I have my own personal references written with my own quill. I can take windows out, remove tiles, knock down walls and generally dismantle anything. I also supply my own concrete. No worries about a contract and I always take very short tea breaks.
@JimboSaturn Have fun! I gutted and redid my entire kitchen all by myself... took about a month. Mine was in a 1922 Bungalow that hadn't been updated (when I bought it) since the 50s.
The only part I didn't do was the electrical... I planned the kitchen and just before I started the job, I had an electrician come in and put in a new panel and rewire (took out the K&T) the entire house.
@Ontheroad I'm lucky , I'm not changing the layout at all but the task is still daunting. I'm not super handy so this will be out of my comfort zone. However, I did put in new inside doors in my house which was out of my comfort zone as well. Yes I don't fuck around with major electrical things too, maybe just changing outlets.
@JimboSaturn I toyed with the idea of doing the electrical and plumbing, but I also wanted a new 300 amp drop, which required the utility company to come in, which meant inspectors from code enforcement, which meant I needed to have it done perfectly (to code) and get a permit pulled.
The plumbing I did, mainly because it's simple to do and all the plumbing was in the open ceiling of the basement (under the kitchen).
It is a daunting job... did the entire house except the electrical and HVAC... took me about a year to get it all done. The horror stories!🤣
On the plus side, I spent 76k (including all the new toys... errr, I mean tools) for the whole thing and was given quotes ranging from $135k to $160k for doing the same thing.
The biggest challenge was the plaster and lathe walls and ceilings... I wanted to keep the place period correct as much as possible, so that was a whole new skill I had to learn. So many cracks, holes, etc., had to be repaired.
@Ontheroad You are fearless! Yes you just have to take it slow and accept you will make mistakes. I saved about $7K hanging and doing my own doors.
Yes, if you don't do the electrical right the inspector will make you tear it all out and do it over again wasting money. Plus it is important for safety.
I've had to get some new toys, I mean tools too :P
@JimboSaturn Fearless in my case is not knowing I can't do something. Not a great trait😁. It's why it took me a year instead of 6 months or so... I stopped counting the number of things I had to redo because of mistakes🤣
@Ontheroad And sometimes I do measure twice and I still fucked it up? It's a mystery. Then of course my wife says "well you couldn't have measured right!" :P
