Thursday 23 February 2012

Learning Something New...One Renovation at a Time


I just got the final invoice from the contractor on the bathroom renovation and will soon be feeling a bit poorer. It's roughly where I thought it'd be and after speaking to my mom I'm chopping any minor additions that he made up to experience. He did a lot of things that saved us money as well, like picking up supplies when he needed them once they were at the building centre and installing the countertop for us (saving us about $200 instead of having the manufacturer do it). I figure it all washes out pretty evenly.

Although some of the additions bother me a little, I understand that I'm between a rock and a hard place. The initial contract was vague enough that there is that wiggle room for argument from him. Although I feel I was clear in my communications, I even had things taped on the floor initially for the layout, obviously I wasn't clear enough. However, based on what I experienced I can always communicate  better the next time around.

Overall, the bathroom renovation has been an amazing learning experience. Honestly, I don't think I could have done that much better my first time around the renovation merry-go-round. Seriously, unless you grow up in a trades world where your family and friends are tradespeople, where do you learn about these things? They certainly don't teach you about these things in school.

Plus, considering my initial inexperience I don't think that I did too bad on the budget. I was only over by 16 percent of the budget that I wanted to work with. I did get something that was not in my initial plan, an updated stack. They removed most of the cast iron in the basement and replaced it with ABS, so that is an improvement to the house that I wasn't anticipating. I did learn that I have no clue how much tradespeople cost because I was definitely off on that. And, that unless something has a pricetag and I knew I needed it, it caught me by surprise. For example, I didn't realize that I'd need a rough in valve for the shower, a nice $100 surprise. Those types of surprises can add up mighty quickly. I hope this means that I'll have a better grasp of how to budget for the next bathroom or any other renovation project.
Can't wait to get the final touches on the bathroom finished up! Then, onto the next renovation project.

What's the best way to save my pennies for the next renovation?

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