I’m a brave man and a hard worker, but some thing I’m calling in back-up for. I really wanted this project to be by the books, professional and up to code. Again, with the help of Dustin, I found killer contractors that were willing to let me do the grunt work. Just tell me what to cut out, dig up or move and I’ll do it. Then have the pros come in and do their work.
For example, the plumber was $100 per hour. For him to jack hammer the concrete would be a full days work. Instead, I rented a jack hammer from Home Depot for $75 and spent two days working my tail off. Yes, I lost two days of my life and back, but saved $700-800.
We were able to do the same with things like AC. I built the structures, sheetrocked, and prepped. The pros did the actual install.
I called in the big guns for help with sheetrock. I’m capable of it, but it’s a little embarrassing. I did any rock that doesn’t really show, but anything that you can see, I got help with. Y’all don’t want to look at my rock. It’s worse than hearing me sing. Bad news.
There wasn’t enough electrical service to the garage. It had enough power to run the pool pumps, three lights and that’s about it. Adding a stove, AC/ Heat, washer and dryer, we had to add more power. Obvs not something that I wanted to handle on my own. The pros helped us get a new panel and new service from the power company.
I did use my power of annoyance to get this completed. A “two week” timeline with Swepco really means “when we feel like it”. I made it my full-time job to call and annoy everyone at Swepco until we got power. Squeaky wheel gets the grease.
