Here is an earlier posting from someone who already did what you propose:
Just wondering here from other home owners...
I bought a brand new house (now about a year and a half old), and even
though I regret it completely now, I skimped on some stuff as I was building
to save money thinking I could do it cheaper later. For example, the builder
was charging $600 / 4 recessed lights when I saw ads in the paper daily for
people doing it for half that or less.
Little did I realize at the time, that I would pay more then that in drywall
repair. Either that, or I didn't think I would find such lazy retrofit
electricians who refused to cleanly snake wires rather then cut holes.
Anyways, if I haven't bored you yet
, I had recessed lights put in 3
bedrooms, downstairs in the living/family room, bathroom fans installed and
rear surround in-ceiling speakers and a cable outlet moved.
This resulted in a hole in my bedroom wall, a hole in one of the walls of
the office and a hole in one of the bathrooms and TEN holes in my living
room wall and ceiling.
The electricians recommended "great" drywall guys and said I wouldn't even
notice the patch work.
Of course the patch work is quite obvious, the textures don't match, some of
the patches are horrible, etc. and the patches were spot painted, so the
paint job stands out.
So now that I am done with all the electrical stuff, I wanted to bring in a
pro to skim coat the damaged walls and ceilings and prime and paint
everything to match.
I had wanted to do this to 4 or 5 walls and a one or two ceilings. I
expected a ball park figure of about $1500 to $2000 and a 2 or 3 day job.
And was quite happy to pay that to fix all the damage since it was driving
me nuts.
ANYWAYS... I brought someone in this morning to give me an estimate, and
when he saw the damage I wanted to repair he basically said I was wasting
his time, picking the job apart and that I wouldn't be happy with any job
they did, and he refused to even give an estimate and walked out.
Is what I want to do "done"? Am I being too picky or would other home owners
in the same boat do the same? I talked to a few friends at work, some said
it would drive them crazy too, others said I was being picky. But no one new
if this was a normal thing to do???
My feeling is the guy was unprofessional to put down what I wanted to do
even if he didn't agree. If I want to pay him $2000 to waste his time for 3
days, he should shut up and let it be wasted.
I have another guy coming in for an estimate on Wed. and I will take a
different approach with him... I will not point out anything. I will just
say I want this,, this, etc retextured... how much?
I have tried two drywall guys and both were horrible. I figured just pay the
two thousand, have a perfect texture and move on with my life.
I am not expecting the entire house to match perfectly and be flawless,
since the whole point of orange peel texture is to hide the flaws of lazy /
sloppy construction, but I don't think I am "out of my mind" as this
contractor put it, to expect wall surfaces to have a matched texture across
the entire surface...
"tweety" wrote in message
m...
I am building a new house and I have to work with the developers
subcontracotors. The electrician is going to be charging me an arm
and a leg for electrical work. Of course they are giving me a basic
min required. For the bedrooms, living, family rooms, they are going
to have one switch with one outlet that is switchable. In the
kitchen, garage and dining rooms, one light in the ceiling and a
switch.
I have 2 stories, Living area downstairs and bedrooms upstairs with a
basement as well. I have a bunch of quetions and I appreciate if you
can help answer them.
1. I intend to install a fan in each bedroom and family room. At
minimum I like a light with a switch. Can I later on install a light
in the ceiling easily from the power comming to the outlets? What
Would I need to get done? He is asking me $95 for a fan box and $50
for a switch in each room.
2. Eventually, I want the fan and the light to be operated with the
same switch ( I think, can this be done?
3. In the kitchen I like to install recessed lights, but the chage is
$110 each with $50 for a switch. Can I easily install recessed light
later on in the kitchen? The other option is to install track
lighting later on and is that something that I can do easily later on?
4. In the bathroooms, I will ahve one switch and light. i like to
install a vanity light as well and of couse he is charging me $85 for
it. I think this is a real ripoff, since he just has to install few
feet of cable and attach a light bulb to it. I think eventually, I am
going to want to install an exaust fan which currently will cost me
$295 +50 for the fan and additional $200 for the venting.
5. In the garage they are going to install a light with one switch.
I like him to install a switch at the other end of the garage as well
($50) and a light on the outside of the garage.
I am assuming since, there will be outlets all over the house, I can
use the power or the cabling comming through them to do some of this.
I am also going to install 2 PVC conduits so that I can take wires
from basement to attic easily.
BTW, all he gives me is a light bulb at those ceiling lights.
Please help me figur out what I can do later on fairly easily and cut
the costs out. Also, If you can point me to where I can readup on how
to do someof this myself would be great.
Sorry for the long post.