Bids Abound
June 2018:
Finding a General Contractor is quite the process. Quality GCs in the mountains are hard enough to get ahold of but add in Christmas, New Years, off-season vacations, arrival of spring and GCs being so busy that they can't take on more work....and it's a long drawn out process
GC#1: This story starts with Babe Vila (hubby's new nickname) sending me a message from a ski lift telling me to not read my email. So of course being an obedient wife (ahem), I immediately read my email. Depression set in and a few glasses of wine later, that bid was immediately thrown out of the ring. We discovered that GC has no crew so was essentially hiring all sub-contractors which caused the bid to come out way out of the budget.
GC#2 came in about 15% lower than GC#1 but still is too high. Gotta be wise with the investment - think with the head as much as the heart!
We believe the travel time to/from the city to the mountains HAS to be factored in somewhere - it's about 1.5 hours each way. As much as I liked GC#2 and think he'd do a great job, we'd have to redesign to come up with something that fits within the budget and that's not an option at this point.
GC#3 - Our designer knew of a contractor in the mountains. He met us for a site visit and was a nice Pennsylvania fella - if you've spent time in PA or know some PA natives, you know what I'm saying. He was chatty, a little hard to pin down on some answers, and a little blunt with his opinion. His biggest concern was that we won't really know what we're getting into until we open up the walls and start work. He thought it might be cheaper to just scrape it all and rebuild on the existing foundation - again not an option at this point. He also couldn't start until summer of 2019 so he's out of the ring too.
GC#4 - Found out about this guy while visiting the town brewery. Chatted with the locals and found out he did the flooring and custom bar in the brewery and was building a big art studio space for one of the other patrons. He came highly recommended by the brewery owner and this customer. I met him at the cabin way back in August 2017 to get his thoughts on some of the remodel ideas and get a feel for the guy. I liked him right off the bat. He took a look at the bid and gave us his number. We couldn't believe what he submitted (labor was less than half of GC#2), so we asked to meet at the cabin AGAIN to make sure he wasn't missing anything. He had pretty much everything covered but said it was contigent on the framing documents that outline exactly what beams, posts, etc will be used.
I don't typically suggest that you take the lowest bid, but he has a few other things going for him. He knows the ins and outs of the county permit quirks (Ever watched South Park? That's the county we're in and it can be pretty dead on with the personalities!), he's been in the business for over 20 years, lives minutes away, and sometimes you just have to go with your gut and trust your instinct.
So we signed the contract and are excited to have him on board.
Lesson learned? It pays to drink beer, people.
So next time you're traveling through Park County, stop in to Mad Jack's and cozy up to the locals (oh, and ask how they named the brewery).
GC#2 came in about 15% lower than GC#1 but still is too high. Gotta be wise with the investment - think with the head as much as the heart!
We believe the travel time to/from the city to the mountains HAS to be factored in somewhere - it's about 1.5 hours each way. As much as I liked GC#2 and think he'd do a great job, we'd have to redesign to come up with something that fits within the budget and that's not an option at this point.
GC#3 - Our designer knew of a contractor in the mountains. He met us for a site visit and was a nice Pennsylvania fella - if you've spent time in PA or know some PA natives, you know what I'm saying. He was chatty, a little hard to pin down on some answers, and a little blunt with his opinion. His biggest concern was that we won't really know what we're getting into until we open up the walls and start work. He thought it might be cheaper to just scrape it all and rebuild on the existing foundation - again not an option at this point. He also couldn't start until summer of 2019 so he's out of the ring too.
GC#4 - Found out about this guy while visiting the town brewery. Chatted with the locals and found out he did the flooring and custom bar in the brewery and was building a big art studio space for one of the other patrons. He came highly recommended by the brewery owner and this customer. I met him at the cabin way back in August 2017 to get his thoughts on some of the remodel ideas and get a feel for the guy. I liked him right off the bat. He took a look at the bid and gave us his number. We couldn't believe what he submitted (labor was less than half of GC#2), so we asked to meet at the cabin AGAIN to make sure he wasn't missing anything. He had pretty much everything covered but said it was contigent on the framing documents that outline exactly what beams, posts, etc will be used.
I don't typically suggest that you take the lowest bid, but he has a few other things going for him. He knows the ins and outs of the county permit quirks (Ever watched South Park? That's the county we're in and it can be pretty dead on with the personalities!), he's been in the business for over 20 years, lives minutes away, and sometimes you just have to go with your gut and trust your instinct.
So we signed the contract and are excited to have him on board.
Lesson learned? It pays to drink beer, people.
So next time you're traveling through Park County, stop in to Mad Jack's and cozy up to the locals (oh, and ask how they named the brewery).
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