Hi y'all

pyper

Hi y'all,

I wish I had found out about this place a long time ago. We've been renovating our house one room at a time. We did the bathroom first, about 8 years ago. Then we added on 400SF for a new kitchen. Then we took two bedrooms down to the studs to create a master BR and dressing room. We lived with that a couple years and then took the space where the old kitchen had been away (that is, past the studs) and rebuilt that into a music studio.

We used various contractors to do that work, to varying degrees. Now that I've found this place we're on our last room. I'm doing most of the work. We tore it down to the studs and I re-framed new studs inside the old, squaring and plumbing everything. We've got the electric & insulation in, and the drywall guys have two layers of mud up. Not too much longer.

tdubs

I just found this place too. I'm hoping it comes in handy. I just bought a 1270 sf piece O crap. Plan is a total redo plus another 1650 sf up.
Are you doing the work yourself because your sick of paying contractors or you've seen enoughe to do yourself now?

pyper

I'm actually working with a contractor. That is, he comes over and helps from time to time, but he mainly only wants to work if I'm there working too. He must be the only contractor in the country who wants the homeowner involved.

In part it's because of the cost -- the hourly cost-to-me of the guys swinging the hammers (don't know how much of that they take home) is generally higher than my hourly take-home.

In part it's because renovation is tedious to do a good job at. I'm willing to cut each piece to fit and to check to make sure everything is plumb, square, and in the same plane, but the contractors we've worked with in the past pretty much weren't. So even if you're willing to pay, it's not always possible to get the work done the way you want it.

And I have all the tools and know how to use them. Having a licensed contractor available to bounce ideas off of is a great plus.