Method or Madness?

Is there a method in doing this little remodeling project? or it's sheer madness? We are really not sure.

Doing some of the work ourselves helped, in reducing labor cost, especially when it's hard to contract relatively small jobs out. If there is such a thing as a method in doing manual labor under time and cost pressure, it is this old mental exercise called relentlessness :-). With new method and material made available by the building material industry, it's a bit more feasible to do some of the work ourselves. As we learned along the way, some jobs are better left to the professionals. So it comes down to how to work with the contractors effectively.

A good friend of ours once said that one should get 10 estimates for each job contracted out. There is certain wisdom in that practice. What seems to be important for a job are the specification (material, method, design, and expected results, down to the detailed level), the timeline, and the cost. It's always useful to know the details about the job. The knowledge can be acquired online, from Home Depot, or any hardware store, or by talking to the contractors about the job spec. The time required to interview all the contractors might be a challenge in many ways. Getting quotes over the phone or via fax after allowing the contractor to take a look at the job site without the owner's presence might work in some cases.

Then it's time to collect the estimates and to negotiate a contract. It might be useful to know the basis of the cost, like hourly rate, or unit labor cost (e.g., $4/sq-ft for wall tiling, $3/sq-ft for floor tiling, $1/ft for baseboard moulding install), or cost breakdown into parts of the job. The more understanding about the job, the better, to allow comparison among quotes initially and to enable assessment of the results later. Finalize the job spec before the contract is signed. Any change afterwards might be costly. And then? How about the quality of the job? Reference? Previous or current job site visit? Contract out a small job first? ...