Video Series
Discussing How to Save $$$ Renovating in Peoria IL
People are always asking how to save money, and in this video I show you how to MAKE money in your #HomeImprovement or #renovation project. Shop used materials from Facebook Marketplace – Habitat for Humanity RE:Store – or cragslist or your packrat uncle. This homeowner earned $1200 on her shopping trip. Really, put in the easy work of having 2×6 on site for me, or doing the flooring or painting yourself. We prefer working with the homeowner as a team, and we’ll do luxury all inclusive projects too – but if you want to save – put in the elbow grease. And change your timeline expectation. This room addition only cost $3000, but it also took two months to complete in spare days and handoff timing between homeowner work and my work. So be patient and strategic and you’ll save thousands! #peoriaillinois
Affordable renovation requires low cost materials and some of your own elbow grease. What kind of work are you comfortable doing?
1. Shop for used materials, and have everything ready
2. Get your worksite organized for me
3. specify what you need me to do
4. schedule me in, and plan to cleanup yourself
5. do small items like flooring or painting yourself
#peoriaillinois #homerenovationonabudget #custombuilder
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Take it in Pieces
Everyone comes to me asking for a ‘quote’ – that’s actually a legal term, and a bad word for both you and I. I can tell you why, but let’s think through the psychology of it all – and the reality of your project. Firstly, yes you want to know IF you can afford it – and that’s legitimate – but it’s also very difficult. If I had a crystal ball – I would play the lottery, instead of building. If you need a wholly upfront pricing – I can do it – and you need to know that I have to calculate for every possible wrong turn, delay and difficulty along the way; so the cost is actually higher.
If I get into the nitty gritty, let’s talk about a whole house gut and refresh in East Peoria along skyline drive. It had been built super solid, two layers of drywall on the walls. but on top of that was some kind of combed in pattern of swirls. The drywall specialist quote was $5000 to remove all the swirls and get to a level 3 or 4 smooth finish. They were not able to start for 2 weeks, and I was workig the site daily. So I was able to put in about $1500 of work with daily pay and daily checkoffs until the homeowner was mostly satisfied – and also had no time before painting started. Drywall services specifically can be very time consuming because each layer or ‘coating’ has to dry between applications. If you use a ‘quickdry’ drywall mud, you end up spending as much time cleaning your tools, as you save in the mud drying. So my ability to pivit to flooring, electrical, painting, tile, windows, doors or stairs in the same day speeds the process. In addition to speed – my depth of experience in years and tasks makes for solid planning and proactive response to unexpected problems.
Daily Checkins Daily Pay
It’s my experience that a lot of conflict in construction comes from the disconnect between estimated or quoted expectations, and the developing reality. It’s better to pivot either your expectations or goals if your timeline is shifting in an unexpected direction. Staying with the East Peoria renovation example, we had to be done by Christmas whatever the condition. We were able to complete 2000 square feet of solid wite oak 4″ wide plank across the entire ground floor and kichen installing 12,000 of material in 5 days. But we didn’t finish the crown moulding in the kitchen after hitting other obstacles in the LED Can lights in the livingroom. When you as the homeowner are the boss, paying daily – you’re seeing the work that get’s done each day and keeping a constant line of communcation open for problems and solutions.
