oh piffle

[rmd]

i got the quote for my spiffy new porch. it's about 25% above what i thought it would be (and what i can currently afford).

choices: 1. pay it anyways and figure out where to pull that kind of money out of my ass. 2. put it off till i can afford it (some time next year). 3. start negotiating and see if there's a way to drop the price (for instance, moving from trex to mahogany or douglas fir for much of teh wood part).

*sigh*

Comments

[iamlisabee.livejournal.com]

see if you can pay them what you have now and set up a payment plan for the rest of it?

[rmd.livejournal.com]

see, as a former tradesworker, that just seems impossible for a non-emergency project.

i think i'll be in a position to afford it next spring, so i may ask him to do a quick fix (the stairs are failing) and have a very frugal few months.

[rmd.livejournal.com]

see, as a former tradesworker, that just seems impossible for a non-emergency project.

which is to say, it would have annoyed me if a customer asked me that, so i can't turn around and ask someone else for that.

(i mean, if this were a case of "my house is uninhabitable without this work done", then the situation would be different. but in that case, i'd be willing to use various other credit options i've got available to me.)

[iamlisabee.livejournal.com]

Makes sense.

I hope you have your porch soon!

[ceo]

I'm told that Trex and similar products get really hot in the sun.

[rmd.livejournal.com]

interesting. i was seduced by the "no maintenance" part of it. so very seductive.

[klingonlandlady.livejournal.com]

Unless you're in a really damp area, mahogany might not be a bad choice either. Trex has the great advantage that it doesn't rot... but can be a bit softer than wood in a sunny place and need closer-spaced supports so it doesn't start to bow.

[rmd.livejournal.com]

yeah, i knew about the closer supports -- it's one of the reasons trex is more expensive even taking into account the higher cost per board-foot.

[miss-chance.livejournal.com]

Not in my experience. Our back porch is trex and we're _very_ happy with it.

[cz_unit]

I'd say do it now and take the hit. Might be more expensive in the spring, and you really want to do this sort of thing *right*. Nothing more annoying than spending 75% of a lot of money for what you didn't want.

So. Do it now.
CZ

[waysofseeing.livejournal.com]

Get a competing quote or two?

[keren-s.livejournal.com]

As an attorney, I'd say try to negotiate. It doesn't close off either of the other two options. I would start with trying to find out why there was such a big gap between what you expected and what you were quoted. Is the price of materials higher? Perhaps you can explore using different materials. Is it the cost of labor? Maybe they could use more junior workers and only have a senior supervising. Is it the finishing (staining/painting)? Perhaps that is something you could take on yourself. etc.

[donnad.livejournal.com]

Can you do some of the work to cut down on labor costs? Maybe instead of having them tear down and haul away the old porch, you could do it. Or digging the new holes or pouring the new base (if you need it.)

I'm with CZ, take the hit now, throw it at a low interest credit card if you have to, by spring the prices will likely be higher, everyone wants it done in time for summer right.

[scottro.livejournal.com]

Never pay full price for anything, man.

Negotiate the hell out of this one, or find another contractor.

77

[liralen.livejournal.com]

I'd go the multiple quote path... and then see if you can get it down with the other data to show.

[lara68.livejournal.com]

i dunno what construction is like in your neck of the woods, but up here it's crazy-busy and getting worse. it's hard to even get a quote!

i have a monstrous (but very spiffy-looking and relatively cheap) stack of fir porches on the back of the copeland block, and i'm pretty happy with them. but i'm a big fan of wood, even though it means more maintenance. and they're only five years old...

if it were my house, i'd try to either negotiate or find the money to do it sooner instead of later. but you should probably take my advice with, like, a pound of salt. because i am a crazy person living in a crazy place.

[rmd.livejournal.com]

yeah, it's mostly just sticker shock. as i said, i was expecting it to come in at least 25% cheaper.

i was planning on getting at least another quote anyways, but i was having my panic and thinking ahead to what to do if the quotes all come in around the same area.

construction is pretty crazy-busy down here, too.

finding the money to do it now cuts things a little closer to the bone than i'm comfortable with and eating into the "what if i get pissed off at my job and have quit in a huff" emergency fund. it's more than is available on my home equity line of credit right now, although about what will be available when i finish paying it down, probably next spring, so i'd have to use unsecured credit like a credit card or something. i haven't had a credit card balance persist across a billing cycle since the end of last century, and i'm loathe to start again now. (i didn't quite hit financial ruin with it before, but i had some bad habits that i finally broke and paid off, so there's a non-rational emotional side to that, too.)

[lara68.livejournal.com]

yeah, sticker shock is a bitch.

i'm right there with you on the credit card issue too.

on the way home i was thinking about it some more. while i like to think of myself as the kind of person who would just get it done (and sometimes i am that kind of person), in reality it's just as likely that i'd blow it off until next year if it were my house (kind of like i'm doing with the parking lot i had intended to pave this year).

better make that a 40 lb. bag of salt...

[rmd.livejournal.com]

yeah. the delaying option is to have someone fix the stairs so they'll be usable thru the whole winter and be frugal and get the money and plan on doing the work after the spring thaw.

[frotz.livejournal.com]

When we talked about expected costs for that a while ago, I remember thinking your expectations were realistic, and I've had some conversations with contractors about that sort of thing in the recent past (as well as knowing a fair bit about two projects going on now), so I don't think I'm too out of touch.

Or start grinding away at the 10/20 tables, but that might start feeling like work instead of fun.

[rmd.livejournal.com]

Or start grinding away at the 10/20 tables, but that might start feeling like work instead of fun.

i suspect it'd feel just plain out of my depth. fun idea, tho.