Let the bidding begin

I pretty much thought that by the time the construction loan was secured, all the bids for various work on the house were settled. I was wrong.


The original plan (in D's mind because in the back of my mind I was never fully on board) was for D to do the framing and save us money...a pretty good chunk of it. My husband is quite capable of doing it, but I knew it would take three times as long as he thought it would. So when he said...'I can do it in a month'...I figured on three months (plus). {You may be wondering why I assumed that. Everytime he gives me a deadline for when something will be done, it turns out to be roughly one-third of the time it actually takes. And of course I have the whole water well fiasco still sitting in the back of my mind. And in the back of the new house as well, since it never did come to fruition. You can read about it HERE and HERE. But I digress...}


So the more we realized how labor intensive the framing would be (and the more I voiced concerns) and the longer the weather delayed starting the house, the more we looked into finding a better bid on framers. Right now we have two new bids (actually one is still working on the bid) and the original bidders--I guess learning that we are shopping around--want to talk to D today about seeing what they can 'work out' with him regarding their previous bid.


I guess the moral of the story is people in this business are pretty hungry for work right now. When we were out pouring the walls, two different contractors drove by, and stopped to give D a business card and offer to work up bids on various projects.


Speaking of hungry for work. We also started looking at estimates for the cabinets and countertops. At place A we got the countertop bid $6900. At B we got $5900. At C closer to $6900--without edging. Place A is still working on the cabinet bid. B's cabinets in the kitchen were $16,000. C's cabinets--including bathrooms--were $13,000. B is using particle board crap on the interior, C is using solid wood.


Okay I'm just going to say it "B" is Home Depot. The others are custom kitchen and bath places that have been in business here for a while. C's guy is annoying a little. He's called here about seven times last week. Hungry for work I guess. But he's a mechanical engineer running his parents 50-year marble business so he knows what he's doing.


Anyway this story does have a point. My dad and I decided that we could do the cabinets ourselves. My dad is a master carpenter and knows the ins and outs of workworking. And with cabinets it's just a matter of mathematics. He's a perfectionist, so while we may not have cabinets installed in two days, they will get done correctly and material will cost us less than a third of the bids we have now. And I can change things and work things as we go along not just order the cabinets and hope I like them when they get there.


If you've read along this far congrats! I guess this all seems pretty boring unless it's your house that's being built, because to me it's super exciting! Maybe I can make it more exciting by posting pictures of the kitchen stuff I'm looking to use.


Here's a picture of the countertop sample...


HERE's a page (I think) that shows a similar cabinet style. It's a recessed panel with rope trim in a cream color with dark glazing.


I'm also looking forward to working with my Dad on this project. How cool is that going to be? H



Have a great day y'all!