Ok, here comes week three, and this is a part I think might get glossed over in a few, but it was a journey for me so I wanted to share it in case it was helpful.
This is all about hiring the team to do the work. As an interior designer, I do have access to workers, contractors, and experts. However, it is not always clear who we should be using.
I generally work with one of two contractors. Contractor A i use for small jobs – like build furniture and help set up a room on install day. Contractor 2 is who we hire for big renovations. However, we were trying to stay on budget so I asked contractor 1 if he could do the job.
Contractor 1 came, looked at the project, and said he will send one of his guys to give a price. OK. The plumber came, gave a price, then the tile guy came and gave his price. This is not how it is typically done so I was starting to get a little nervous. Once the contractor came back with an overall price it was over budget, but we were on a tight timeline (which got totally knocked off because of corona anyways but yeah, could not have forecasted that) so we hired him.
When I went to the village to get my permit however, they would not accept his credentials and informed me that I need to find a different contractor. Now, being that I am an interior designer here in the area, and I do take care of the permit for my clients a lot of the time, I knew the man telling me this, and I trust him.
So, off we went to contractor number 2. He came, gave a price the next day, and it was about the same as the first guy. He then went to the village and got me the permit. Contractor number 2 took care of all the paperwork, all the different team members, and from previous experience I know he will take care of clean up and construction as well.
Now, the reason I am sharing this is because sometimes we tend not to go with our gut in an effort to save money. We tend to try and hire the small guys and not real professionals to save money. Yes, even interior designers, I have walked into so many projects where they only hired me after trying to do it themselves and I had to do damage control. I think this is a good way to teach me that cheaper is not always better. So I wanted to share that, because this part is not an easy part although I know it seems it is.
Regarding the permit- we got it after much back and forth and tweaking. We are changing the plumbing and the inspector wanted to make sure that the water pipes coming to the house would not be overwhelmed. However, now that we have those permits we cannot do anything due to Corona. Hopefully by the time I write the article for week 4 I will have an update! As of now, there are boxes in my guest room and my bathroom is still green medieval with no bathtub. Cheers to Reopening!