Welcome to
My Home Additions Blog
I will comment
from time to time when I think I have something to say that
might be of some interest. Sometimes I get the urge to vent my
thoughts about things related to remodeling & home
additions & this is a perfect way to do it. As you probably
know the word Blog is a contraction of weblog. People
have started to write blogs on every conceivable subject in
which they think they have some expertise. It's another way of
adding my two cents to the subject of home additions. Feel free
to comment, suggest or add your own two cents if you want. You
can email me here
How to get him to pull the
trigger
(For Wives only)
I have just finished explaining to the
husband & his wife how I can give them a new
addition on their home that will satisfy their every need. The
size is right the flooring, windows, cathedral ceiling,
skylights, heating, electric are in place & the price
is within their budget.
We have spent a few hours going over
every detail of a beautiful addition that they both desperately
want & need for themselves & their family. I
say "Mr. Jones, we have discussed all the details,
everything is in place. I have written a contract detailing all
the work we will perform & all the cost entailed.
Let's get this going & I will start work in about 6
weeks. That will give me enough time to get your
permits & organize your construction".
Mr. Jones has beads of perspiration
breaking out on his forehead. His hands start to tremble, his
eyes start to glaze, his face is turning beet red. The moment
of truth has arrived. Months of thought & planning have
come to a successful conclusion. He & his wife have
talked about this for years & now it is presented to
them just as they envisioned.
"I've got to think this over." Suppose
I lose my job, suppose the interest rates go lower, suppose the
neighborhood burns down, suppose I get transferred to Kansas
City, suppose we have an earthquake. What if war breaks out
inTimbuktu or the Arabs won't sell us any more oil. No, not
now. I've got to give this more thought."
I look over at his wife. She's on the
verge of tears. Things look hopeless. Months of planning for an
addition they want & can afford is going down the drain.
It's over & she thinks there isn't much she can
do.
Unfortunately I have seen this
scenario all too often. This person cannot pull the trigger. He
can't bring himself to make the decision.
The
Solution:
The only way to make him go
ahead with the remodel is for the wife to intervene. Say
something like this. "Harry, you have done enough thinking.
It's time to do something & I've seen & heard
enough. Bill, (that's me) Give me the pen &
after I sign give it to Harry. Harry will sign, won't you
Harry?
Harry will sign. All he needs
is a little push. I give you my personal
guarantee.
He thinks I am irresponsible
I recently responded to a letter in my
letters page (where else would I put it?) that is titled "Is it
typical for a contractor to charge a design fee?
"In sum I said, no. A contractor wrote
me and took me to task for my answer. & I ask that you read
his letter & my reply. I have purposely erased his
name & company affiliation but left the rest of the
letter intact.
Dear Mr. Harbrecht, I just finished
exploring your website and must say you have some interesting
commentary. I do however, take exception to some of your
advise. It is irresponsible for you to tell your readers that
$800.00 is an exorbitant amount of money to design a remodeling
project. Also, I have never been able to sit at my computer for
a "few minutes" and produce an estimate for a complex
Remodeling Project. In order for my company to produce a
concise and accurate estimate, it can take long hours and
sometimes weeks, and after we produce that estimate we have to
live by it and still make a profit. Some of your advise sounds
as if you are telling readers that it is bad if a Contractor
makes a profit. If you were a successful Remodeling Contractor,
I would assume you made a fair profit after wages and overhead,
insurance and expenses. In my local area, all applications for
a building permit must be submitted with multiple sets of
Construction Documents sealed by an Architect and, or a
Professional Engineer, that includes any structural
modification to a residential building. An eight hundred dollar
fee would only cover the review process of the documents for
the seal and not the work of drawing the documents or even the
cost of printing. Possibly in the rural area's, a contractor
could get by without a sealed set of documents, but then he
takes the full responsibility if a structural problem arises. I
am an active member of the National Association of Home
Builders, The Remodelers Council, my local Home Builders
Association and a member of a Remodelers 20 Club. I also hold a
CGR and a CAPS Designation, both of which are nationally
sponsored by NAHB and NARI. You are providing a service to
consumers that have little knowledge about the services a
Professional Remodeler offers. In order for you to better serve
your readers and clients alike, you would be wise to seek out
additional educational materials for the guidance you are
offering. As a Professional Contractor, it is your obligation
to be responsible with the information you deliver.
My
Response:
Thank you for your letter. I
appreciate what you say about giving the public responsible
advice&; that is what I try to do. I will try to defend
what I wrote with the following:
Maybe I did not make myself clear
enough. Let me expand on what I said. The letter in question
said that the contractor wanted $800 to design the remodel.
Most of the people I dealt with lived in modest homes anywhere
from 800' to 1500' square feet in size. I suspect that might
represent at least a majority of homes in the USA & a
vast majority of homes owned by my readers. These are the
people who need additional room for themselves & their
families. (People with3000', 5000' or larger homes usually have
little need to expand.)The choices are limited by not only by
money & property boundaries but also by the existing
configuration of the house. Those choices are further limited
by existing siding type, existing roof design, existing
foundation height etc.
So, what's to design? How much
time & effort does it take to figure out that a house
with a hip roof should build an addition with a hip roof? How
much time & effort does it take to choose window
types & sizes, siding choice, roofing
material & color etc? How much time & effort
does it take to layout wall outlets, switches &
necessary heating demands? The answer is, not much.
We are not talking about adding to the
Taj Mahal or the White House. Not many homeowners asked me to
add two story round turrets to their home. (That would take a
little more time) They were looking for space at a cost they
could afford & at the same time they wanted the
addition to add value to their home. In my experience over the
years I found myself doing preliminary sketches of the same
additions over & over & over. They were different
wall dimensions, different windows, different window locations,
different roof designs etc but they were all basically same.
The people were different, the address was different, the lot
size was different but the remodel was the same as the one I
did next store. Whether I built a 10' dormer, 20' dormer or 30'
dormer or a 14X16 extension they each were the same basic
construction. It was merely a question of size &
details & giving limited choices & advice to
the customer.
After a few minutes conversation it
became obvious what the customer wanted to build. All I had to
do was help fill in the details. It was the same as hundreds of
others with different variations. I think anyone with a modicum
of experience could design a dormer, second story addition or
first floor addition all with room layouts in a short period of
time. (The books I sell tell them how to do what I
did & then buy it at the right price.) I would use a
small drafting tool to do a rough sketch for the homeowners in
a few minutes. Fill in windows, partitions, closets, electric,
heating, bath or kitchen fixtures etc & the customer
had a preliminary design in about 30 minutes. I still don't
think that a design is worth $800. I know it isn't because I
did it (as did my salespeople) for & so did all of my
competition & their salespeople.
As far as I know they still do. Many a
customer presented me with an architects set of drawings on my
arrival. The plans cost them a few thousand dollars &
after they found out what there model would cost they dropped
the idea & put the plans in the closet. I would have
done it for free & they wasted a few thousand dollars.
Sorry to say there were no pc computers then but we still were
able to estimate almost any addition in a few minutes. If you
don't know how much it cost you to build a square foot of wall
or roof or foundation or a 30'dormer after you have done it a
few hundred times then I suggest you might want to try a
different method of estimating.
To sum up, I was not suggesting that a
set of building plans & permit fee are not worth $800.
I am saying that the design was not worth $800. I am a former
president of a chapter of NARI & very cognizant of
what it took to be a professional contractor. To this day I
recommend that my readers look for contractors in their area
who are NARI members. They are generally a notch or two above
the others.
Lastly let me say that I do not in any
way intend to infer that contractors should not make a fair
profit. On the contrary I keep insisting that people know what
they are paying for so they can buy not the cheapest price but
get the best value for their money. Profit is what keeps the
world going around. (It also put my kids through
school.)
Again, thank you for your
letter & your comments.
Regards, Bill Harbrecht
"It's All About
Money"
(No it isn't)
A lady wrote about some addition
ideas for their home & asked me to suggest what I thought
was the best solution. It was a very well thought out,
descriptive letter laying out options that they had to add to
their home. (Whether to expand out or up) An excerpt from the
letter follows:"We need more bedrooms for our grandchildren,
and workspace so we want to add a master suite, lots of storage
space, and at least one study. We'd actually like a
studio/library too, with perhaps a half bath -- my husband
works from home much of the time. What we do will finally
depend on cost, and the relationship between the old and the
new. We have a number of options."....
My reply:
Nice letter. You are doing some clear
thinking & planning before acting. Before I tell you what I
think you should do, I want to comment on one of your thoughts.
"What we finally do will depend on cost"
In my humble opinion that is the last
thing your decision should depend upon. I suspect you are not
part of the Bill Gates fortune & you only have so much
money that you can afford to invest. (Room additions are
investments not an expense) Whatever that amount is should be
used to build whatever will please you the most. (Whatever fits
your everyday living habits & wants.)After making that
decision then decide how much you can do on the budget already
formulated.
Does it make any sense to build an
addition, spend a large sum of money & then not have
exactly what fits your needs? Spend as much as you can afford
on what you want, not on what will give you the most square
footage for the least amount of money. Whatever you spend will
be returned to you with a huge profit when sell time comes
around, plus you will have the enjoyment of use for years to
come.
Sounds like you have a great piece of
beautiful property & plenty of room to build. Consider
building a one or two story addition as large as you can
afford. Add large high quality casement windows 5'-6' high to
capture the view of your surroundings. The second story ideas
present too many structural problems. In addition you mention
grandchildren which means you both are not kids
anymore & stairs may present a problem later on (if
not now). If you read my "Room Addition" book you will
learn, among other things, that additional footage is cheap if
you know how to buy it. Hope this helps
Regards,
Bill Harbrecht
How many times prospective customers
said to me "It's all about cost" Sorry, I don't
agree. It's all about living better. Don't look at the
trees, look at the forest.
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