Speaker 1 00:00:04 Welcome to the Weekend, warriors Home Improvement Show, built by Par Lumber when it comes to big or small projects around the home. Tony and Corey, you've got the know-how and the answers to make your life just a bit easier. Here they are, your weekend Warriors, Tony and Corey.
Speaker 2 00:00:25 Hey, welcome to the Weekend, warriors Home Improvement Show podcast. I'm Corey Valdez.
Speaker 3 00:00:30 And I am Tony Crookston.
Speaker 2 00:00:32 Thanks for, uh, listening today. Uh, Tony and I, this is our first foray into our new podcast format. We've been on the radio here in the Pacific Northwest for the last 10 years, and, you know, radio just not doing it for us anymore. So <laugh>, we're just switching 100% to podcasts. So thank you so much for listening.
Speaker 3 00:00:53 Yeah. Today we talk about a lot of, um, a lot of home improvement type project things, new construction, things we talk about. We talk, we talk about products, new products, and cutting edge products, quality products, less than quality products. Um, we kind of cover the whole gambit. Yeah. And, and, uh, today we're gonna be talking about the relationship between a homeowner and a contractor.
Speaker 2 00:01:18 Yeah. You know, Tony and I, we work for Par Lumber Company. I, I'm a salesman, contractor, salesman at Par Lumber. Tony's a manager and we have a lot of contractors that walk in the door, so we get to hear a lot of complaints. You know, it's human nature. People love to complain, and when they come in, all they wanna do is tell us about this terrible homeowner they're working with
Speaker 3 00:01:41 <laugh>,
Speaker 2 00:01:42 You know, and then, and
Speaker 3 00:01:43 Then the other homeowners come in and wanna tell us about this terrible contractor. That's right. They're
Speaker 2 00:01:47 Working with, we hear all ends of the spectrum and, you know, so, so we've been doing this so long that we thought we would share some of our insights on kind of what to expect, maybe when you're going to hire a contractor, maybe some tips on how to navigate that process. Uh, so anyway, Tony and I, what, what's the first thing, Tony, that we, you know, we kinda made a little bit list here. What's the first thing that anybody should do when they're considering a project?
Speaker 3 00:02:17 Well, I'll tell you for the, for the me <laugh>, what is my problem for the means of this conversation? Uh, our list starts with getting estimates, but really before you're getting an estimate, you need to decide what you want to do. You have to have, as a homeowner, a clear vision of what you are wanting to accomplish. And then the challenging part, I feel like is communicating that vision to the contractor, allowing him to see all that you are seeing. And that communication process is very important. And that comes long before we're talking about dollars and cents.
Speaker 2 00:02:58 Right. You know, and you kind of come to this, I always come at this with two trains of thought. The first being, if you, if you're trying to put a budget together, you know what project you want. If you want a new kitchen for, for example, and you say to yourself, okay, I want a new kitchen, but my budget is only 50,000, you have to think about what you can do to fit a remodel into your budget. Right? So it's a little bit different than going to a contractor and saying, this is what I want. How much is it going to cost me? Yeah. You know, you're, you're, it's two totally separate paths. One, you know, it, you, you can spend. And the other is you're trying to find out how much it's gonna cost you.
Speaker 3 00:03:48 But you are, if you're doing it right, you're traveling that path with the contractor. And so you'll need to have chosen the person, the contractor that you can trust based on an interview or some time spent based on some information you got from someone else who worked with that contractor. All of the research that you can do to choose the right contractor will help you as you move through the budgeting and estimating process. You don't use the estimate to choose the contractor. Right. You choose the contractor who's gonna give you the estimate. You, here's what you can do. You can sit down to have a conversation with a contractor, an interview with a contractor, and you can tell them what your vision is, and you can even tell them what your budget is, and then they'll tell you what they can do for that amount of money. And then they'll also tell you, here's some things you might substitute or change or give this up to have this and give you a better idea what you can accomplish for the money that you're talking about. But all of that is meant to be done in concert with the contractor and not before you choose the contractor or choosing the contractor based on the
Speaker 2 00:05:14 Estimate. Yeah, no, I hear you. There, there's a lot of products, there's a lot of situations where you could potentially run into that. For example, building a brand new deck. If you wanna build a brand new deck off the back of your house, you go into the store and you look at all of these different decking samples, well, if you just tell your contractor, I want this with a, with a brown color, they range anywhere from $2 a linear foot to $6 a linear foot. So, you know, if it would be just like getting new flooring for your house, you just say, yeah, I want brown flooring. No, there's a million different things you can choose to get that done. So, like Tony said, if you interview a contractor and you say, this is what my budget is, they'll probably, you're probably right. They probably will have a good idea of what products would fit in your price range
Speaker 3 00:06:08 And how much they would be able to do also for that budget, you might say that, I want a new kitchen. And they might say, well, we can replace your cabinet doors and we can replace your countertop, but we can't replace all of your cabinets. And, you know, that's, that's a concession that you would have to make if you were moving in that direction. Right. Um, so, but a contractor's gonna be the one who knows what's available to you. I see your vision, this is what you want, this is what I can give you for that. And I think that it would look, you know, nearly as good or, or something along those lines. Yeah. Or maybe, maybe they were looking at a picture of a cabinet that is a top grade cabinet and they're like, well, you can get a, a lesser grade cabinet for less money. That looks nearly as good. Um, you know, there's just the, a remodel is rot with concessions.
Speaker 2 00:07:06 Well, and remodels are tough. Whenever you cut open into walls of an older house, there's bound to be problems, you know, a can of worms. And I'm here to attest in the many projects I've done around my home that was built in 19 77, 67 or 77, I don't remember, but it, that thing has had unbelievable amounts of worms. <laugh> in the walls.
Speaker 3 00:07:35 Not like literally worms in the walls.
Speaker 2 00:07:37 No, not literal worms, but
Speaker 3 00:07:39 A can of
Speaker 2 00:07:39 Worms. Can of worms. Yeah. I mean, they're just problems. Yeah. And so when you're hiring a contractor, you know, they can give you a range. They might tell you if you're hiring a contractor for a remodel project, it's a little bit different than building a deck. Right. Building a deck is kind of pretty, I mean, be easy in comparison. You know, they're just framing brand new, they're putting decking on it, they're putting their posts in and, and you're good to go. But when you're cutting into something that you cannot see, you might find water damage, you might find poorly done electrical work, you might find no insulation. There's just so many things. So when you're interviewing that contractor, what I wanted to say was, you wanna make sure that you know that you can get along with that person, that you click with that contractor.
Speaker 3 00:08:26 If you meet with a contractor and at the end of a half an hour conversation, you're like, that guy drives me crazy. Yeah.
Speaker 2 00:08:32 Imagine how you feel after six months. Yeah.
Speaker 3 00:08:35 A very intense, you know, decision making and all of that. I think that I would like, Corey, since you asked me what's the first thing, the very first thing is research on so many different levels, right. Research about what you want to do, research about who you want to do it with. And it's not an easy task. You're not just going to decide one day to do the project and have a contractor the next day. That's not gonna happen. Not if you want your project to be a success.
Speaker 2 00:09:01 Well, and here's the thing too. When you're going to hire a contractor, are you gonna hire a contractor that does swimming pools to do your kitchen? No. Are you gonna hire a contractor that only does kitchens to install your swimming pool? No. I mean, these are the things, you know, there's lots and lots and lots of general contractors out there. Tons. So when you're going out to get a bid from a contractor, you wanna make sure that they are experts in what you're looking to get. You know, if you need a new roof, you're not gonna call your lawn guy, you are gonna call a roofer <laugh>. So that's one thing to consider.
Speaker 3 00:09:45 Yeah. Another thing is you're gonna want to get referrals from someone who has used the contractor. Um, someone at, someone at that is a friend of yours, or someone that's a friend of a friend, someone at work. Um, you know, if you are talking about your project with the people that are in your circle, someone's gonna say, oh yeah, I did a project like that and I had this contractor and they did a great job. Or they did almost a great job. If there's one thing I could have changed, I would've been this. Right. And that gives you an opportunity to contact that contractor and address maybe that one particular thing. Not, not in the way that it happened with your friend, but instead just, this is something that's important to me.
Speaker 2 00:10:34 Yeah. It'd probably be a good idea. One of the things I've always told people to do is to create a list of questions or interview questions for your contractor, because that's what it is. You're interviewing them, but also keep in mind they're interviewing you. If you come off as the type of person that, that contractor does not want to work with, you'll either A, get a really high price, or B, never hear from them again. So keep that in mind. It's, uh, it's, some of it is on you <laugh> as, as a homeowner or the person hiring. Not everybody is out there just to take every job that comes their
Speaker 3 00:11:16 Way. Yeah. There are so many contractors out there that simply won't take a job if they feel like that it's going to be, uh, difficult or un if it's too risky. If you are talking to a contractor and the contractor says, I typically ask for 20% down, 20% down allows me to pay for permits, buy the startings of the materials, um, do rent some of the equipment that I need to rent to do the job. And if you immediately think as a homeowner, I'm not putting 20% down, are you kidding me? I'm gonna need to, to see some work first that contractor's probably gonna think this is not the job for me. Right. And so when we say interview, there's definitely, uh, it, each person is being weighed at the same time.
Speaker 2 00:12:06 Totally. Uh, so one of the things when you are, here's a list of things that you should probably consider as well, like, like we just said, interviewing your contractor. But you need to get a list of references and call those references. If you're getting a bathroom remodel done, you know, you want to know how good their craftsmanship is, their quality, their cleanliness, <laugh>, the, the timing in which they took to get it done. Uh, if there was any delays, problems, how did they deal with those problems in communication? And what you could also ask is, did you get what you wanted? When you call that reference and you say you, you see they gave you a picture book, right? They give you a little, here's a, a picture book of my references in my past projects. And you see one of the quality and, uh, what you want in yours.
Speaker 2 00:13:08 Ask them to say, did it turn out how you thought it was gonna turn out? Cuz I'll tell you right now, I had a bathroom remodel done and we paid contractors to do it. And I was very unhappy because the subcontractors that my contractor hired to come in and do the work were not of the quality that I was expecting. So they were able to remedy it, make it right. But that's something you have to keep in mind when you're hiring a general contractors to ask them or ask their references when something happens, how do you fix it and how long did it take? You know, if you're, if you expect it to be done in, if he's he or she says it's gonna be done in three months and you're 6, 7, 8 months into a project, you know, that's a problem.
Speaker 3 00:13:58 Yeah. Another thing you want to check, cause you wanna make sure of course, that the contractor that you're dealing with is licensed and
Speaker 2 00:14:05 Bonded. A hundred percent.
Speaker 3 00:14:06 You can actually get that information, uh, yourself. You don't have to take anyone's word for it. You don't even necessarily have to look at their license. You can go onto the internet and search for, uh, for that information and find out that they are, A lot of times contractors, um, will be licensed and bonded, but maybe their license has expired or is due to be renewed or, um, something like that.
Speaker 2 00:14:34 Uh, yeah. In the state of Oregon you can go, there's a website and state of Washington and you can search anything about the contractor. You can search their name, you can search their CCB number. Uh, you can see if there was any past complaints against them. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>, um, judgements, you know, financial judgements if they didn't pay their bills, uh, you can do that on that website and that's very, very handy. And if you don't do that as a minimum, that's on you <laugh>. Yeah. Another thing is make sure they're license bonded. Like Tony said, uh, you can call the number. They give you, they give you their insurance information. You can call the company and say, is this valid? Because I'll tell you one thing, you do not want workers working on your house that are not licensed and bonded. If somebody trips and falls or something, anything happens and they get hurt on your property, they can sue you and probably take your house away from you depending on the severity of the accident. Right. So that's just something you really, really need to take seriously.
Speaker 3 00:15:42 Yeah. Uh, I think the next thing that probably we would address is, it's a good idea if you've got a large project and you're working with a contractor and they're asking for some percentage of the money down, you should have a contract, something in writing something that bonds the two of you to the project. Something that that ex lays out that the project needs to be seen through to completion or uh, you know, this is the amount of money that's given up front. Some sort of document that holds both parties accountable.
Speaker 2 00:16:19 Yeah. Everything, everything needs to be in writing. There is not a situation where a handshake deal should ever happen. Honestly,
Speaker 3 00:16:31 There's not a situation where any type of a project should be paid in
Speaker 2 00:16:36 Cash. I know I hear this all the time. You know, people want to come in and say, well, what's the cash price? What if I pay you cash? Which essentially means we're just gonna do this under the table. You don't have to report it to the government. You're just gonna take cash and I'm gonna pay cash and it's gonna be sweet and I'm gonna get a better deal. Yeah. You know, we'll cut the government out of it. I understand that. Right. You're just trying to get a really good deal.
Speaker 3 00:16:59 Well, that's okay. If you're having the, the contractor come over and set a fence post. If he's gonna pour a bag of concrete, set a fence post and attach your fence to it, and you wanna pay him cash for that, that's fine. But not a remodel. Yeah.
Speaker 2 00:17:13 Cuz here's the thing, again, a lot of this comes down to contracts, and I cannot tell you how many stories that I have heard over the years from contractors and homeowners alike who get 50, 60, 75, 80% of the way through a project in things start deteriorating. And a lot of that is on the contractor and the homeowner equally because managing expectations in any situation is very difficult, but also very important. You want to make sure as a contractor that you're managing the, the expectations of that customer in communication, in time, you know, in material delays, in everything that is happening. And if the customer isn't fully informed about what's going on, then things deteriorate. Right? So let's say you're a homeowner and then you've handed a customer or a contractor $5,000 in cash because he told you, yeah, this is my cash price and yada yada, yada. We don't have to put that into any sort of paperwork. We'll just do it all under the table. Nothing's gonna stop that person from walking away. Nothing. You don't have any sort of receipt. If you write a check to a contractor and they cash it, that cashed check is now your receipt, your proof of payment. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>. So cash payments can be dangerous.
Speaker 3 00:18:53 That's absolutely the truth. We touched earlier on managing expectations, and I want to go back to that. I think there's a lot of time that can be spent talking about managing expectations. One of those things is how long is it gonna take to get the project complete? Yeah. And I think a lot of times homeowners forget that contractors have multiple jobs going on at one time. They're not making enough on one job to get them the income that they need to get through that entire project. They have to have four or five projects going on at one time. And so that means that they're gonna spend some time at your project and then move to another project. And when they're not on the job, that doesn't mean that they've forgotten about you or that they're not coming back or that they've abandoned you or walked off with your money. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>, uh, a lot of times it means they're waiting for the concrete sub or the roofing sub or somebody who also has a schedule and is doing multiple jobs. So I think managing the expectation of timelines is a very big deal.
Speaker 2 00:20:01 Yeah. I've seen a lot of projects or relationships fall apart in part because of timeframes. You know, in a lot of it comes down to homeowners not understanding how long it actually takes to do something. And when I say a kitchen remodel, my kitchen remodel at my house took eight months. That's crazy. Right? No kitchen for eight months. Mind, mind you, I did a lot of that work myself, and that was longer than it probably needed to be for sure. Um, but that's just, that's reality. The thing, projects like that take a long time. I mean, if you watch a lot of these shows on TV and they're doing complete remodels in less than a week, it's just not realistic. You know, material delays over the last two years, material delays in the, um, supply chain have been unbelievable. Like, unbelievable things that you would never expect to be out of stock. Were out of stock for six months. Window packages, people were ordering window packages 6, 7, 8 months out and then getting them so much later. So it's really something you'd have to understand that there will be hiccups, there will be problems,
Speaker 3 00:21:25 And it's not just material. The same thing goes for permits and inspections, right? When they have to get permits and inspections, they're subject to someone else's schedule. Uh, the city or the county or, uh, whoever it is that they're scheduling with, they have to wait. And then of course, like I said, the subs, so everyone is, is juggling this schedule and trying to get to where they can. And then you throw into that weather challenges when the weather, weather is changing and suddenly it's raining and you can't, can't pour concrete or it's just too cold outside or just too hot outside, whatever the situation might be. They're juggling all of that. They're going to the project where they can work in the rain and waiting on the project where they can't work in the rain and, uh, all of those things. So that's where communication becomes key. If your contractor's not at the job and you were thinking that, that the contractor was supposed to be at the job, then this is an opportunity for you to communicate calmly and ask the question,
Speaker 2 00:22:29 What's the deal, man,
Speaker 3 00:22:30 <laugh>, when, when are you planning to be back to the job?
Speaker 2 00:22:35 Where are you at? <laugh>, I need to have Christmas dinner.
Speaker 3 00:22:38 Respectfully <laugh> in order to keep, um, in order to keep a, a good relationship with the contractor that you're working on. You want it to be good all the way to the end.
Speaker 2 00:22:49 Yeah.
Speaker 3 00:22:50 Uh, in order to have a, a good successful remodel.
Speaker 2 00:22:54 Well, and like you said before, you know, managing expectations and a lot of that comes with interviewing, interviewing your contractor, calling their references. Because again, we talked about vision. You have a vision for this project, and you might have visions of grandeur, <laugh>, you might think to yourself, oh, I want, you know, $150,000 kitchen on a shoestring budget and it's just not going to happen. And really that's on the contractor to manage that expectation. He's like, Hey, you know, you're not getting brand new quartz countertops. You can't afford it. You know, you, we can't put all new, you know, plywood box cabinets in this kitchen. You know, you have to go with this line here that's a little bit cheaper. Soft clothes hinges might not be a reality for you, you know? So, but if you do expect those things, get it in writing, everything that you put into the bid or the contractor puts into the bid and you're signing on it, you know, you're getting it done.
Speaker 2 00:23:58 You know, and kind of going back to choosing a contractor and getting a budget, getting an estimate from a general contractor, and you're getting multiple prices. One of the things I wanted to talk about, because we deal with this every day, is getting multiple bids from multiple contractors. You have to understand as a, as a homeowner, if you're a homeowner listening to this, that there is, there is cost associated with people coming to your house and putting in hours worth of work, especially on a very complex project. You know, if you call a contractor, say, give you a price on a deck, most deck builders can say, well, if it's a flat lot or whatever, uh, you know that it's gonna be about X amount per square foot. Right. But remodel completely different. And if you're coming in and our contractors coming in and they're measuring and they're looking at plans and they're doing takeoffs and they're doing all of these things, there is, there is real cost associated with that. So just going out and getting multiple bids, bid after bid after bid until you get, you hear what you want to hear. Right. We all, I've, I've, I've ran into it so many times where customers come in with some massive remodel and their budget is a fourth of what it needs to be, and they just keep interviewing contractors until somebody says, yeah, I'll do it. And then they're 400,000 over budget because that contractor didn't know what they were doing because they just kept interviewing until they found somebody. So
Speaker 3 00:25:41 That's not how you make your decision.
Speaker 2 00:25:43 No. Don't make your decision based on
Speaker 3 00:25:46 Solely,
Speaker 2 00:25:47 On, solely on how much they say they can do with your budget.
Speaker 3 00:25:52 If one contractor comes in and tells you it's gonna be $50,000 and another contractor comes in and says he can do it for 10, there's a problem probably. Now you need to determine who's right and who's not.
Speaker 2 00:26:04 Right. And bidding, bidding things out apples to apples. You heard that, you've heard that term before. You know, make sure it's apples to apples. Well, as a layman, you may not fully know what is in a bid versus that bid versus that bid. So if you're trying to compare apples to apples, it might be worth going to get advice, you know, talking to the contractor and, and maybe sh looking the bids over and asking questions and saying, well, what does this mean here? What, what products are you putting out of, you're getting a new siding job and they put fiber, cement siding. What brand, what type, what type of house wrap are they using on my house? Are they using the cheapest stuff man has ever made, or are they putting on a nice quality product like
Speaker 3 00:26:57 Tyvec?
Speaker 2 00:26:57 You can, and James Hardy,
Speaker 3 00:26:59 You can be comparing apples to apples and still be holding a rotten apple in one hand and a caramel to apple in the other. This is true. You know what I'm saying? There's a, there's many a slip there between the two things. So many different grades of products that do the same job and so many different ways to have them done so
Speaker 2 00:27:21 Well. And that's why it really comes down to taking your time and making a good decision. Don't rush into anything, especially when you're parting with thousands or tens of thousands or hundreds of thousands of dollars. Do you really want to just rush into with somebody that says, yeah, we can do that. No problem. Just give us 25, $50,000 up front <laugh>, no problem. We can get that done. Uhhuh, <affirmative>, I've heard it time and time again, so don't be pressured into signing a contract. I always say be weary of the door knockers people that go door to door that are some national chain Yeah. Looking to give you a window bid or a roof bid or a solar bid. Say, you know, you can invite a in Sure. But if they're like, you need to sign this contract right now, or the price won't be valid, I would say, okay, thank you.
Speaker 3 00:28:12 Right. Have a nice day. Beat it.
Speaker 2 00:28:14 Yeah. Because it is your responsibility to interview those, the their references to get other bids to make sure that you're not getting fleeced.
Speaker 3 00:28:26 Yeah. And it's a good practice to be looking for contractors to your local area. Lots of benefits to that. Uh, in the local area, there'll be many other jobs close by that you can look at that they've done. And when you're choosing your contractor, you and your contractor should look at photos as, and maybe even go out to job sites and see practical things. It can be difficult, difficult to match up the vision in the contractor's head and the vision in your head, and you could say red and red to hi to your contractor would be a different red than to you.
Speaker 2 00:29:09 Absolutely. Well, and here, here's the thing. You know, I always talk about, I compare this to buying cars. You know, would you go out and buy an $80,000 car without test driving it, without looking, even looking at it? Would you just look on the internet and say, yeah, that looks cool. Here's my $80,000, I'll just pick it up. No, you wanna look at the quality, the fit and finish of the interior, the leather stitching. If you're spending that much money on a car, you really wanna make sure that that thing is primo. That's what you want. Now, if you're gonna spend $80,000 on a contractor, you're just gonna say, all right,
Speaker 3 00:29:46 Let's just go with this guy.
Speaker 2 00:29:47 He seemed like a nice guy.
Speaker 3 00:29:49 He was the he was the lowest bid.
Speaker 2 00:29:51 Yeah, he was the lowest
Speaker 3 00:29:51 Bid. I know he was the middle bid. Right. There was one lower and one higher. I went with the middle guy. Yeah.
Speaker 2 00:29:56 That's not necessarily,
Speaker 3 00:29:58 That's not how those decisions are made.
Speaker 2 00:30:00 No. There, there's lots of questions and that's why I recommend writing them down, you know, making a list and writing them down, and then physically going through that list with every potential contractor that you talk to. And maybe if it's before they even give you a bid, don't waste their time. Don't have them come over and run them through the ringer only to say, yeah, I don't like this guy, I don't like this person. I'm not, I'm not even thinking about I'm, I'm just gonna throw their bit away. Well, they've put real man hours into that. So
Speaker 3 00:30:30 That's why the interview
Speaker 2 00:30:32 Interview ahead of time
Speaker 3 00:30:33 Before the estimate. Yes,
Speaker 2 00:30:34 Exactly.
Speaker 3 00:30:35 You can sit down with a contractor and talk about your project and you can say, this is what I want to do. And that contractor can tell you, I guarantee they can tell you, you are probably between 35 and 45,000 for that project. This is true. They're gonna give you a, from the range, from the hip budget range, and you're gonna say, oh no, I only have 20,000. And they're gonna say, here's some options. Yeah. Here's some things I've done that was less expensive, but looked real good. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>. And then you are going to be able to come to a place where you come to an agreement. This is how you're deciding this contractor is the contractor for me, because we're seeing things eye to eye. The interview and the, the budget number gets you to a place where you can make a, a informed decision about your contractor and then move towards a detailed estimate and a contract and an exchange of money and all of this.
Speaker 2 00:31:34 Right. Architects and engineers before you get all those people involved.
Speaker 3 00:31:38 Designers, yeah, you
Speaker 2 00:31:39 Do, you do wanna know, you know, your budget is a big deal to most people. You wanna know what something's gonna cost you before you jump two feet into something. I've seen it, I've seen people go out, they get architectural drawings done, they get the engineering done, they get everything done the way they want it, and then realize that it is 10 times their budget. Right. Or they come in with some grand plan for some 15,000 square foot deck off the back p patio with outdoor living and then realize how much holy cow, you know. So budget's a big deal.
Speaker 3 00:32:16 I think, uh, we did make a note here. Don't pay up front. Uh, we, we covered it a little bit of that. I think you can expect that some portion of money will be expected up front in a lot of situations. Most situations, if you are hiring a contractor who has low overhead, he doesn't have a staff and he doesn't have a fleet of trucks and he doesn't have have people going all different directions all the time, then you're probably dealing with somebody who's not packing a ton of money that he's gonna use to, to do your project and then just collect the check at the end.
Speaker 2 00:32:50 Right? Yeah. A contractor that's sitting on 10, 15, $20,000 in cash to go buy all the materials for your project. Right. <laugh> is pretty
Speaker 3 00:32:59 Slim. And, and so when you have interviewed your contractor and he has, or she has quoted the project and you've seen eye to eye, you can move forward with a contract and a 20% down and feel good about it moving forward.
Speaker 2 00:33:18 Right. Because that's, you have to understand they have material costs. There are things that they need to purchase on your behalf so that the project goes smoothly. And if you're being stingy with the payments, your timeframe might get extended. You know, if they say, Hey, windows are taken 45, 50, 60 days to get windows, we need to order them now, but that window packages is gonna be $10,000. Expect to pay for that. Yeah. Upfront. Yeah. Because the contractor's not gonna sit on that for two months, get down to the thing and you go, I'm outta money. It's just not gonna happen. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>. So be prepared for those sorts of things.
Speaker 3 00:34:00 It's also a really good idea as you move through the project, once you've chosen your contract and you've started to go to keep all of your papers, keep all of your drawings, keep your contract, keep photos, keep um,
Speaker 2 00:34:12 A job,
Speaker 3 00:34:12 File a job, file a folder with all of that stuff in it. Absolutely.
Speaker 2 00:34:17 Yeah. You wanna keep all of that. Bills canceled checks, uh, insurance letters, c c b documents, you know, everybody that walks in your door a sub, you know, if you, if you're general contractors coming in with electricians, get the name of the electrical company, get the name of the plumber, get the name of the, the H V A C company so that you have that information handy. You have all of it in one place. Paint colors, you know, the, the color of the type of your countertop, the stain that which you use on the, the cupboards so that if you ever have to make a repair down the road, you know what color it is, you can just go buy it and then touch it up and be done.
Speaker 3 00:34:55 Old English,
Speaker 2 00:34:57 Old English,
Speaker 3 00:34:58 Old English walnut, maybe.
Speaker 2 00:34:59 Oh, that's what you
Speaker 3 00:35:00 Did. Maybe old English, dark walnut
Speaker 2 00:35:02 <laugh>. When you said old English, I thought you were talking about beer.
Speaker 3 00:35:05 No, <laugh>. No, I'm, uh, that, that's really good tip. Um, the same thing goes with, um, touch up bottles of paint for your cabinets or, um, other types of extras that come along with your stuff and keep all that stuff in, uh, in one place where you know how to track it down and use it when you
Speaker 2 00:35:26 Need it. I know who doesn't have a shelf in their garage with like 20 gallons of paint.
Speaker 3 00:35:31 Yeah.
Speaker 2 00:35:32 You know, with little labels on it that says bedroom and it's from 25 years ago, <laugh>.
Speaker 3 00:35:39 Well, if you have 20 gallons, uh, you probably have overdone it
Speaker 2 00:35:44 A little. I have so many gallons of paint. I actually went through
Speaker 3 00:35:47 A partial five will probably do
Speaker 2 00:35:49 It. Yeah. You know, in the state of Oregon, and I don't know if this is a federal program, but in the state of Oregon, they have this paint fee. You pay a fee. Yeah. Every time you buy a gallon of paint, I don't know what it is, 30 cents or a
Speaker 3 00:36:01 Dollar. Yeah. It depends on the container size. Yeah.
Speaker 2 00:36:04 So you pay that, because that funds a program where they collect old paint and recycle it. So you can go to Sherwin Williams or Benjamin Moore
Speaker 3 00:36:15 Or Par Lumber.
Speaker 2 00:36:15 Par Lumber. Sometimes they'll have bins that you can just go in and say, Hey here, and they'll take 'em, and then they collect all that and they recycle it. Yep. So I actually did that recently. I cleaned out all of my extra old paint cans. Some of 'em had rust. Some of them you opened the lid and it was a solid chunk of thick latex just solidified. Yeah.
Speaker 3 00:36:36 They j they generally just ask that you have lids and labels and no solvents. Yeah.
Speaker 2 00:36:41 Yeah. So it's a good idea to get rid of your estate.
Speaker 3 00:36:43 It is. It's a great program. Um, so I I, I think hopefully we've said something today that strikes a chord with you. Something that helps you make a decision about how to choose a contractor, how to build a relationship with a contractor, how to move forward, hand in hand with a contractor, and use that information to ha have a successful remodel.
Speaker 2 00:37:10 Yeah. And hon honestly, if you have any questions or comments, feel free to email us and, and we'd be happy to talk about it. Our next episode, uh, weekend
[email protected]. That's p a r r.com. Um, also, Tony and I have a, uh, YouTube channel. You can go check that out. It's youtube.com/ww
Speaker 3 00:37:34 Home show.
Speaker 2 00:37:34 Yep. So, uh, that's growing pretty well. Um, what else, Tony?
Speaker 3 00:37:39 Yeah, I think that's, uh, podcasts. This, that you're listening to now. Oh, you can tell. Or if you are gonna recommend this podcast to someone else, you can let them know. They can get it on Spotify iHeartRadio, Google Podcast, apple Podcast or Corey Valdez podcast
Speaker 2 00:37:56 Everywhere. It's,
Speaker 3 00:37:57 It's available. It's all over the place.
Speaker 2 00:37:59 All right. Well, thanks so much. Hope you have a great weekend. We'll see you next time.
