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I'm a first-time homebuyer. My hubby and I have found a house that looks like a great possibility. We are strongly considering buying it. However, neither of us is handy and the house needs a few renovations. We wouldn't be able to do these ourselves, as we have no idea or inclination on how to do these. However, we don't know which type of professional to call for each of the following jobs:
1) The existing fireplace is ugly. I want to reface the whole fireplace/hearth.
2) We would like some built-in bookshelves.
3) We want to get the cabinets in the kitchen and bathroom refaced
4) We need to put up some drywall to wall off a small area of a particular room
5) We want to add french doors to the living room.
6) We need to finish the unfinished basement.
What is the best way to find these professionals? I am confused as to whether we find a "contractor" who does it all or we need to individually hire these out?
For #2, I haunted the large Home Shows (in SoCal, they hold them at county fairgrounds) and talked to the cabinetmakers and carpenters that had booths. Looked at their portfolios of finished works. Tore pictures out of magazines to show them approximately what I wanted.
And whenever I saw bookshelves I liked at someone's house (I even asked at a few hotels, LOL), I asked for the builders name.
I now have floor to ceiling on a 20' foot wall, cornered to another wall for 5'. Took me a year of looking and comparing, but I got what I wanted. Take your time, make sure it's what you want. It's not cheap for good work.
I'm a first-time homebuyer. My hubby and I have found a house that looks like a great possibility. We are strongly considering buying it. However, neither of us is handy and the house needs a few renovations. We wouldn't be able to do these ourselves, as we have no idea or inclination on how to do these. However, we don't know which type of professional to call for each of the following jobs:
1) The existing fireplace is ugly. I want to reface the whole fireplace/hearth.
2) We would like some built-in bookshelves.
3) We want to get the cabinets in the kitchen and bathroom refaced
4) We need to put up some drywall to wall off a small area of a particular room
5) We want to add french doors to the living room.
6) We need to finish the unfinished basement.
What is the best way to find these professionals? I am confused as to whether we find a "contractor" who does it all or we need to individually hire these out?
For the fireplace you need a real good Mason
Built-in bookshelves go to your local kitchen cabinet showroom. You will save money buying them from a kitchen cabinet catalog rather then have some hack build them and who knows what they will do to the finish.
No you do not want to get the cabinets in your kitchen refaced. Refacing is more expensive then replacing any day, any time, any place. Refacing is like putting a nice clean pressed suit on an unwashed man who is wearing soiled underware and worn sneakers. And he will still have dirty pockets. Again go to your local kitchen showroom where they will do you a free estimate and make sure they discount from list price or go elsewhere. If you go to the big box store they will rape you with full list price.
Drywall is a job for even a handyman but those who call themselves drywall hangers or spacklers is what you need.
French doors should be handled by a professional Carpenter. Be careful here. With the unemployment rate among construction professionals over 50% there are a lot of hacks out there. Anyone with a tool box and a pick up truck are calling themselves a contractor these days. Try to get a licensed Carpenter if your area has licensing.
Your Carpenter can also handle the unfinished basement. Check his abilities as basements have their own set of challenges.
Find a good finish/trim carpenter for built-in's for a true custom job. Referrals are usually best, and expect to pay gooood money for work.
The rest of the stuff sounds like it could be taken care of by a good general contractor. Let them sub out what needs to done rather than you trying to hunt and peck for the right people.
1) The existing fireplace is ugly. I want to reface the whole fireplace/hearth.
==> It depends how you want to reface it. If you want to redo the brick, you will need professionals and permit. You can look for chimney contractor. They usually do the brick work as well. If you want to do a DIY job, there are plenty of DIY reface kit online. You can choose marble or granite. It's very simple to do it.
We have an ugly floor to ceiling brick fireplace as well. I decide to cover the upper part with drywall so that we can hang TV there. Lower part we will put in a nice mantel and a new firescreen, then have contractor to build 2 built in on each side.
2) We would like some built-in bookshelves.
==> You will need carpenter. In our case, our general contractor is a carpenter so he will do it for us.
3) We want to get the cabinets in the kitchen and bathroom refaced
==> I think now Home Depot or Lowes has this service as well.
4) We need to put up some drywall to wall off a small area of a particular room
==> You will need a home improvement contractor with license. If the wall is load bearing, you will need structure engineer to recalculate the load.
5) We want to add french doors to the living room.
==> general home improvement contractor can do it.
6) We need to finish the unfinished basement.
==> general home improvement contractor can do most of job. If it's involved with electrical and plumbing, you will need both professionals to get involved with the project.
Except for built in and cabinet refacing, all above jobs will require applying proper permit and plan. You can talk to a general home improvement contractor about your plan first.
3) We want to get the cabinets in the kitchen and bathroom refaced
==> I think now Home Depot or Lowes has this service as well.
All their service is basically sending it out to a local contractor ... except you'll be paying a higher price.
As desertsun noted, replacing is cheaper than refacing. Everything will be new too, instead of just the surface. The last thing you want to do is spend more money and still have to deal with old sticky drawers.
As for not being handy ... when you move in, learn to be so. That doesn't mean you need to know how to build a 2 story room addition, but for smaller tasks like a toilet that won't fill (typically the flapper) or adding some wall shelving (find the studs), DIY is the way to go.
Location: Visitation between Wal-Mart & Home Depot
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I agree that you should probably hire a contractor. It will be extremely difficult and/or require a lot of luck for a pair of newby's who don't really have a firm grip the scope of their requested projects, codes and "standard practices" to find good-faith craftsmen/tradesmen who will do their best work without knowledgeable oversight, without the prospect of recurring business and probably with less than adequate instructions.
I agree with Narfcake about "getting handy." It is almost guaranteed that you will be getting routinely gouged if you are unable clear a toilet, fix a doorknob or install a light fixture.
Let me tell you how Servicemagic works. Contractors sign up to be on their approved list. The only approval is paying $500 to join. Leads are sent daily to the contractors. All the info is there except the homeowners name and number. If the contractor wishes to buy that lead he clicks on it and $100 is deducted from their account and the homeowners name is # is sent.
Servicemagic tells contractors they will only pass the lead 4 times. Lets say it like it is. SM sells that lead 4 times. But every homeowner will tell you that they have been called 15 or more times by various contractors wishing for a shot at this business.
Now for the homeowner rip off. It cost the homeowner nothing to request to be contacted by contractors. After 15 or more calls the homeowner gets pretty pizzed. After 2 weeks SM calls the homeowner to ask how they made out and if the service worked well for them. If the homeowner says they hired someone then SM takes them off the list. If the homeowner says they have not hired anyone yet then that homeowners name gets recycle back into the hot list and wham....the homeowner will get 15 or more calls.
Keep in mind if any of you fill out these requests for information, this cost each contractor $100 give or take depending on which referral service they go through. Doing this as a trick is the worse low life trick anyone can do. By filling out these requests for information you are taking money from contractors who are just trying to make a living and bid fair and square on an honest job.
Back to these leads. Ever see those work at home surveys? Old ladies fill out these surveys on home improvement questions. They get paid 50 cents per 100 surveys. Names and numbers are culled from these surveys and sold to these contractor referral services who buy them for maybe $100 per 10,000 names. These names go into the pool of homeowners needing work and boom....poor unsuspecting homeowner starts getting calls because they filled out something that asked if they miight want to put on an addition this summer.
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