Being your own general contractor
Can you honestly say you can’t do a single carpentry/plumbing/painting project at home? Ah I’ve heard too many excuses in the past, and quite frankly, when push comes to shove we all WILL EASILY grab a hammer to nail that loose ply board down. Now that’s an easy project to start with, right? See any small “doable” projects that your house is screaming at you to take care of… brave it… and as Jordan and Nike says… “Just do it!”.
Unfortunately, not all home projects are easy projects. There are times we’d need help from professionals. You need a professional contractor and if you can afford to hire one, I’d say, start from referrals. Tap your friends, your friend’s friends, the neighbors and lastly the classified ads. In this day and age, you can search for one by using CraigsList. Just make sure you check out his portfolio and actually call past clients.
But say you can’t afford a professional contractor, will that leave you with a leaky roof all through the rainy season? Not at all. You can be your own contractor… but be very very careful at everything. Contractors are a rare breed, Renovations101.com says that if you’d start to be your own contractor:
It helps to be control-oriented, be self-motivated, be able to give plenty of attention to detail, have plenty of time available, not get stressed out too easily, be organized, be able to see the big picture, be good at scheduling, have low expectations of other contractors, and be a good negotiator.
Well, we’ll discuss more about this topic in the coming posts… I’m just warming up!