On Jan 3, 9:07 am, Robert Allison wrote:
wrote:
Okay to be more specific--

One story home on almost 10 acres, with a well and septic, completely
flat cleared land. Just a basic house I guess, nothing out of the
ordinary.
We want quality, energy efficient, but no marble
Maybe pergo or some type of laminate, tile, nice but not over the top,
affordability is important, which is why I am asking.
How do I go about planning a good project without going way over
budget. We want a nice house and heard horror stories from hiring the
wrong GC, so were considering taking it on ourselves. I am wondering
are the questions I should be asking and how do I go about finding
quality work?
Does this answer questions? If I need more specifics please ask, as I
don't know the answer without the question

Probably between $100 to $200 per square foot.

My advice is to not hire the wrong GC. Hire the right one.
Ask for references and then call them. There is a reason us
GCs are making big bucks (Bwaaaahaaaahaaaa!).

Seriously, you can't imagine the problems that you will face
on a daily basis as your own GC. To make the right decisions,
you need to know the answer and it is not something that you
will probably know without having experience. I have 35 years
of it and I still get hit with questions that I have to
research.

It is good to have a GC. They will pull their hair out and
let you keep yours.

I just finished a small remodel job. The owner wanted to do
some of the work and I did the rest. When we were done, she
told me that she will never again do anything other than call
me. She said that she never realized how much work went into
a simple remodel job and she NEVER WANTS TO GO THROUGH THAT
AGAIN! That job was only 2 months long.

Everything I did flowed smoothly while everything she did was
a disaster. Now, she had her share of bad luck and sorry
subs, but it can happen with good luck and good subs if you
don't know what you are doing. You especially need to know
how to talk to subs. They aren't your children but they often
need to be sweet talked, or yelled at. It just depends. If
you yell when you should be talking sweet or vice versa, it
can be bad. Very bad. Lawyers bad. You don't want that.

Find a good GC and you can sleep at night while he stays up
and does the planning for tomorrow.

--
Robert Allison
Rimshot, Inc.
Georgetown, TX

Well said Robert. I forgot all about the need to know how to deal
with people. I worked for a woman one time who brought in her own
electricians for some reason. The first day, she sets up this big
digital clock so she can track their every minute. Needless to say,
it didn't go real well.