Drywall Estimates

Estimate #1:

Guy #1 has been contracted to do the drywall work on some of the jobs where Chris has been working. He lives in Kentucky, but his crews live in Nashville. He has one crew that hangs the drywall, and another that finishes. He says he is picky and likes to shine a light down the walls to see how smooth the work is.

A white man in his forties, sporting a nice gut and mustache, he shows up in his nice, full-size truck, and proceeds to the house with tape measure and clip board in hand.

Half an hour later, he tells Chris he will call in a day or two with the estimate.

Estimate #2:

I found Guy #2 in the telephone listings online. He and his crew are currently working on a subdivision being built in Columbia.

A Hispanic man in his forties or fifties, sporting a modest gut and nice mustache, he pulls up in a 20 year old minivan. He proceeds to the house empty-handed. Chris offers him a tape measure. "I don't need it," he says. "Do you have a piece of paper?" Looking at the sheets of subfloor, he starts counting to himself in Spanish.

Five minutes later, he has written a materials list on the piece of paper Chris gave him.

Estimate #1: about 270 sheets of drywall, $9500 total.
Estimate #2: about 200 sheets of drywall, we buy material, he charges $16/sheet, total cost about $6500.

Chris and I hadn't bothered to figure up how much drywall it would take, and we were a bit shocked by the difference in estimates. We decided we would each do our own estimate to see who we thought was most accurate. Chris used his own method of measuring and counting, while I took my print, calculated the square footage of the walls and ceilings and divided it by the square footage of a sheet of drywall. What did we each come up with? About 200 sheets.

Who would you hire?

Burn Out

We have started year four of our house building project, and I think Chris and I are starting to suffer from burn-out.

Several months ago, I had decided that I would like to hire out the drywall work. After having seen Chris's drywall work (I have picture proof of the excessive sanding he has to do for his way of mudding the walls), it seemed this would be a wise thing to do. Besides, if we were close enough to finishing the house to be putting up drywall, it would be extra painful to have the drywall take forever. "It would cost a lot of money," Chris argued, "and I can do it myself." "I don't care," I argued back. "I am done with the goal of building debt-free, and think a small loan would be a small price to pay for the benefit of finally getting to move out of our trailer into the house. Let's at least get an estimate." He agreed.

A few weeks ago, I noticed a shift. Chris wanted to figure out the cost of everything from insulation to HVAC to carpet to see just how much of a loan we would need to finish the house. I asked him about it one afternoon. He said one Saturday morning , he was making yet another Home Depot run when he drove past a group of people in a park. It hit him that, if it wasn't for the house, he could be spending some real time with the family. If we got to the point of moving in, he didn't want a half-dozen major projects still hanging over his head. He wanted to be done and have the freedom of getting to shoot BB guns with the kids all day or something if he wanted.

So we have gotten estimates for insulation and drywall, still trying to be mindful of the financial cost while weighing in the cost of time and effort.

Some days, it seems like a move-in date could be near, and other days, such as the day and a half spent wrestling with the pipes leading into the septic tank, the road seems unbearably long.

Green Light Means Go

We just passed our electrical rough-in and are officially cleared for insulation and drywall.

Woo-hoo!!!

2013 Chapel Hill Homecoming Parade

Today was the homecoming parade in Chapel Hill. 

The kindergartners always have (in my opinion) the coolest floats. This year was a pirate theme.

 Second grade:

And 4th grade:

 (Not pictured are all the other floats that my kids weren't on. Sorry.)

It's (Another) Busy Week

It's Homecoming week in Chapel Hill again, so things are a little busy around here. The kids have been dressing up nearly every day. The first day was Duck Dynasty day, and since we do not own and DD paraphernalia, only Finley was able to pull some camouflage accessories together to participate. Tuesday was Duct Tape day. I went overboard last year with vests and ties and shoes and hats. Knowing there was no way I could top last year's outfit for three kids, I lowered their expectations and we managed to come up with some fun duct tape things to wear to school.

 Finley hadn't slept well, and was a bit mopey in the morning, even donning her duct tape hat.

 In between school outfits, helping with the 4th grade homecoming float, and laundry, I've been working on the electrical in the house. If it weren't for these push-in wire connectors, I am sure I would be cussing and crying and beating my head against the unfinished walls.

 They make wiring up messes like this so much easier, I am overwhelmed with gratitude for whomever invented the gems.

 I also wanted to post a picture of a pumpkin that Zivah drew in school, but it refused to load correctly, and so it will have to wait. My goal, is to have everything ready for a rough-in inspection next week, and so I am going to get back to work instead of fighting with this dad-blamed computer. Until next time...