Anyone Try to Build or Remodel anything lately $$$$

a reply to: JAGStorm

Deck! Thank god It wasnt the other auto correct option

a reply to: Bigburgh

You do now. I wasn't sure. Get on 28, cross the Highland Park Bridge and stay on Washington Blvd. You will go under a narrow bridge right past that make a Left on Thomas Blvd. Take Thomas until it ends, make a right and you are there. I used to work in that building when it was Forum Inc. Lots of god stuff there if you are a bit handy. I've bought a bunch of stuff there when we were renovating our Club, including the Bar.

a reply to: Echo007

2004 the house I lived in had it's basement flooded by the fallout from Hurricane Ivan. I saved the furnace and cleaned up the water damage, but, the water heater was toast. The guy who owned the house said I can get a hot water heater in an hour, but, I can't get a plumber to put it in for about 10 days. I told him "Let's go get the heater." We got it and a few other things, went back and I installed the heater. My landlord said "I have four other places that need this done." So I installed them for him. He knocked off three months rent. When I was 15 & 16 I worked a couple of Summers with a remodeling crew. Over the years what they taught me has saved me and my family thousands of dollars.

originally posted by: joejack1949
a reply to: JAGStorm

I'm not doing any re-modeling, but I WAS saving for a house before things went crazy. House prices go up more than I make in a year. I'd need a $300K downpayment to get into a tiny fixer-upper, and that's with an above-average job and salary. In retrospect, I would have been better off not going to school, getting some $20/h job and buying a house 10 years ago. Instead I'm SOL if I want to live in a city or near a place where my education/skills are relevant.

Oh well, home ownership doesn't sound so great anyway, based on this thread.

I've owned a lot of houses and I've rented. There just isn't a comparison. I like owning whenever possible. The only time I like renting is when I know for sure I will need to move in less than 3 or so years.

You should look into different areas. You could get a nice house for that downpayment in some parts.

a reply to: JAGStorm
I wonder where he lives? 300K can set you up pretty good in my area. Hell I paid 100K for the place I have now and that's with an external garage and a decent size piece of property.

originally posted by: JIMC5499
a reply to: JAGStorm
I wonder where he lives? 300K can set you up pretty good in my area. Hell I paid 100K for the place I have now and that's with an external garage and a decent size piece of property.

I can guess...
Places that would require that kind of downpayment...

California
Seattle
New York
New Jersey

a reply to: JAGStorm

That's what I was thinking. A while back I was offered a job with Scaled Composites. Pretty much my dream job, until I looked at the money they were paying and the cost of living. I turned them down.

originally posted by: JAGStorm
a reply to: DAVID64

You CAN do it and save yourself loads of money.

I am doing this!!! by I, I mean my husband.

The problem is the materials! It's crazy. I'll admit, I'm a little bougie and like things on the finer side. I'll take quality over quantity any day.

Here is a perfect example, I looked at this yesterday. It looked like crap

www.lowes.com...
$952.99

There are some that are more middle of the road, around 500ish, but they were built soooooo cheap. I really believe if they get wet they will fall apart.

I was curious and clicked your link. Got this:
Access Denied
You don't have permission to access "http://lowes.com/" on this server.
Reference #18.268250c5.1637607356.267117bc

Never got that before. Must be geo-blocking. How odd. Let me try some other US retail sites... oh wow blocked from HomeDepot as well.

a reply to: JAGStorm

We purchased what was going to be our main home in January 2020 just right before the covid hysteria hit. We started the interior extensive remodeling project a couple of months after getting the architect plans completed and we just moved in a few months ago.

I would not remodel anything unless you have to or you can do it yourself. Even doing it yourself will be a nightmare in just getting quality materials .

Took almost a year to get all our appliances and then when we got them some were damaged and had to be sent back which took another couple of months to get back. So we had to use a loaner in the meantime from the store.

The custom cabinetry was not an issue but the one cabinetry I ordered for one of the guest bathroom from a big box store had to be returned 4 times due to missing parts or damaged goods. The best one was something I had never seen happen before. The contents inside the packaging did not match the packaging description at all. it was the completely wrong size and dimensions as stated in the packaging.

Permitting was another nightmare as they are way backed up down here.

Materials and labor are at all time high prices and hard to come by. We planned to do the outside including remodeling the dock after the interior was completed , but no way is it worth the aggravation to do it now. Even with reputable contractors .

I will wait to do the exterior and dock, but might have the architect draw up the plans only because I know him personally. However even hiring architects down here is a waiting game.

Ofcourse its all dependent on location and region but if you are in SWFL I would wait unless its really necessary.

a reply to: JAGStorm

Southern Ontario (Canada), which apparently is on-par with California or New York