Yeah put in mesh here a while ago I’m a tech person. My issue is more FIL related. This isn’t the right thread but it’ll be said anyway. He’s complete Type A and getting old. Anything that changes will relate to and correlate to the one thing that changes even if I make it seamless. That’s why I need the threads T’s and P’s. Any and all updates will be in FIL thread.
So weird thing I noticed is my upstairs nest is running warm. It is showing the temp is 10 degrees warmer than it is downstairs. Normally there is a little variance but never this much. A space heater with a thermostat in a room 16 feet away shows the temp 10 degrees less. I am thinking the rolling blackouts shorted something. Really weird. This is the second one. I really think I am going to replace them both with Ecobee ones.
It’s a perfectly fine way of doing it. Unless you are doing something super high end and want a very custom design I don’t personally see a need to have a design professional do a design and drawings for something in residential. Any good contractor should be able to take what you have in mind and make it happen. Going that route will make sure you get a design you like, but personally I wouldn’t go through the expense. Though we just finished up a little landscaping and grading plan for a house for a client the other week. They wanted to have an exact design to have people bid, which totally works. Hope that explains my point of view from someone who deals with way more residential design work then I would like sometimes.
So the wife saw the email first, I heard her laughing in the front room as I was peeling garlic in the kitchen. She comes around the corner and tells me to guess what the appraisal came back at. I hopefully said "1.25?" and she just laughed. So, yeah, I suppose it's good. It's weird to be told that you have nearly a million in equity on your house
Prop 13 sez my property taxes can only go up 1%/year. They get more in local fees and whatnot, but a reappraisal doesn't change my tax bill
I would just like to say that I just finished painting my office and even though I'm done, I didn't even get the "task completed satisfaction" feeling because I fucking hate painting
Having done a few larger projects and having a friend who is a GC, here’s what I’m doing moving forward. Smaller company or single contractor to manage. This is generally how you get the best price. My friend worked for a larger company and as I am sure you’re well aware they mark the shit out of prices. What we have done is worked the contract to try and prevent as much of the bullshit as possible. Not going to lie, it's not the easiest thing to do, and it's something I do for a living. I think the key is realizing they are not lawyers and no one wants to nail anyone's ass to the wall. At the same time, I don't want you in my face on some never ending project because of shit that comes up. I think if you come to the table with the premise that no one wants to take food off your table it can an easy process. Bottom line, keep them on a timeline because time management is not most GC strong suit. Source: Had a bar put into our basement as well as finishing it. Got to the point where my wife literally told the dude she didn't care about his questions, she just wanted him out of our house. He was quite uncomfortable but being here full time and acting as the PM, I got all the questions every night. Anything I have done since then there have been terms thrown in the quote. I have also worked with people in stages as well. I needed "x" done by a certain date and worked with them on being flexible moving forward. I've also had some push back where people did not want to work with terms, and I was fine with that. Also I would absolutely use the larger companies to quote your job out as a baseline.
As Willpépé said, it will always be cheaper to contract directly with the specific trades you need. What you’re paying a general contractor for is to manage the multiple trades so you only have one point of contact as the owner. If you have the time and patience to manage multiple contractors then go for it. Source: am commercial gc
Different per type of work being completed but generally payment in relation to completion. Define exactly what will be done per phase and then develop some percentage that works for everyone. Generally put it in three phases. Upfront cost, start of the job cost and then finally on completion. Bottom line is generally they are happy to work hard to send that last portion on completion. Like I said I am not trying make anyone's life tough or break balls just sets the expectation and eliminates a lot of gotchas. It also helps when issues develop in relation to the job. Like I mentioned before the basement job was a disaster. I knew we were going to sink at least $20k into the job and I had no control. That was my fault. To touch on your last comment, I absolutely give the GC latitude to sub shit out. No one can do everything. However in doing so I am not managing what you sub.
I skimmed the post tbh, but in general my point still stands. I’d probably go designer with their recommended gc if it were me. It’s hard to make designers happy, so if they have a contractor they like you can be sure they’ll get it done right with minimal bs. Might cost a little more, but there’s something to be said for peace of mind. Also, competent contractors may cost more up front, but will help you avoid scope creep and extra costs during the project.
If you look for the designer route I'd be curious on the cost. Knowing where you live I'm just assuming that's going to be outrageously priced. I started to go that route two years ago and quickly realized I have zero patience for them. Edit: To clarify, was in relation to landscaping.
Landscape architects are the biggest pain in the ass, just barely beating out interior designers for the top spot.
that last point is one that bothered me on our kitchen. plumbing subs would be working with no one from the GC's team here at the same time. so they basically had to guess what needed to be done, or ask us. that made several mistakes, were sloppy, etc. that was frustrating.
you recall i'm in MontCo.... and yes, people see the Zip code and go $$$$$$$. Yes, this sort of landscaping. Hardscaping, pool remodeling, etc. etc. what do you mean zero patience? i feel like it takes less patience with someone handling all the details for you from start to finish.
I do think that with MontCo and for me even Lehigh County. I’m north of that and it’s funny any time I hear someone shopping for anything. Once we cross into those counties prices are ridiculous. My MIL was getting fence estimates and it wasn’t until I convinced her to check out York and Amish country that she really saw that difference.
They are pretentious by nature and in another world than where I exist. I’m not saying they’re all bad, but for my brain it kind of equates to mowing. I’d buy a bigger and better mower before I spent the money to pay someone to mow. I get it if you feel different. So specific to land/hard scaping I talked with three architects and came to the conclusion that I’d rather it look like a third grader designed it, rather than deal with them.
if you know people who do landscape design/build from out that far and are willing to come this far over let me know!
As a small residential GC, I am truly enjoying this. Nice to get input from the other side, as it were. Also, we always arrange contract draws per phase of completion, and the VA DPOR asks that we not make the initial draw more than 30% of the job value. It's not hard to be a good contractor, if you're honest and do your homework. Communication seems to be the single most important thing to customers. From our side, flexibility with timing (to a degree), prompt payment, and realistic expectations are the most important. pperc You'll get the most accurate bid, and SHOULD get the best result, if you have a decent set of plans/design for bidding. This is true for most any project, as it ensures at least the idea that all parties are on a level field, and establishes a benchmark for expectations in both directions.
Thanks. The one thing to note is my GC enjoys doing designing and has CAD software. He plans to do the design himself if we choose to go that route. Realistic expectations are in interesting concept, to be honest. What is realistic? Most customers have no idea what "good" looks like. Nor do we know what "great" looks like. Or just OK and we should ask for more. That's a huge challenge and it's why communication is so key. I like my GC a lot. Sometimes his communication isn't great, but he always strives to do better with this and takes the blame/fall when he can. Oh, and of course he draws per phase - that's a given, I agree. Anyways, that's my conundrum a bit. My GC wants to do the design. He's not a tridiagonal design/build firm and he doesn't by any means specialize in outdoor work. This is in contrast to me going out to a landscape designer for a design and having him do the work (or someone they want to work with) or getting a specialized design/build company that just does outdoor work.
You're not wrong, and there needn't be a conundrum. You're paying for a service, so they ought to provide that service. Let the landscape designer generate plans for what you want, and then sit down with them and your GC to walk through the design, materials, and construction. It's our job to know what the completed project will look like AND to be able to convey that to the client. An hour meeting with three parties might be the best couple hundred bucks you spend on the project. It is always a good idea for the vision people to commune with the builder people early, and often if need be.
Fairly confident Funshot Residue would be the type of contractor I would enjoy doing dragon work for.
Talks progressing with contractors on covering our back patio.... Anyone mounted speakers (no offense to petere1588 ) or have equipment recs/preferences for outdoor/patio usage? I'm leaning towards a low cost option like Monoprice, using dumb speakers, and then run a smart home (Google Home/Alexa etc. ) device in as the source. I don't think I need name brand stuff (Klipsch, Harmon Kardon, etc.) I'm thinking two speakers (L+R) and then two sources 1) Google Home for music/voice control and 2) a run to the main AV receiver (only one wall away) to utilize "zone 2" to get our TV audio onto the patio. ned's head steamengine THF
A couple of thoughts - if you're on zone two of an existing avr, wouldn't your source be connected to that? Not sure what you'd be plugging into dumb speakers to accomplish that, but I personally would just connect a chromecast to the avr and be done with the source options. That can be controlled through a wall. If you have the avr already, I'd check now if zone 2 can be independent of zone 1. Many can't. If not, just know that your outdoor speakers will need to be playing what is on zone 1 if that's in use inside. In terms of speaker preference, I probably do have some opinions, but those are relative to price and what you want out of them (background noise close by, nice depth of sound nearby, projecting to the grill 50 ft away, etc.). I can give some recs if you give me a price and goal.
putting a cash offer in on a house, the buyers require proof of funds (natch), so I just send them screenshots of my account...which is easily forgeable. Life is so dumb.
Good questions. I have Zone 2, but it cannot be separated, which I think means the term should be Zone B. My Yamaha AVR is from 2014 and will be replaced in the next few years to accommodate more HDMI/4k features and I would only buy a model with a true zone 2....to get any audio feed onto the patio from the main tv and associated equipment (blu ray/xbox/vcr/etc). I haven't gotten to the point of drawing my schematics as a proof of concept but I guess I'll need to have some device that handles the source switching...because that voice input/smart home magic would need to be done from the patio since you cant do voice control from outside the house. As far as budget, I would think I can do it very well for a couple hundred bucks, say $350? Doesn't need to be audiophile quality, but should be able to reach 30-50 feet max while sounding good. The patio footprint would be like 30x20 feet, mounted about 12 feet above the ground. I'm a fan of Yamaha equipment (especailly RX-V series) and their Music Cast looks promising but possibly gimmicky. Haven't reviewed the market really.
Our place was being overrun by ivy and wisteria when we moved in. Commence operation scorched earth.....
If you have any tips for getting rid of wisteria I’m ready for them. Round up seems to just kill the sprout and then a new one pops up a few feet away
You have a bunch of options, but here's the two I would choose from: Modern avrs often have apps that can be entirely controlled via an app. If you want to knock everything out in one avr, then make sure you get that. Voice control may be trickier...you need to control the avr do that. I know at least denons have alexa compatibility (likely others do as well has google etc.). If you had that, you could throw a $20 home box outside and still control it since those are wifi based. My ht equipment is in a different part of the house, so I grabbed a $50 avr off of craigslist to run my outdoor speakers. You could use your old avr for that if it's easier for placement and you were gonna get a new one anyway. The lack of wifi control and alexa can be overcome with an rf dongle. You can absolutely get out for less than $350. Since you like yamaha, you could do something like this and just have to worry about wiring and your source decision (https://usa.yamaha.com/products/audio_visual/speaker_systems/ns-aw350/). I'm a size queen on speaker drivers, so I'd probably scale up as your budget permits, but these would be totally appropriate imo.