Finances (a mini-post)

A picture-less post!

As we get to a point where the end of the project is in sight, we can begin to calculate exactly how much Sam has saved us by doing so much of the work himself. When we first embarked on this project, he did a lot of research on costs, not only by interviewing several General Contractors, but also by doing quite a bit of research on the internet.

One of the websites he found rather useful was remodelingmyspace.com, where they have a bunch of useful tips, how-to articles, and (especially useful) a project cost-estimator . (And where, if you haven't already, you can vote for this blog to win a remodeling-blog contest!)

Sam has figured that by doing it all himself, he's been 'making' about $300 an hour! When we spoke with contractors, we were quoted a project price of $500-600 thousand. And of course, that wasn't inclusive of lifts and all the crazy detail work in the garage, and all of the amazing details like angled windows and such... not to mention the quality work that Sam does vs. what contractors would do. (Not to suggest that there aren't great contractors out there, but I doubt they'd 'care' as much as Sam does, and Sam has consistently gone the extra mile. Just sayin'.)

Sam figures that, including permits, architect fees, the two lifts in the garage, and everything else that we've done so far, we've spent about $56 per square foot (including decks and garage). If we look at just the interior and the garage, that price goes up to $63 per square foot. If we look at just the interior square footage (still including everything), we're still only at about $100 per square foot (and I don't know that it makes sense to exclude the 1300 sq. ft of the garage!).
Even at $100 per square foot, we're still a far cry from the $250 and up that we were quoted, for interior only. Of course, if it had been me doing the work instead of Sam, it might not have been such a deal! :P

That's why I take pictures, instead.

This morning we lifted into place the other 20ft. wall. Pictures of that soon!