cancel their planned start of work due to a big snow storm last month it now seems they'll be arriving on March 17 to begin work. It will take at least a week to finish.
Insulation Contractor - This must now be coordinated with the roofing. The attic can't be done until the roof is done but needs to be done before the floors are refinished. Our dining room walls need to be done once the old roof is off but before the new roof is back on. That should be easy, right???
Floor Refinishing Contractor - The upstairs wood floors need to be refinished after our tenants move out and after I repaint all the rooms and after the insulation is put in. It needs to be done before we install a washer and dryer in the upstairs closet.
Painting Contractor (oh, wait that is me actually) - Needs to be done on days I can have off from work and before the floors are refinished. I have to paint everything in the upstairs apartment as we let the current tenants paint in really bright colors which would match few people's furniture. I'm hoping that some of the trim will be okay though without painting since that can really take time. My plans to paint my own kitchen are on indefinite hold (maybe 2015).
Plumbing/Electrical Contractor - We need to have the plumbing and electrical done for installing a laundry in a large closet upstairs. I've been researching this like crazy as I want to make sure I have it done right so we don't end up with water overflowing into our apartment downstairs. I'm planning to hire one firm that does both plumbing and gas/electrical as I can only handle one company being on this job.
General Handyman 1 - We need to have him do a variety of remaining tasks. He has to finish caulking and grouting the bathroom tile once the apartment is empty (he needs to have at least one day where the bathroom isn't being used so it drys properly). Once the current tenants move and the roof is done he has to fix the spot in the upstairs kitchen pantry that has water damage. We also have 2 upstairs windows for him to replace as they are very old and energy inefficient. Eventually we have some downstairs windows that need replaced and some doors but those are lower priority as we need everything upstairs done so we can show the apartment.
General Handyman 2/Woodworker - He is cutting down our kitchen cabinet doors that we need shortened because our new oven is taller. He is also making a butcher block top for our dishwashwer to replace the plywood board that we have on their now. I just let him do his thing as there is no rush on this either.
Cabinet Refinisher - This job may be mine as well. All of the lower cabinets and drawers in the upstairs apartment have worn spots. I'm not too excited about cleaning, sanding and restaining them myself but I'm going to try. If I run out of time I may need to employ my woodworker for some assistance.
My advice is to never remodel your house unless you are rich and can hire a General Contractor to oversee all your other contractors. It is, of course, even more challenging with my jobs since half of the house is rented out and we need to give 24-hour notice for every time we need to look at something, have a contractor come for an estimate or to have a contractor do work. Earlier this week I even had thoughts of just getting one estimate for a job because I was tired of the whole make an appt, contact the tenants, take time off to meet the contractor for the estimate. I liked the person from the company and I felt like just giving him the job so I didn't have to do this a couple more time. However, I have sucked it up and will be doing the work to get other estimates. It's just takes so much time and I'm burning my precious vacation time which sucks (although I can't afford to go anywhere so it probably doesn't matter).
Add to that trying to figure out a strategy for how to rent an apartment with many projects that are not done. That's fun. I've showed it once and it was not my favorite thing since it required the person to imagine what things will look like when they are all done.
Okay, enough about that. In other news I have been finding some time for skiing. I got out to Lapham Peak this weekend on both Saturday and Sunday (unplanned but I forgot something there Saturday so had to go back on Sunday so I just skied some more while I was there). I did ski school again this week on Tuesday which was tough as always. I'm maybe going to ski Nordic or McMiller this weekend just in case next week's warm weather puts an end to the ski fun. I've been surrounding myself with the ski crowd as I'm not ready to have the season end. I hear of people who are riding or desperate to ride or whatever. I'm not one of them. I'm happy gliding along on the skis.
Some bike things have been going on though. I had the annual cyclocross promoters meeting and the schedule should be online soon. It's going to be a great season kicked off with UCI races at Angell Park.
I also made the decision that I would not be able to volunteer with the Practice Crits this year so someone else is going to have to wrangle the corner guard volunteers. I just don't see any way I can commit to every Tuesday for two months. It felt good to finally say No to something. I may have to do that some more!
posted by MadCross at 12:52 PM
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