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TooMuchAbstraction posted:Oh yeah, I would stay the gently caress away from any "smart home" or "Internet of Things" devices. Everything I've read about them indicates the developers give precisely zero shits about security, and you're just leaving yourself open to abuse / loss of privacy by installing them. You may think "okay, but how important is that really?", but if an attacker can just figure out when you're not in the house, then they can burglarize you. Nah, your average home burglar is all about opportunity, eg window left open or garage door left open kind of thing. It's incredibly unlikely sometime predisposed to petty home theft is gonna locally hack into your home network to disable your security system--99% of burglars will just move on to the next house without a security system. It's the same exact reason all our physical door locks all utilize a hundred year old design that's laughable from any security standpoint. The locks are there to inspire trust in each other, not because they're worthwhile in preventing a half determined criminal. Also, smart locks are awesome, just throwing that out there. Conduit is 100% the way to go. All the smart home stuff is wireless and operates on coin cell lithium batteries anyways. Only thing I'd want to hardware are cameras. It's pretty cool getting notifications about arrivals/departures, or reminders when you leave that a window is open. The nest stuff is cool because the nest protect will shut off the furnace if it senses carbon monoxide for instance, and warn you exactly where it senses smoke before blaring the alarm so you can stop out if you're just burning stuff in the oven. If you've got Sonos, that actually works right out of the box with smart things. You can, for instance, set it to sound an alarm if x sensor is tripped, and set your lights to turn red and send you an alert. Guarantee most home intruders run away at that. The water sensor is fantastic too, just set that somewhere water leak prone (like my basement or laundry hoses) and fuhgettaboutit. They even sell auto shutoff valves you can add in, so, for instance, if your laundry hose bursts (as they tend to do) your water is immediately shut off before the room floods. Not everything is 100% there yet, but this is the first year it's really, truly good.
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Apr 6, 2016 21:33
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OSU_Matthew posted:Also, smart locks are awesome, just throwing that out there. Which often rely on old mechanical keys as backup... but again "keeping honest people honest". I personally have the commercial grade Medeco locks, big freakin' doors, security hinges, screw threw frame into bucks, etc... in addition to an alarm. If you want my stuff you're going to need to work for it.  None of that really needs to be incorporated into a home before hand unless you want to do things like controlling motorized blinds, something like an electric strike to "buzz" people inside, cameras, etc... things that need low voltage. Cool stuff, but superfluous for most.
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Apr 7, 2016 02:39
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OSU_Matthew posted:They even sell auto shutoff valves you can add in, so, for instance, if your laundry hose bursts (as they tend to do) your water is immediately shut off before the room floods. They make ones that don't need to tie in to "smart" home systems. But it's still cheaper to just buy laundry hoses that don't tend to burst.
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Apr 7, 2016 03:02
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TooMuchAbstraction posted:Oh yeah, I would stay the gently caress away from any "smart home" or "Internet of Things" devices. Everything I've read about them indicates the developers give precisely zero shits about security, and you're just leaving yourself open to abuse / loss of privacy by installing them. You may think "okay, but how important is that really?", but if an attacker can just figure out when you're not in the house, then they can burglarize you. Yeah, especially don't get in with Nest. They're in financial trouble, and if they go under your snazzy wi-fi thermostat will be a brick.
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Apr 7, 2016 03:24
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Liquid Communism posted:Yeah, especially don't get in with Nest. They're in financial trouble, and if they go under your snazzy wi-fi thermostat will be a brick. Or even if they are owned by Alphabet and have effectively unlimited financial resources: https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2016/apr/05/revolv-devices-bricked-google-nest-smart-home
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Apr 7, 2016 04:14
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OSU_Matthew posted:Nah, your average home burglar is all about opportunity, eg window left open or garage door left open kind of thing. It's incredibly unlikely sometime predisposed to petty home theft is gonna locally hack into your home network to disable your security system--99% of burglars will just move on to the next house without a security system. It's the same exact reason all our physical door locks all utilize a hundred year old design that's laughable from any security standpoint. The locks are there to inspire trust in each other, not because they're worthwhile in preventing a half determined criminal. Also, smart locks are awesome, just throwing that out there. The security concerns I'd have around the smart devices aren't the local burglar. It's the script kiddy in russia that gets photos of me in my batman underoos or turns my doorbell into a spam relay. Or even just bricks the devices for fun. House plans due in tomorrow. Wife & I made a detailed list of what we'd like to see in all the rooms. Will be trying to get in builder's schedules next week to go over it and start bid process. This process made me remember when we redid our bathroom. At one point we spent 4 hours picking out floor tile in home depot. Hopefully the marriage survives a home build. Visited a kitchen showroom. They do free top to bottom design work (cabinets, countertops, fixtures, lighting, etc.) so we'll probably take them up on that. Even if it's just to hand to the builder to give an idea of the style/quality that we want. They also mentioned it's good to do that early since you still have some control over things like window-placement and you can plan for standard cabinet designs and avoid custom work. God damned lawyer on the land purchase is dragging his feet. Should have been a done-deal by now.
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Apr 7, 2016 13:48
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Gounads posted:They do free top to bottom design work (cabinets, countertops, fixtures, lighting, etc.) so we'll probably take them up on that. Even if it's just to hand to the builder to give an idea of the style/quality that we want. They also mentioned it's good to do that early since you still have some control over things like window-placement and you can plan for standard cabinet designs and avoid custom work. I know it's a part of the business but that's kind of a jerk move and not even all that helpful for the contractor. They justify doing the "design work" (really they're pulling from a catalog, dragging and dropping, their probably using 20/20 which is like the Sketchup of millwork design) by being the supplier. I doubt they'll just hand over drawings that will be helpful for the next guy that is working from catalog B instead of catalog A that is actually getting the job. It's wasting their time if you don't intend to use them. You'd be better served to ask the contractor to have an allowance for kitchen install with whoever they prefer working with or to just leave it blank for the kitchen supplier to come in later. You'd also be surprised though. Locally there might be a millwork person that can do anything custom for about the same price because there's no middle man. When the kitchen people say it's custom they're kind of half lying out of their asses... they just mean it's not on a shelf made already on some other part of the country. It doesn't cost them a drat bit more to do it. It's just which file they hit "cut" on for their CNC routers pushing out the pieces.
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Apr 7, 2016 14:38
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^^ What still needs done with the land purchase lawyer?Zhentar posted:They make ones that don't need to tie in to "smart" home systems. But it's still cheaper to just buy laundry hoses that don't tend to burst. These are awesome! Thanks for the link--I'm gonna pick up a set. I've got steel braided hose, which is slightly more resilient, but it's going on six-seven years now and it's probably about time to replace them anyways. Laundry hoses were just an example for a water sensor, my basement used to flood and even though I'm pretty sure I've fixed the source of the problem, it's good to have some warning if it ever happens again. I heard about the revolv hub thing, that's an incredibly short sighted thing to do when you're trying to build confidence around a product designed to incorporate into the life span of a home. I completely agree with a lot of the criticism, but I'm of the mindset that there's a lot of really cool potential with home automation, and it's been a cheap way for me to get some peace of mind around home security and safety with some extra added convenience in the process.
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Apr 7, 2016 14:42
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xwing posted:I know it's a part of the business but that's kind of a jerk move and not even all that helpful for the contractor. They justify doing the "design work" (really they're pulling from a catalog, dragging and dropping, their probably using 20/20 which is like the Sketchup of millwork design) by being the supplier. I doubt they'll just hand over drawings that will be helpful for the next guy that is working from catalog B instead of catalog A that is actually getting the job. It's wasting their time if you don't intend to use them. You'd be better served to ask the contractor to have an allowance for kitchen install with whoever they prefer working with or to just leave it blank for the kitchen supplier to come in later. The guy we talked to suggested it. Said something like "After the design your builder can have us install, do it themselves, or go off and buy somewhere else." He was pretty confident they would be competitive with anyone else. It will be of value to us in figuring out what we want. OSU_Matthew posted:^^ What still needs done with the land purchase lawyer? Apparently he had been sitting on his hands waiting for me to deliver documents that I had already delivered.
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Apr 7, 2016 15:07
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Liquid Communism posted:Yeah, especially don't get in with Nest. They're in financial trouble, and if they go under your snazzy wi-fi thermostat will be a brick. At least a Nest thermostat is still useful when not connected to anything. I put one in my office because it's an easy way to have an occupancy sensor to turn the heat/ac down when nobody is in there. It also does a drat good job of figuring out how long to run my radiant heat without overshooting the temperature.
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Apr 7, 2016 15:10
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Gounads posted:The guy we talked to suggested it. Said something like "After the design your builder can have us install, do it themselves, or go off and buy somewhere else." He was pretty confident they would be competitive with anyone else. It will be of value to us in figuring out what we want. That's quite a deal. As long as the contractor is cool with it. There's usually a bit of back scratching and no one likes being pushed out for a "favored" sub contractor so I'm surprised they'd do that without distinct advantage (like the "designer"/sales guy getting a commission).
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Apr 7, 2016 16:14
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OSU_Matthew posted:^^ What still needs done with the land purchase lawyer? The Floodcheck ones are possibly not so great http://structuretech1.com/2012/07/floodsafe-washing-machine-connectors/ You want one of these instead: http://www.timeoutbykeeney.com/ I retrofitted one in place of a couple rusty gate valves, and it's been working pretty well so far!
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Apr 10, 2016 00:11
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Got plans in hand. One thing on them... they generally call for pre-fab floor joists. Anything to know/worry about them vs. standard dimensional lumber? From what I read they're fine and are used to span longer distances. Meeting with one builder on Thursday to go over plans, see the land, and start the bid process. Waiting to hear back from the others.
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Apr 10, 2016 13:32
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Gounads posted:Got plans in hand. They are cheaper, straighter, lighter, easier to work with, more consistently carry the load they are engineered for and available in much longer lengths than the poo poo fast growth pine lumber available these days. They are more susceptible to water damage, but that's hardly a concern as you should not have your joists getting rained on. They are also marginally more likely to fail in a heavy fire situation simply because there is less of them to burn. But we're not talking anywhere near engineered truss with gusset plates kinda bad.
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Apr 10, 2016 13:43
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AFewBricksShy posted:A friend of mine has a more modern version of that in his house, and he told me that's the one thing he would change about the house. While it looks cool, it makes 2 medium sized rooms instead of one awesome room, and he wishes he hadn't done that. My first house had an awesome huge centre room and aside from parties it was a pain in the butt. You can't really do anything with it except to put a pool table in it and then you've blocked thoroughfare (and have a great space for collecting junk besides.) We moved out before we had any kids but I can just imagine it would be even worse with toys everywhere.
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Apr 10, 2016 14:07
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Motronic posted:But we're not talking anywhere near engineered truss with gusset plates kinda bad. Depends on what is being called a "pre-fab floor joist". Because "flat trusses" sometimes used for floors are exactly that, but that's such a generic name it could just as easily be referring to a wood "I-beam". This preoccupation with fire is fascinating to me... is it some phenomenon in the rest of the country that there's a good chance your home will go up in flames? If you have a house fire your place is going to be wrecked short of a sprinkler system that puts it out early. Seems like a goofy thing to go out of your way for. Then again I've had to dissuade clients that a 8" core ICF home was unnecessary to survive a hurricane.
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Apr 11, 2016 13:20
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I'm pretty sure Motronic is a Fire Marshall or something, so thinking of fire safety first makes sense for him. Gounads, this is a great thread. I appreciate you letting us peek into your world of home-building. If you ever find yourself near the Boston area, let me know and I'll buy ya a drink. 
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Apr 11, 2016 15:33
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Lawyer finally called back with actual news. Going in to sign and finalize everything Thursday afternoon.xwing posted:This preoccupation with fire is fascinating to me... is it some phenomenon in the rest of the country that there's a good chance your home will go up in flames? If you have a house fire your place is going to be wrecked short of a sprinkler system that puts it out early. Seems like a goofy thing to go out of your way for. Then again I've had to dissuade clients that a 8" core ICF home was unnecessary to survive a hurricane. I'm glad I wasn't the only one thinking like that. Personally, when weighing risks like that, I've been trying to compare it to my current living situation and as long as it's less-risky I've been content. I'm pretty sure any code-compliant house will be better than our current one. So, when I talk with the builder on Thursday, should I be talking about materials quality or anything? I know the plans specify what type, but should I be requesting a certain grade of lumber or not using OSB or anything similar? I'd like to make sure the bids I get are targeting the same quality in that regard. Side-note, just down the street a new house is going in. It's been really fun driving by every day and imagining the progress on my own later this year.
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Apr 11, 2016 16:24
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SouthShoreSamurai posted:I'm pretty sure Motronic is a Fire Marshall or something, so thinking of fire safety first makes sense for him. Makes sense. I was talking in general though because that's it's come up a few times in threads asking about residential sprinklers and really if your electrical contractor wires the home well fire is going to be negligence way more often than random defects (do you plan on storing hoverboards? or leaving a janky space heater on while you sleep next to curtains?). To me at least it doesn't seem like financially it makes sense over insuring your home well. I guess people who bring it up are more about the not dying part though...
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Apr 11, 2016 16:28
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xwing posted:To me at least it doesn't seem like financially it makes sense over insuring your home well. I guess people who bring it up are more about the not dying part though... Yeah, it's not so much about saving the house as it is about giving you a few extra minutes to get out, and in some cases allowing the fire department to actually go into the house to perform search and rescue. I'm pretty sure I've seen Motronic say that if your house has engineered trusses supporting the roof, the firefighters often aren't allowed to go into the house because it's too easy for the roof to collapse. This kind of thing is all about deciding where you stand on the spectrum of risk vs. investment. At one extreme, you live in a nonflammable structure with a commercial-grade sprinkler system installed just in case...on the other side, your house is made out of matchsticks, insulated with sawdust, and located in Southern California. Thing is, right now is the best time to be deciding where you stand on that spectrum; you don't want to later decide you want a sprinkler system, only after the plumbing and water storage has been figured out (let alone after the walls have gone up).
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Apr 11, 2016 16:37
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TooMuchAbstraction posted:I'm pretty sure I've seen Motronic say that if your house has engineered trusses supporting the roof, the firefighters often aren't allowed to go into the house because it's too easy for the roof to collapse. It'd be pretty hard to tell and in practice and there's many areas they'd never go inside if that was a hard rule. Gounads posted:So, when I talk with the builder on Thursday, should I be talking about materials quality or anything? I know the plans specify what type, but should I be requesting a certain grade of lumber or not using OSB or anything similar? I'd like to make sure the bids I get are targeting the same quality in that regard. Tell them to bid the drawings exactly. In a typical situation, your contractors will send RFI's (requests for information) to the designer and the answers get published to everyone bidding it. They'll usually also supply a bid form (usually based on Masterspec divisions) to ensure that everyone is bidding uniformly and you can see differences. This helps you because if Contractor A has plumbing for 50% vs. Contractor B you might be able to beat Contractor B down on price if their bid is otherwise the lowest. A bid form might be overkill but whatever details you can get the better! Simple number isn't very helpful. Ask them to break out any additive or deductive alternates. Like if the drawings call out plywood sheathing and they say you can save money with OSB that should be written separately from the base bid. This way if they try to cheap out on you later, they can't say "I didn't bid that, you'll need to pay more." I've had contractors come back with this on major structural things like what type of beam to cast which is absurd. I wouldn't worry about quality otherwise though outside of maybe allowances for sitework and things like tiling. You may even want to have the bid include a cost + fee for areas like the kitchen. That way you see their cost or if you go with the kitchen people you have been talking with there's not some padding in their bid for the unknown scope of work. The #1 issue I see that messes stuff up is improper storage on site that messes you up for moisture issues which is regardless of quality of materials.
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Apr 11, 2016 17:04
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TooMuchAbstraction posted:Yeah, it's not so much about saving the house as it is about giving you a few extra minutes to get out, and in some cases allowing the fire department to actually go into the house to perform search and rescue. I'm pretty sure I've seen Motronic say that if your house has engineered trusses supporting the roof, the firefighters often aren't allowed to go into the house because it's too easy for the roof to collapse. Exactly this. It's something I bring up because most people aren't even aware of it. This isn't about saving an on-fire home, it's about occupant safety and it's a risk decision you should be consciously making, not just having it made for you by someone else if your in the position to make it. FYI, 20+ years in the fire service and 5+ as a Fire Marshal where I not only did investigations but plan approval, permits and inspections. And in that time I've seen the occurrence of full on house fires drop tremendously. We typically end up with little more than a "room and contents" these days. The #1 reason for this is central station alarms. Get a good fire alarm/security system that is properly installed (and not just to the code minimum....get things like heat detectors in the attic, etc) and pay for the monitoring. It's the absolute best thing you can do to save your home. It gives us in the FD the head start we need. The #2 reason is modern building codes and materials. No more balloon construction, where we'd have a first floor or basement on fire, it would appear to skip the second floor and then the attic was ripping (hint: it's in the walls on the second floor also, but hasn't made it through the plaster yet). Much better and safer HVAC systems, better appliances, better wiring - I'm talking in capacity, grounding, quality of insulation/boxes/switches/fixtures, GFCIs, AFCIs and even without those regular breakers are simply much better than they used to be and certainly better than glass fuses. Even bare minimum code, as crappy as that is in many aspects, it light years ahead of even 70s/80s construction. xwing posted:It'd be pretty hard to tell and in practice and there's many areas they'd never go inside if that was a hard rule. It's not a hard and fast rule, and it's also not hard to tell when you have a ripping attic fire and the roof is distorted already. In that situation I don't let me guys go in, period. We don't trade lives. 99.9% of the time we find it was an engineered truss and the gusset plates had warped in the heat and popped off. Motronic fucked around with this message at 17:30 on Apr 11, 2016 |
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Apr 11, 2016 17:27
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Motronic posted:It's not a hard and fast rule, and it's also not hard to tell when you have a ripping attic fire and the roof is distorted already. In that situation I don't let me guys go in, period. We don't trade lives. 99.9% of the time we find it was an engineered truss and the gusset plates had warped in the heat and popped off. Understandable, my father was a fireman and I have total respect for the job. When my father died on duty (heart attack) they took care of my family. If it hasn't made those visible signs for "HUGE FIRE BURNING MAH HOUSE" was what I was getting at though. I totally agree on the alarm and monitoring thing too from a security stand point as well as fire. My last place wasn't quite a duplex in the traditional sense. It was a tiny apartment (first Habitat home in the area that was made so the owner would donate the surrounding land for a park) and a two story garage/apartment that was mine. It shared maybe 200 sqft. of wall space, I loved that place other than the tiny mole of an apartment downstairs. The downstairs dolt drat near burned the place down leaving the stove on with his stupid vaping stuff sitting on it. Luckily it burned itself out because the stove was on an exterior between the fridge and the hood above. Melted a hole in the fridge, and the whole place wreaked for weeks but otherwise safe. Made me kick into high gear for getting an alarm system up though!
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Apr 11, 2016 17:45
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xwing posted:The #1 issue I see that messes stuff up is improper storage on site that messes you up for moisture issues which is regardless of quality of materials. I just installed a bathroom, which is about the size of some kitchens, 13 cabinets. It was delivered and dumped in the unheated garage sometime in October. Every door and panel was warped and twisted, I salvaged most of it, but some doors had to be ordered anew. Luckily it didn't sit there through the summer or the cabinet boxes would probably have been a write off. Deliver wood flooring, kitchen/bathroom cabinets, interior doors and whatever else I'm forgetting, just as you need them. Kitchen store will understand if your project is delayed and you need to store it for 5 more weeks, home depot will not. poo poo gets really ugly when GC, distributor and subs start to kick that blame ball back and forth.
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Apr 11, 2016 17:48
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For new construction, making sure the right material arrives at the right time seems like it would be a GC responsibility, right?
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Apr 11, 2016 18:01
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Nitrox posted:poo poo gets really ugly when GC, distributor and subs start to kick that blame ball back and forth. Totally. I had a $7mil clubhouse where they stored the ancillary restroom fixtures in a container on site... in Florida during the summer. Rust all over the fixtures. They tried to polish them before we performed our punch list and some poor bastard had to do that. The owner got real pissed when we brought this up and saw it themselves. As a homeowner you'll be real pissed if your cabinets start to peal apart or your walls and ceilings are wonky because they dumped the plywood on site. quote:For new construction, making sure the right material arrives at the right time seems like it would be a GC responsibility, right? Yes, The GC will want to get his costs off the books early though so that he can squeeze the profit out later. If they're good this won't be an issue, but stuff happens and it's a thing to watch out for. xwing fucked around with this message at 18:05 on Apr 11, 2016 |
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Apr 11, 2016 18:01
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Motronic posted:Exactly this. It's something I bring up because most people aren't even aware of it. This isn't about saving an on-fire home, it's about occupant safety and it's a risk decision you should be consciously making, not just having it made for you by someone else if your in the position to make it. This is just my two cents, but I appreciate your fire-safety awareness. I lost a cat in a utility room fire that burned itself out while we were away, so I find myself noticing sprinklers and smoke detectors in apartments I rent. My wife and I are approaching the time in our life where it makes sense to buy a house, and I'm filing a lot of this information away for future use.
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Apr 12, 2016 00:21
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Met with first builder, meeting went great. He had some suggestions for changes we could do that sounded good. Did ask him to bid to the plans so we can keep the bids for the same work and we can go over those later. I dragged a ballpark estimate out of him. Definitely under 400, almost certainly under 350, probably around 300. All assuming mid-high finish. So well within budget. Great to get that sanity check. He had been going over the plans already, and had already sent it out to his subcontractors, and we should have an actual price mid next week. As I was typing, he called to ask if he could visit the site again today with his civil engineer, so he's clearly pushing ahead. Worst news? Probably talking a year start to finish. I guess that's the price you pay for the smaller guys. Not a huge deal. Is a builder giving a 15 year warranty a big deal, or just something they say? Should finally own the land as of a few hours from now.
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Apr 14, 2016 18:34
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Gounads posted:Is a builder giving a 15 year warranty a big deal, or just something they say? It's worth however much use you can get out of the paper it's printed on as toilet paper unless this builder has been in business as this legal entity for upwards of 30 years. Often what happens is that you'll have a warranty issued and then the builder dissolves the LLC or S/C Corp (whatever they incorporated the business as) and reincorporates as a "new" company with a similar (but legally distinct) name which, of course, means any warranties issued by the original company are no longer enforceable.
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Apr 14, 2016 18:46
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I had a feeling that might be the case. I'll find out how long he's been working under that name, but assume it's not worth a lot.
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Apr 14, 2016 19:30
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Hell, even if they don't do that, the warranty can be full of pitfalls. Just try proving that something is the fault of bad work fifteen years ago, and not the horrible winter storm two years ago whose effects aren't covered, or the specific maintenance item you have no proof you actually did, or or or... I mean, if fifteen years is his standard, then sure, take it--just don't be surprised if it doesn't help you out much ten years from now. Upsold extended warranties are exactly as valuable to the consumer as the ones at Best Buy, though.
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Apr 16, 2016 01:31
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Met with second builder today. Only thing noteworthy is he thought it'd take 4-5 months instead of a year like the other guy. He built a house of someone my kid goes to school with and they offered to let us take a look, so we'll take them up on that. Waiting on those two bids now and working on getting a third.
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Apr 19, 2016 19:33
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Building our house took 1 year, 4-5 months seems overly optimistic to me. It takes a lot of time to let a cast floor slab dry out as well, we probably ran a dehumidifier for several months in the house, carrying out gallons of water per day. The heat pump also had a week long program for drying out the floor slab via hydronic heat system, it was drat 40C in the house at most. But it wasn't enough on it's own. It's very important to give the slab time to dry especially before you put in water membranes like in bathrooms and such, or it'll trap moisture which can't escape. In regular floor areas you have some leeway if it can breathe. But properly drying out the slab helps your houses health in the long run. If you are going for a cast slab floor that is, a crawlspace type floor doesn't require this.
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Apr 20, 2016 08:09
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Thanks for the warning. We'll have a full basement and no heat pump, so I'm not overly worried about dry time. My parents house was built in ~5 months 8 or so years ago so I don't think this is an absurd estimate. Also, I think he means the actual building and not the site work before.
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Apr 20, 2016 12:43
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If you have a basement I think different rules apply. I would have liked a basement but they are pretty rare in construction here for some reason, and it would have been too expensive, our house sits almost directly on the bedrock which was exposed in places, so a basement would have meant (more) blasting.
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Apr 20, 2016 13:34
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His Divine Shadow posted:If you have a basement I think different rules apply. I would have liked a basement but they are pretty rare in construction here for some reason, and it would have been too expensive, our house sits almost directly on the bedrock which was exposed in places, so a basement would have meant (more) blasting.
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Apr 20, 2016 16:29
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Yes my own building experience in Finland.
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Apr 20, 2016 17:36
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Visited a completed house last night from third builder. Looked great, and was shockingly similar to what we're looking for in terms of finishes/style. Met with him at the lot today, he was much more interested in the grading and conservation areas than the other guys. Gave some insight that the planning/conservation process tends to be easier when the economy is struggling. These guys are a bigger outfit. He'd probably have 8-9 guys there much of the time compare to 3 or 4 the other builders would have and he thought it might take about 4 months to build. But, I'm pretty certain he'll be the most expensive. He ballparked $150/sqft and the house we looked at last night was a $450k build and was only slightly bigger than ours. We'll have a bid by end of next week. That means we should have all 3 bids by then and can get this show moving again. I'll have to bug the first two guys to make sure they finish up.
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Apr 28, 2016 14:52
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Time lapse outdoor photography ... any recommendations? Found this http://www.amazon.com/Brinno-BCC100...on+camera&psc=1
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Apr 30, 2016 14:48
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First bid in. $439k Doesn't include light fixtures, appliances, knobs & handles. Several places with possible additional charges, such as ledge blasting, not a big surprise. Only had a $17k allowance for all cabinets and countertops (estimate we got was ~$45k for the kitchen) So overall, maybe $40k higher than that, kind of thinking of it as a $480 bid. Higher than I was hoping for, but not completely out-there. This was one of the two smaller guys, I was expecting him to be in the middle price-range, but now I'm thinking he might be on the high side.
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May 6, 2016 00:48
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