Tips when doing a house remodel
I knew nothing about remodeling a house. Now I know alot more! :) I hope you will find this information useful... :)
Starting:
1. What triggered me to finally start the process is my sister told me to basically 'grow a pair of balls'. I have to own this project... do what I like and don't worry about what other people might think of it... all that matters is that you like the house. Plus, the existing house was in such bad shape... I really could not make it worse! :)
1. Finding a contractor. Good luck! Its hard, and I found one that I really like.
Bids:
1. Get several bids. Does not matter if you like the contractors or not... you have to get at least 3 bids.
2. I hated when contractors would say... 'well, you know... I don't know exactly what is behind that wall' or 'well, I am not sure exactly what the roof looks like'. Since we gutted the entire house, I ended up taking down the ceiling just so the contractor could see the trusses... so I don't get any 'well you know, I can't see...'
3. I was getting estimate bids with just my sketches.
4. Provide the contractor a copy of the original foundation/house plans. This will help them alot in making a better bid. Get these scanned in and in pdf format. It helps out the person who draws up the plans, the contractor and the structural engineer later down the process! (everyone gets super excited if you have them!)
Contracts:
1. You can not sign a contract until you have official drawings. Not sketches.. real drawings. You can get estimated bids with sketches.
2. You can not sign a contract until you have a real estate lawyer to review the contract. We liked one contractor, then we find out he had a major law suite against him and we would never have known unless we got the lawyer(best $300 we have ever spent). Also, you don't know what the contract is missing... the lawyer does know what is needed. SO it is a must to get a lawyer to review your contract.
3. You specify everything in the contract. Make your own bullet list. Put in the size of trim, if you want a seemless shower, type of drywall finish, type of stucco finish you want... everything! If the drawings do not show it, you must write it down. Best advice my sister told me is "once construction starts - everyone has amnesia" :)
4. When picking a contractor - your gut will notice super small little things that make you question. But they are super small. Listen to those super small gut feelings... because they are probably right!
5. Contractor I found - has done alot of work locally. Every mom I talked to, really liked the work he did and was always on budget and super fast. What was, amazing is the contractor was able to survive women's gossip! He must be good if a bunch of moms were not bad mouthing him! :)
6. Does not matter who referred the contractor, you still need to check on him.
7. So far what I noticed is if your contractor is really nice, then it looks like he attracts other really nice sub-contractors. I have heard stories, where the sub contractors hated the General Contractor - and they buried this equipment under a ton of dirt (guess he was not paying them!)
Drawings:
I had sketches when I found my contractor. He referred me to a designer. I would meet with the designer and the contractor and an architect on a weekly basis. But the architect and I were clashing. At one point the architect told everyone out loud 'someone needs to take away her pencil'! And with that, I stopped working with the architect and I ended up designing the layout and started working with a draftsman under her. I realized the only way I was going to get what I wanted was to do it myself... no one can guess!
1. I ended up figuring out the house design - inch by inch. No one was going to be able to figure out what I wanted. We ended up getting a draft person under an architect to make up the drawings for us.
2. I used sketchup to make 3d renderings of what I designed. This was excellent! its a free tool and really helps visualize how the house will look.
3. I had old drawing of the original floor plan - I taped new paper on top (you could use tracing paper) - and start drawing on it. (assuming you are staying within the floor plan)
Designer:
1. I like having a designer - she helped me understand the process, and kept me moving. I sort of took over the designing part... and she was ok with letting me run with it. Looking back, I ask myself, did I really need one? And I still think yes... she made sure we always moved forward :)
2. Materials - she is responsible for ordering all the materials etc. Gave me a list of things I needed etc. I am glad I am not doing this. This includes the cabinets too.
Construction starts:
0. Best advice I got "Everyone makes mistakes and its OK. They can all be fixed." Once you realize this... the process of building a house is soo much easier! Its not like surgery - you can't make a mistake on a human body... it will never be the same. But for a house... everything can get fixed!
1. You should be going to the site everyday. Checking on progress. Asking if they have any questions. Also, you should definitely know your new house design.
2. Help around your house example... cleaning up nails. It is amazing the problems you find... when you put your face low to the ground.
Starting:
1. What triggered me to finally start the process is my sister told me to basically 'grow a pair of balls'. I have to own this project... do what I like and don't worry about what other people might think of it... all that matters is that you like the house. Plus, the existing house was in such bad shape... I really could not make it worse! :)
1. Finding a contractor. Good luck! Its hard, and I found one that I really like.
Bids:
1. Get several bids. Does not matter if you like the contractors or not... you have to get at least 3 bids.
2. I hated when contractors would say... 'well, you know... I don't know exactly what is behind that wall' or 'well, I am not sure exactly what the roof looks like'. Since we gutted the entire house, I ended up taking down the ceiling just so the contractor could see the trusses... so I don't get any 'well you know, I can't see...'
3. I was getting estimate bids with just my sketches.
4. Provide the contractor a copy of the original foundation/house plans. This will help them alot in making a better bid. Get these scanned in and in pdf format. It helps out the person who draws up the plans, the contractor and the structural engineer later down the process! (everyone gets super excited if you have them!)
Contracts:
1. You can not sign a contract until you have official drawings. Not sketches.. real drawings. You can get estimated bids with sketches.
2. You can not sign a contract until you have a real estate lawyer to review the contract. We liked one contractor, then we find out he had a major law suite against him and we would never have known unless we got the lawyer(best $300 we have ever spent). Also, you don't know what the contract is missing... the lawyer does know what is needed. SO it is a must to get a lawyer to review your contract.
3. You specify everything in the contract. Make your own bullet list. Put in the size of trim, if you want a seemless shower, type of drywall finish, type of stucco finish you want... everything! If the drawings do not show it, you must write it down. Best advice my sister told me is "once construction starts - everyone has amnesia" :)
4. When picking a contractor - your gut will notice super small little things that make you question. But they are super small. Listen to those super small gut feelings... because they are probably right!
5. Contractor I found - has done alot of work locally. Every mom I talked to, really liked the work he did and was always on budget and super fast. What was, amazing is the contractor was able to survive women's gossip! He must be good if a bunch of moms were not bad mouthing him! :)
6. Does not matter who referred the contractor, you still need to check on him.
7. So far what I noticed is if your contractor is really nice, then it looks like he attracts other really nice sub-contractors. I have heard stories, where the sub contractors hated the General Contractor - and they buried this equipment under a ton of dirt (guess he was not paying them!)
Drawings:
I had sketches when I found my contractor. He referred me to a designer. I would meet with the designer and the contractor and an architect on a weekly basis. But the architect and I were clashing. At one point the architect told everyone out loud 'someone needs to take away her pencil'! And with that, I stopped working with the architect and I ended up designing the layout and started working with a draftsman under her. I realized the only way I was going to get what I wanted was to do it myself... no one can guess!
1. I ended up figuring out the house design - inch by inch. No one was going to be able to figure out what I wanted. We ended up getting a draft person under an architect to make up the drawings for us.
2. I used sketchup to make 3d renderings of what I designed. This was excellent! its a free tool and really helps visualize how the house will look.
3. I had old drawing of the original floor plan - I taped new paper on top (you could use tracing paper) - and start drawing on it. (assuming you are staying within the floor plan)
Designer:
1. I like having a designer - she helped me understand the process, and kept me moving. I sort of took over the designing part... and she was ok with letting me run with it. Looking back, I ask myself, did I really need one? And I still think yes... she made sure we always moved forward :)
2. Materials - she is responsible for ordering all the materials etc. Gave me a list of things I needed etc. I am glad I am not doing this. This includes the cabinets too.
Construction starts:
0. Best advice I got "Everyone makes mistakes and its OK. They can all be fixed." Once you realize this... the process of building a house is soo much easier! Its not like surgery - you can't make a mistake on a human body... it will never be the same. But for a house... everything can get fixed!
1. You should be going to the site everyday. Checking on progress. Asking if they have any questions. Also, you should definitely know your new house design.
2. Help around your house example... cleaning up nails. It is amazing the problems you find... when you put your face low to the ground.
- Examples: 1. New foundation - had little bubbles - but these bubbles look like not a big deal.. until I put a nail in and saw that it went 3". I took pictures and they fixed it. You can't have rebar exposed to the elements :)
- Example 2: I do not want rats in my crawlspace. So I went around checking all the vents - there should be no space between the sill plate/foundation wall and the outside plywood. The screen to keep the rodents out is stapled to the outside the plywood. I found several vents where there was space under the plywood and the concrete foundation - where the rodents could have easily gotten into the crawlspace.
- Example 3: if they drill any holes from the floor to the crawlspace - make sure you put screens over those holes.
3. When the framers are measuring where you want the walls - they typically create chalk lines on the floor. You should verify the dimension before they start framing. It saves everyone a ton of time.
4. Take pictures of all stages of the constructions. Where they put the pipes, framing of the house, electrical wires. Take a video of each room. This will help you later if you ever want to remodel or put in new shelving etc.
5. Any problems or questions you have - take a picture of it and email/text your contractor. This way it is documented that you raised an issue. Just like the AT&T old commercials "get it in writing" ALWAYS! :)
6. Your job - is quality assurance - you might not know anything, but that is ok. Go around looking for errors.
7. Contractors will do a good job if they know that what they are doing will need to be inspected. If they do anything after it was inspected... then you have to watch out! Seriously. Example: my foundations guy had to fix and issue and re-pour a section of the foundation. But this time when he was done, he filled in the hole by the foundation with dirt. I know this foundation guy would not go out of his way to fill in the dirt unless he was hiding something. So instead of always wondering if he hid something... I went a dug a 2'x4' hole. And what did I find... a 2x4 sticking out of the foundation! It looked like a wicked witch from the west has a house fall down on her and all I could see was a leg! Apparently a 2x4 fell in at the very bottom of the foundation. So I took pictures, and they fixed it. Moral of the story... need to be extra careful on any work someone does post inspections!!!
Right now - framers are finishing up. I will give more details...
So much good advice! Thank you!
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