Excavation was finished last Friday. There hasn't been much activity at the lot since then as we're waiting on sprayed concrete against the side of the hole next to the neighbour's house. That's scheduled for Thursday, the 21st.
We have a framer booked for the middle of October. But when one of the window people called to check up on me, I explained that framing is delayed. So she gave me the name of a new framer. The new guy is available immediately, and significantly cheaper. But BIL has been out of town, so I can't get any feedback from him about whether to hire the new guy.
The window company that we were hoping to use has informed us that they can't get their certification in time for us to use them. But then the Direct Buy window quote came in, and we're a few thousand less than the other company we were considering.
Speaking of Direct Buy, we also got the quote back for the kitchen, and it's not a deal at all. It is a little cheaper than the same thing without DB, but it doesn't include installation. We might break once we hire someone else to do the installation, but I'd rather just deal with one person. I wasn't all that impressed with the DB kitchen designer anyway. Looking at flooring options doesn't look promising, either. We can save money if I select certain prefinished options. But none of them would be my first choice. And again, finding someone to install it makes it unappealing.
The thing that has me still considering Direct Buy is siding. I discovered a brand called Maxi Plank last fall. It's a fiber cement board, like Hardie. Hardie is the default fiber cement product around here, but I'm not impressed. Hardie comes in a handful of rather bland colours. It's also only got a 10-15 year warranty on the finish, despite the reputation of being something that never needs maintenance. 10-15 years is not maintenance free. Maxi Plank, according to the wholesaler last fall, is painted locally, in any colour. They do a 2 coat process and their warranty is 25 years. And they were supposed to be cheaper than Hardie. So that's what I decided on. But then I got a materials quote for the Maxi Plank and Hardie, and I discovered that there's a primed version of Hardie that the local reseller will have painted by the same people who do the Maxi Plank. So, if you compare the locally painted product, including painting, Maxi Plank is slightly cheaper than Hardie. But if you can live with one of the standard Hardie colours, then that's significantly cheaper. When I heard that, I decided on Hardie's Evening Blue. But now, through a Direct Buy connection, I can get Maxi Plank in a custom colour for about $3k less than standard colour Hardie. To me, that's worth getting the DB membership. But then, hopefully I can find an installer who allows me to buy the materials myself.
On Friday, I got a quote from a local building supply company for our rigid foam for the outside of the basement walls. I then compared their price to Lowes. Lowes' price was about a third the bulding supply company's. Plus, this weekend they are having a promotion where if you spend more than $300, you get 15% off. To throw a kink in the deal, none of the local Lowes stores had enough foam for us. So we started with the furthest away store, and cleaned them out.
But then at the cash, we only got a 5% discount. It turns out that when buying large quantities of building materials at Lowes, you automatically get contractor pricing, which is 5%. But then you don't get the 15% discount on top of that. So the cashier refunded the purchase price, and manually discounted our foam. And then the computer added the 5% again. She decided to give it to us rather than refund the purchase again and fight with the computer some more. Score!
So then we drove home with 30 sheets of foam stacked up in the back of the truck. At 2" each, the stack was 5' high. So rather than take the expressway home, we took the back roads through the industrial areas and then the sketchy neighbourhoods of the city. We unloaded it at home, and then went to another store to get more. At this store, they had to involve 3 cashiers and the manager to get the 15% discount. But then the manager knew that the computer would add on the 5%, so he gave us a 10% discount first. We ended up with slightly less than 15% off, but given the extra discount we got on the first load, we didn't argue too much. This load was only 32" high, so we were able to take the highway home. But overall, we spent 4 hours picking up our foam. MrDinks pointed out that this is why contractors don't put a lot of effort into searching out the best prices.
So, we're now ready for a foundation. Hopefully we'll get that this week.
We have a framer booked for the middle of October. But when one of the window people called to check up on me, I explained that framing is delayed. So she gave me the name of a new framer. The new guy is available immediately, and significantly cheaper. But BIL has been out of town, so I can't get any feedback from him about whether to hire the new guy.
The window company that we were hoping to use has informed us that they can't get their certification in time for us to use them. But then the Direct Buy window quote came in, and we're a few thousand less than the other company we were considering.
Speaking of Direct Buy, we also got the quote back for the kitchen, and it's not a deal at all. It is a little cheaper than the same thing without DB, but it doesn't include installation. We might break once we hire someone else to do the installation, but I'd rather just deal with one person. I wasn't all that impressed with the DB kitchen designer anyway. Looking at flooring options doesn't look promising, either. We can save money if I select certain prefinished options. But none of them would be my first choice. And again, finding someone to install it makes it unappealing.
The thing that has me still considering Direct Buy is siding. I discovered a brand called Maxi Plank last fall. It's a fiber cement board, like Hardie. Hardie is the default fiber cement product around here, but I'm not impressed. Hardie comes in a handful of rather bland colours. It's also only got a 10-15 year warranty on the finish, despite the reputation of being something that never needs maintenance. 10-15 years is not maintenance free. Maxi Plank, according to the wholesaler last fall, is painted locally, in any colour. They do a 2 coat process and their warranty is 25 years. And they were supposed to be cheaper than Hardie. So that's what I decided on. But then I got a materials quote for the Maxi Plank and Hardie, and I discovered that there's a primed version of Hardie that the local reseller will have painted by the same people who do the Maxi Plank. So, if you compare the locally painted product, including painting, Maxi Plank is slightly cheaper than Hardie. But if you can live with one of the standard Hardie colours, then that's significantly cheaper. When I heard that, I decided on Hardie's Evening Blue. But now, through a Direct Buy connection, I can get Maxi Plank in a custom colour for about $3k less than standard colour Hardie. To me, that's worth getting the DB membership. But then, hopefully I can find an installer who allows me to buy the materials myself.
On Friday, I got a quote from a local building supply company for our rigid foam for the outside of the basement walls. I then compared their price to Lowes. Lowes' price was about a third the bulding supply company's. Plus, this weekend they are having a promotion where if you spend more than $300, you get 15% off. To throw a kink in the deal, none of the local Lowes stores had enough foam for us. So we started with the furthest away store, and cleaned them out.
But then at the cash, we only got a 5% discount. It turns out that when buying large quantities of building materials at Lowes, you automatically get contractor pricing, which is 5%. But then you don't get the 15% discount on top of that. So the cashier refunded the purchase price, and manually discounted our foam. And then the computer added the 5% again. She decided to give it to us rather than refund the purchase again and fight with the computer some more. Score!
So then we drove home with 30 sheets of foam stacked up in the back of the truck. At 2" each, the stack was 5' high. So rather than take the expressway home, we took the back roads through the industrial areas and then the sketchy neighbourhoods of the city. We unloaded it at home, and then went to another store to get more. At this store, they had to involve 3 cashiers and the manager to get the 15% discount. But then the manager knew that the computer would add on the 5%, so he gave us a 10% discount first. We ended up with slightly less than 15% off, but given the extra discount we got on the first load, we didn't argue too much. This load was only 32" high, so we were able to take the highway home. But overall, we spent 4 hours picking up our foam. MrDinks pointed out that this is why contractors don't put a lot of effort into searching out the best prices.
So, we're now ready for a foundation. Hopefully we'll get that this week.
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