How long did it take you to get your home ready to show?
maurenemm
13 years ago
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gmp3
13 years agoRelated Discussions
How long did your design process take you?
Comments (6)Emmachas is right--a successful plan is a series of compromises. It also requires the future homeowners to plan their home within the real world and not the dream world many of us find ourselves in. Like the other posters above, it took years. -6 months to to find the plan. -8 years working on the changes we wanted to make to it off and on whenever we had some time. -Another year working with a designer that charged us an arm and a leg to redraw in the computer what I had drawn to scale at home. Did I mention that half of her submissions to us had changes in them that weren't on the drawings I gave her but they were ones that she thought would work nicely and then she'd charge us a second time for the time it took her to delete what she had put in & replace it with what we originally asked for. In the end between her ineptness (the plans were not structurally sound) and the turn in the housing/banking market we had to start over--but not with her again! -We scoured the online houseplan sites for 6-9 months to no avail. -We finally lucked out on a referral to another designer that actually builds custom houses on the side. We started over with a set budget in mind and planned the house size accordingly. We were able to salvage our original first floor layout and shrink some of the rooms, reconfigure the master bath & closet, change the living room to a bedroom and add another bath and the layout was done. Maximizing efficiency of space was key. Summerfield on GW came up with the elevations for us and they were awesome! The new designer was FAST. We had plans to review approximately every 3 days. I think it took 6-7 weeks from start to finish. -We broke ground 2 weeks after the final set of plans was in our hands and the house was 98% finished (enough for a CO & move-in) 4 months later. I wish you lots of luck, patience--lots and lots of patience--, creativity & the ability to know when the plans are crossing the line into the dream zone vs. the reality zone....See MoreHow long did it take to get your Blue Star?
Comments (7)Thanks, odiegirl! And 3-4 weeks! That's good news! It's taken me about two years to make up my mind and place my order, and now that I finally have, I'm mentally pacing the floor, wanting it! (Never mind that we're not ready to install . . . .) Anyone else?...See MoreHow long did it take for your GC to price your job?
Comments (9)We interviewed 5 GCs. First was sort of interested, but our job on an older home was different from the usual work he did building new and/or remodeling newer homes, and it didn't "feel" like a good fit, so we didn't pursue it, even though he seemed like a decent guy and his portfolio of work looked like quality. Second came to look, but when he saw significant structural work he wasn't interested - he was more a cabinet installer/internal design kind of GC than somebody to handle this project. Next one came HIGHLY recommended from a friend who had just done some similar work a few months prior. He came round and gave us some quite attractive rough figures compared to the previous and we wanted some time to think about his suggestions; called him a couple of weeks later to come back, we talked further and asked him for a written bid. Never heard back from him, although we continued to call him to try and get a formal bid. #4 was referred to us via a very bizarre chain of events: even though we got the feeling the project was stalled since we couldn't find a builder, we decided to close on the equity loan anyway since it was all ready to go. At the closing, the title agent started chatting to us, noted that we lived in the same neighbourhood as her family including her brother who oh-by-the-way was a contractor and did we have one yet? I took the number partly to be polite and partly because he was (literally) around the corner, but didn't hold out much hope. In the meantime, I already had an appointment scheduled with a fairly glossy design-build firm so I kept it - they said that we would need at a MINIMUM double our budget, so that was a short meeting! So... feeling somewhat trepidatious I called the guy around the corner that had been recc'd at the bank. He was out of town but we scheduled a meeting for a few days later. He spent 2 hrs at the house, and drove me to see some work he was doing on another property (beautiful work - sealed the deal from my point of view). He came back a few days later with his associate to have another look to see how they could manage the structural stuff, and emailed me a basic proposal a few days after that. We hashed out the remaining details by email and he started 3 weeks later. He CLEARLY wanted the job - he was interested in the house, he (as I later learned) was fascinated by the books on our shelves many of which reflected his own interests and he definitely wanted the gig and he just liked us as much as we did him - it was clearly a "good fit". I had seen his work, his licence and checked his insurance was ok (they all were, of course!), but other than the title agent had no personal references. The day we started work I was PANIC STRICKEN with "what if's?" - I was letting a perfect stranger cut my house in half, I had no human references and aaaaaakkkkkkkk... what was I doing! A neighbour reassured me that she'd seen his work in the neighbourhood and, that in fact, he'd turned DOWN a job she'd asked him to do, but even so - I didn't necessarily do this "by the book"! As those who have been following my renovation know, this guy has been AMAZING, transforming our ideas into reality at a more than fair price (in fact, I truly believe he undercharged us somewhat given the numbers I see other people throwing around for their work). And he, his wife and kids have become friends in the course of it all, so it has truly been "win win" even if we DIDN'T find him via a "conventional" route. Anyway, long answer. I guess the short version is if they follow through, they want the job... !...See MoreHow long did it take you to get your home ready for market?
Comments (6)The key for us as frequent transferees was to always keep the home well maintained and get rid of junk as we go along instead of becoming pack rats. We would usually take a few weeks from time my hubby accepted the transfer til the time we'd put the home on the market. We'd use that time to freshen up paint and declutter closets and children's rooms. A few times we'd have a project that was next on our list that we'd have to move up a time frame on, but usually just a small project. If you're trying to get the home on the market quickly, concentrate on the living spaces first, then work on the basement and attics. Tackle it in steps and it won't seem so overwhelming....See Morebleigh
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