The project that ate my life
The good part of regrouting is that the bathroom grout now looks really nice.
The bad part of regrouting is that I really, really, really see the other things that need touch-up. I haven't done diddly to upgrade my apartment in the nearly eight years I've lived here, and suddenly it looks like it needs it.
I mentioned before that I'm gearing up to paint my apartment and get my toilet and bathroom cabinetry replaced. In the little downtime I have from jobworld right now, I've been buying and borrowing tools, pulling down shelves, spackling, and caulking gaps in the baseboards. So far, so good: The first room painting kicks off a week from Saturday.
In the meantime, I've also spent some time looking for a contractor to build a custom cabinet in the bathroom. That's been an interesting experience. I've reached out to four people, and here's what transpired:
Contractor 1: Didn't return my call
Contractor 2: Didn't return my call
Contractor 3: Not only returned my call, but also really chased me down until we connected. This guy is a cabinetmaker rather than a generalized contractor, and he had some great suggestions for making better use of my cabinetry space than the unit I have today. He also recommended building in a vanity around the wall-mounted sink for extra storage and brought me a couple of samples of bamboo to look at, since we talked about different kinds of wood on the phone. He's been very forthcoming with photos of previous work and references, and since I've learned from sorry experience that wood countertops and bathrooms without exhaust fans don't go together, he located someone who can build a matching Corian countertop.
The guy is great.
His estimate is also rather high for the scope of work.
Contractor 4: Returned my call and scheduled an appointment promptly. English is not his first language and we stumbled over a few things (I said drawers and he kept hearing doors). This guy is a general contractor, so he can do all of the work I plan to outsource. Unfortunately, he also had some drawbacks:
No recommendations on building materials.
No references or photos, despite a couple of requests.
I had to chase him down to get an estimate.
On the other hand, he's really cheap. His estimate for the cabinetry came in at 20% of Contractor 3's cost.
I thought about this long and hard, and I hired Contractor 3. The estimate for all of the work and materials for a custom bamboo vanity, storage cabinet, and Corian countertop comes to $3225. This sounds expensive to me, but I asked around and on the whole most people I've talked to think it's pretty reasonable for custom woodworking in Manhattan.
I justified the cost to myself in about every way possible: I found a 35% off deal on a top-rated toilet in the budget class (one reviewer claimed that it's probably powerful enough to flush a cat), so I saved money both on the purchase and hopefully on future maintenance. In addition, I've already put a huge amount of sweat equity into the regrouting and I'm doing the same for the upcoming paint job over the next few weeks. Finally, this is the first home repair effort I've done other than getting wall and ceiling reconstruction and a partial paint job in 2002, courtesy of my neighbor's insurance after he flooded me. If you amortize the costs against regular home maintenance that everyone should do over time, it's actually very cheap.
At the end of the day, of course, all of these reasons are nothing but rationalizations: I know what I want to do, and I'm looking for arguments to support it. That's not necessarily a bad thing, but it's important (to me) to recognize the behavior for what it is.
$3225 is pretty costly for the small amount of building that I'm doing, but the true reason I'm moving ahead is that on my personal satisfaction scale, I get the most marginal happiness out of balancing cost against function, quality, and aesthetics. (For a different but also completely valid perspective on function, cost, and aesthetics, see Grace's recent post on the choices she's made for the kitchen of her dreams.)
I only want to do bathroom furniture replacement once and then be able to enjoy the end result for years to come, and I'm willing to cut costs elsewhere by personally doing all of the work I can do on my own. Spending money on the things that align with one's values and saving money on other things is what frugality's all about, so I'm okay with the decisions I've made.
I set my final budget for the entire mini-renovation at $4700, which includes tools, materials, professional labor, and my unpaid labor. Here's what I've spent so far:
$90 - Grouting tools and supplies
$90 - Painting tools and supplies (excluding paint)
$1825 - Deposit for bathroom cabinetry
$200 - Processing fee for getting building permission for the work (blatant ripoff, in my opinion)
$303 - Flush-a-cat toilet
$11 - Corian samples
Total so far: $2514
Here's what I've budgeted for the rest:
$200 - Paint
$350 - Toilet installation (also a blatant ripoff, but it saved me some extra costs in building paperwork to use the guy the building wants me to use)
$1500 - Outstanding cabinetry costs
$100 - Cabinetry hardware (I have no idea what this is really going to cost)
Total outstanding costs: $2150
Total expected costs: $4664
Those are the thought processes I went through and the decisions I made for my first real home repair and renovation effort. How'd I do?
13 retorts:
I'm so glad you didn't go with contractor # 4. Bath and kitchen reno's are critical: mistakes can cost much more than the original investment. We can't allow water to get into our floors and walls, especially in a shared building.
Number 3 sounds good. Did you actually talk to some of those references?
Will you hold back some of the payments until the final work is done? It's hard to get people to come back sometimes to finish off that "little thing" if they already have all the money. Don't forget to take pictures all the way through.
Oh, I'm no cat lover but I think you may hear from them ..... they can be really sensitive. It's only a joke, right?
For all you're planning to achieve here, and the amount of utility you hope to receive, this all sounds remarkably cheap ;-) My SO and I have done two mini-renovations since we bought our place seven years ago, a kitchen upgrade and the replacement of grotty old carpet with solid wood flooring, and each job has cost in the vicinity of $10K. Admittedly, we paid tradesmen to do both jobs in their entirety (and have no regrets about that - we value our leisure time too highly to fritter it away on half-assed attempts at renovation) but we were delighted both with the outcomes and the prices. So yours sounds like an excellent deal!
Re: selection of contractors, it sounds like you made the right choice. Dude # 4 sounded just too vague. We've had similar experiences to you with calling contractors who don't return calls, and ended up using word-of-mouth recommendations to find both the tradesmen we did eventually use. Both did an excellent job, and we've recommended them to friends ... and so the cycle continues ...
OK. I have to ask. What toilet did you select?
The price sounds ok to me as well. I recently spent around that money for a dining suite, a small table, a rocking chair and a lamp in kit format (which I then had to finish and assemble myself, a ten week project), of Shaker reproduction furniture from Shaker Workshops, Ashburnham, MA. And that even with the favourable dollar-euro exchange rate, and the importer giving me rebates between 10 and 15 percent on each piece.
So given that your contractor also does all the design, assembly and installation, I don't think it's too bad. And besides, it is incredible how much of a daily pick-me-up you get out of this kind of investment, if you are in any way into visually pleasing stuff. Or so I find every time I look at my shaker pieces.
Besides, you get the good feeling that you are helping a dedicated craftsperson to stay in business.
Actually, #3's estimate sounds very much in line for what you'd expect to pay in Austin, TX too - so don't think you're just paying more because it's the city! You'll get the quality you paid for and most likely a project finished on schedule with 3, whereas 4? Not so likely...
Great choice. I hoped you picked #3. I've worked with contractors where English is a second language and it is frustrating to say the least. Also, it doesn't surprise me the co-op board wants control - doesn't mean I like it or agree with it. :( As anyone in the real estate market knows, kitchen and bath remodels/updates add value (if done correctly) and are the costliest projects. I know you are not considering the resale value, however the emotional satisfaction from having a bathroom you will enjoy and is fixed to your taste will ultimately be worth the price. Excellent! :)
Anytime a shareholder wants to renovate (painting excluded), our co-op charges a $250 fee plus a $250 deposit in case workers damage common areas like halls/elevators. (And unrelated, $300 if you want to refinance.)
$100 for paint might be high, assuming that you're just doing the bathroom. I'd recommend Sherwin-Williams Duration brand in either eggshell or semigloss for your bathroom....runs about $40 a gallon. Duration goes on the wall much nicer and you generally only need one coat of paint (unless you need to prime over a dark color first). If you "go cheap" on paint and get Dutch Boy or Home Depot's house brand, you're probably going to need two coats.
I'll chime in and just say - as I was reading I was almost holding my breath hoping you would say you chose #3. This isn't the place to cut corners. As you say, you can economize on other things.
And the price was in line with what I'd have paid in Colorado, so I don't think you are paying much of a "Manhattan Premium."
I'm suprised you couldn't get more estimates most GC I know aren't anywhere near as busy as they were a few years ago.
You did great! Do the things you can do yourself and save with sweat equity, and go with a quality product and a trustworthy contractor. You won't regret it!
I don't think that is a bad price for a custom cabinet! Enjoy your new bathroom!
Michelle
I don't know anything about hiring contractors and cabinets, but contractor no.4 just didn't sound that reliable. Show us 'after' pictures later.
Oh and as a sensitive cat lover, I do confess to sucking in my breath a bit at your joke and patting my cat sleeping next to me on my couch!
Gord - Thank you! I didn't speak to any references in the end, although I probably should have. I decided it wasn't necessary after my first meeting with Contractor #3. The way he works is that I owe him the next payment ($750) after the work is done, and the final $750 after I've confirmed that the job is completed to my satisfaction. I was quite impressed by this policy, to be honest.
I am very much an animal lover, by the way, especially dogs and cats. I really was kidding about flushing a cat: that was actually on a review as a metaphor for describing the toilet's power. I promise that I'd never, ever hurt or be mean to a kitteh!
Karin - thank you! I feel better about the cost after seeing your comment. After all the work I've been doing in the place lately, I can see why not spending time doing the work yourselves is important.
Paul: I bought the Toto Drake CST744S. It's supposed to be both reliable and quite, um, powerful.
goldsmith - Your furniture sounds lovely. What a sense of accomplishment! You hit the nail on the head: On top of everything else, I do feel really good about supporting an independent, local craftsman.
Michelle - Wow. I hadn't expected the price to be in line with Texas. That's great to hear. Thank you!
Anon the first: I'd be lying if I said resale value wasn't also a consideration, though not the primary driver for doing this. I do understand why the co-op management wants to be involved, but it's annoying. Since I chose to live in a co-op, though, by default I chose to abide by its rules. I just gritted my teeth and wrote the check.
Anon the second - Yup, I shelled out for a damage deposit too, to the tune of $500. Hopefully, they won't have to collect on it. Full-on renovations cost much more: $500 to review the project and $1000 damage deposit.
Anon the third - I'm painting the whole place, not just the bathroom. I think I actually lowballed at $200, since I decided on Benjamin Moore paint. Thank you for the Sherwin-Willimans recommendation: I chose Benjamin Moore primarily because it's also highly rated and there's a store close by that carries it. I decided on semi-gloss for the bathroom, doors, and trim, and satin for the walls. Flat paint is a disaster as far as cleaning goes and my place doesn't get a whole lot of light anyway, so the additional shine shouldn't blind anyone. I hope not, anyway.
MtnMama - Thank you, I'm really pleasantly surprised to hear how reasonable the woodworking costs are. I think you're right about not cutting corners on the building work.
Tom - I got three of the four estimates off of servicemagic.com, so I was also surprised that I didn't get more callbacks: the contractors get charged for every referral that servicemagic sends out. I could have put more effort into it on my part as well, though.
Anon Michelle - Thank you! Let's see how it goes, but I'm pretty optimistic so far. Contractor #3 has been in touch and responsive about everything and is doing a solid job of managing my expectations on cost and timing. On the whole, so far it's been a much better experience than I anticipated.
H - Sorry about the kitteh joke! For what it's worth, I love my ex-roommate's cats so much that I've spent the last twelve years visiting to pet them every week so they won't forget me. Only one cat is left now of that group, but he's always glad to see me. In the meantime, I'm using toys, treats, and petting to make friends with the next generation.
Re: after pictures: I'll do my best, but my only camera is a Blackberry and the resolution is pretty stank. Must remember to shoot some befores before I start painting.
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