Contractor Meeting Yeah Right!!!

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71340Duster

71340Duster

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I've got more to do than I have time for to get my house ready to sell so the wife looked up some help on her face book page. Even though their "skill set" didn't quite align with everything we want to "farm out" I agreed to meet with them. The "boss" came in first, clearly a tweaker, don't ask me why I didn't ask her to leave. Since she didn't do the work and the "worker lead" was enroute I guess I wanted to check him out. We had mentioned that trim work amongst other carpentry type/painting things would be in the scope. Imagine my surprise when the kid informed me he hadn't used a staple gun.......NEXT!!!! I will ignore the Duster even more than I have (which is pretty bad as it is) and will get done what I can do, sweat equity is good. Rant over.
 
The last 2 houses I sold, I did a lot of the work myself and sub contracted certain things like paint to professional painters and carpet to professional carpet installers.

Best to act as your own general contractor as sub things as required.
 
gotta say, you're probably not going to find the skilled technician type(s) you're looking for on FaceBook or "XYZ.com" - - my best friend is a HIGHLY skilled carpenter (this doesn't help you as he lives on the east coast) - he doesn't do the internet. He is a freelance guy and ALL his work comes to him via word-of-mouth. What you need to do is ask around and find that local guy -- ask your buddies who they would call, go to a local tavern and ask around or maybe look for an ad up on a bulletin board at a grocery store etc. Just some food for thought - good luck! :thumbsup:
 
71340Duster said:
I've got more to do than I have time for to get my house ready to sell so the wife looked up some help on her face book page. Even though their "skill set" didn't quite align with everything we want to "farm out" I agreed to meet with them. The "boss" came in first, clearly a tweaker, don't ask me why I didn't ask her to leave. Since she didn't do the work and the "worker lead" was enroute I guess I wanted to check him out. We had mentioned that trim work amongst other carpentry type/painting things would be in the scope. Imagine my surprise when the kid informed me he hadn't used a staple gun.......NEXT!!!! I will ignore the Duster even more than I have (which is pretty bad as it is) and will get done what I can do, sweat equity is good. Rant over.
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I actually constructed my own house 32 years ago. And when I say constructed, I mean constructed. First of all, I bought the property from an old High School friend of mine that was in the building business with a friend. I bought a job and property they started but couldn't complete. 3ac nice country property. Only enough of the wooded lot was cleared for the foundation, so I spent a month cutting and grinding trees and stumps. The foundation was done already, and just the deck of the first floor. Building and septic permits included. So Wife and I looked at different house plans, and decided on a few different ones. So I drew up what we wanted on graph paper, and paid an architect 200 to do a set of pro plans. I bought the lumber from a local building supply co, that I was familiar with, and I (we) a few carpenter friends (2) framed and set every wall, and truss. We even sheathed the roof and shingled it myself. Also did all the trim, and set every window and door. I did have to pay an Electrician, plumber and HVAC guy, but they were all associates of mine. I build a 3500sf 2 story Custom Executive Colonial. I built it with 6in outside walls and R19 ins. 2 zone HVAC systems. Took me, just about a year to complete, working weekends and weeknights. But ,Sweat equity ? what a bonus, I found out I had 150k equity the moment I moved in... These days, I get the young bucks that hang out in my garage shop, to do minor repairs and clean gutters and such, as a trade off. I'd build another, in a heart beat...
 
I have a hard time even getting contractors to come over for a look. I give them my address and never show up or call back.
 
Yep, the most recent season of This Old House focused on lack of young people going into construction trades. If they can't do it while holding a phone in one hand, it wont get done.
Good luck to all.
 
I try to do as much of my own as I can. I thank dad for that, both helping and teaching. Currently redoing stairs and railing. Redoing floor trim paint and closet in spare bedroom for Loris mom. She moves in June 1st. Going up for sale as we need to get closer to Loris work (2hrs each way).
I love doing renos but moving into another fixer upper???

OP that "interview " was awesome! Did they ask you to like them on Facebook?
Hoping for a better outcome for you.
 
My suspicions were confirmed today about the people that came over to bid this work. Wife got some very interesting information today at work. She's a drug and alcohol counselor, has worked in detox, so there's no doubt that she could see this gal was tweaking. Today the wife's working in the jail, in a classroom where two of her clients are talking back and forth about how they used to fool everyone when they were on meth. My wife shared the story about the contractor that came over and how obvious it was, they asked what was the gals name (a very rare name). The wife tells them and they immediately say, "that's not her real name, she wears glasses right?" Yep, and then they tell my wife this person is bad news, they call her a "teller" and say we should hope she wasn't casing our house.....Great. The jail that my wife does counseling in is in a town 45 minutes away, amazing. So we are taking the spare key out of hiding, bringing it inside etc. Lesson learned for the wife and I won't let her set something like that up again.
 
I learned construction speak when I owner built our house. If they say "I should be able to get there today" that's 100% they aren'the coming. If they say "I will definitely be there today," it''s a 50/50 maybe.
 
moparmandan said:
I learned construction speak when I owner built our house. If they say "I should be able to get there today" that's 100% they aren'the coming. If they say "I will definitely be there today," it''s a 50/50 maybe.
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Yeah I think you're lucky if they show and you're lucky if they don't want crazy prices. In our case the text string for the quote to my wife went something like this:

Ok we can do the work for $4700
Wife: No thanks

Ok we can do it for $2000
Wife: No thanks

Ok we can do it for $2500
WHAT????
 
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