Selecting a Contractor

Tim and I had the hardest time selecting a contractor. Having seen the work (and drama) of several contractors that our clients and our company have used to renovate single family homes, I had a pretty good idea of who to interview and who not to interview. We had three different contractors give us estimates. We probably met each contractor at the house at least four times to clarify our scope of work and try to get them down to a price we could afford. I think we changed our minds about which contractor we wanted to go with about 6 times! It was awful. Every time we finished meeting with a contractor, we felt like we should go with that contractor. It felt like we dating all three and had to dump two of them.

In the end, we selected our contractors for the following reasons:

1. They were by far the most responsive. They had their bid in first, always sent what they said they would send us, almost always picked up our calls and were very easy to reach. Some of the others were harder to reach and would take a few days to return our calls. We figured if they were hard to reach now, when they should be trying to impress us to win the job, they would be much harder to reach after they got the job!

2. The guys we were dealing with for the bid, were the ones that would be on site managing the crew throughout the process. With the other two, we weren't quite sure who would actually be on site to manage things.

3. They produce a high level of finish. I feel like they really care about the end result and about the little details. One of the other contractors wrote in his contract that the drywall would come out crooked because it was an old house- that was a bit of a turn off.

4. They are freaking HILARIOUS and so much fun to deal with!

The infamous duo: Ed and Alex

Befores!

We are expecting our Brookland Beauty to look quite different in a few months, so we took tons of photos to remember it in its original form... Here are just a few:

Our Fabulous Fixer Upper!

Tim and I just purchased a 1905 Victorian fixer upper in Brookland! As soon as I saw the wrap around porch, the huge corner lot, the original woodwork and staircase, I was pretty determined to get the home. As soon as Tim saw that the yard would allow for the puppy he was promised, he was determined to get the house!

We were pretty lucky to get it because all types of investors were going after this one, but with some great guidance from our favorite Menkiti Group realtors, we had the winning bid and went under contract 30 days ago.

The process from contract to close went surprisingly smoothly, and we closed today on our incredible fixer upper! I've never held such a big check, so I couldn't help posing with my princess wallet that I won in Bingo.

A big shout out to mom for helping to finance our dream home!