Soldier gets first peek at her new house

[BMT (RIP)]

http://www.starbanner.com/article/20...0358/1025/NEWS







BMT

[Pete]

Real Nice Story.

Included the Septic system, HVAC system and paved drive? Kitchen, windows and everything else? Real nice story with a good ending.

Word to the wise - it never hurts to get 4 or 5 estimates, check them out against each other. The total should be pretty close - if they all use the same scope of work and quality of materials. As an example new roof shingles. You get two estimates one for $3,500 and one for $7,000 (folks - depends on the size of your home, pitch of the roof, location and season). You think the higher one is ripping you off so you pick the lower one and drive off to work.

You come home and there are new shingles on the roof but they placed then over the old ones. The contractor says look at the estimate - it says put on new shingles. You look at the higher one. It says remove and haul off old shingles and felt, repair all dry rot to roof boards and facia trim, install new felt, install new shingles and clean up work site.

Still think you saved any money? The two layers on the roof could impact sales price if you try an resell the house. A savy buyer will know it will cost more to reshingle next time - two layers of shingles to the landfill.

With so many crews driving around with trucks it pays to pay a little more for a local "name brand" company or somebody who has done work for somebody you know.

[Gypsy]

Glad to see folks stepped up to help the Sergeant. Occasionally I catch this show "Holmes on Homes" on Discovery Home. He's a contractor, up in Canada IIRC, and his show revolves around making repairs to what others have messed up. Invariably most of the people never even ask the previous contractor for their license...

[HOLLiS]

Pete, excellent advice. A person's home is one of their biggest investments and also their home. Some contractors do not like to get permits, could mean band things. Were I live, re-roofing does not require a permit. It also pays to ask around for recommendations of builders. Also you can check the contractor's board for history of complaints.

Advantage of permits, is that you have a 3rd party, the county/city engineer looking at your project.

We are in the process of a pretty major remodeling and re-roofing of our home. Having some building experience I sub-contracted some of the work. It saved me a lot of money going this route. The down side is that I am slow on doing what I can do. We enclosed a breezeway (36 x 12) and added a walk-in closet/storage area (8 by 20) w/ exterior door to hot tub to the master bed room. By doing what I can do and sub-contracting we are saving about $50K from having a contractor do it all. If I had the money, that would be a good choice, have the contractor do it all and being in Hawaii while the job is being done.

Great story and a good reminder to protect you home from pests.

[brianksain]

Gents ... I am no QP.

But had that happened in my jurisdiction ... I would not stop until I hunted the SOBs down that did that to her.

They'd have to film another Terminator sequel.

Good for the cops.