Monday, October 02, 2006

Saturday, Sept. 30 (Oh, so much to learn!)

Jesse called and said they were almost finished and needed a payment - $1200 (leaving a remaining balance of $400 to finish the crown molding after the sheetrock is installed). I told him I needed to go by the bank and I'd swing by the house later that day.

I told J, and he told me that I should only give Jesse $1000 - that the balance should always be enough to incent a contractor to finish up a job since often contractors will move one to the next job if they haven't left much on the table. I generally agree with this policy, but I felt like such a tool not paying Jesse the entire amount he requested. He's done really good work, and since we *know* him, I didn't think we needed to retain an extra $200. On the other hand, on the very off chance we'd have problems with Jesse, I didn't want J saying, "I told you so". He would never actually say that, of course. I'd just know. So, when we met Jesse I told him the bank was closed and I only had $1000. He was totally fine with it, which made me feel even worse.

In any case, the house is looking so much better already! The ugly ironwork in front has been replaced (pic above), and Jesse has started the kitchen cabinets. He's also installed new beadboard in the kitchen. Jesse was going to trash the ironwork, but I told him to put it on the curb as I knew someone would take it. Sure enough, when we drove by later it was all gone. Yay for recycling!

I also spoke with Tomas, the sheetrocker. With a little prompting from J, I was able to get him down $400. Still $200 more than I wanted to spend, but it's worth the extra money to know he'll do a good job. He starts Tuesday and should finish up in a week.

Oh, on another note, the house next door went up for sale by owner. J had spoken to the guy representing the seller (not a realtor, just a friend) last week, and they're asking $35K more than ours was purchased for. The lot is the same size, but the house is in terrible condition (worse than ours). I called and made an offer, and J is coaching me through the little dance I'm doing with this guy. I'm not sure if we'll get the lot, but I won't pay more than what we paid for ours. As I told J, I really hate negotiating prices, be it with contractors or homeowners. I'd much rather leave that part of home flipping to J, but he says I need to get comfortable doing it. I suppose he's right. It's no fun, though (at least not for me)!

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