The renovations continue.

[atara]

It feels like we're going about the various home renovations in a sort of haphazard manner: we go through a burst of getting a bunch of stuff done at once, and then we slack off for a few years before getting enough energy for another burst of activity. I suppose that's a method for preventing burnout

Comments

[kfops]

The majority of my house has wood siding (which I completely scraped and repainted a couple years ago), but the back addition is vinyl. I hadn't thought to look for engineered hardwood or the like... that wasn't even on my radar. My curiosity is piqued, though!

My neighbour 2 doors down painted her house bright yellow. At first it was shocking, but as it fading after a couple years, it actually blends in nicely.

[plonq]

Funny story. When the contractor came out to meet with us the first time (he took measurements of the house), we told him that we were mainly interested in the engineered wood, and he made a point of showing us the selection of vinyl first, while selling the colours and patterns available. Then he emphasized more than once that the wood siding is nearly twice the price of the vinyl.

When he finally showed us the estimate sheet with the prices, he seemed a little aback when we immediately chose the engineered wood and mentioned that it was right in the price range we had been anticipating. We have been saving up in anticipation of this, so the price did not come as a shock.

The windows people were the same way a couple of years ago. They kept apologizing for the price, and stressing how they were trying to take creative ways to saved us money. Then when we saw the price, I just shrugged and said, "That's reasonable. It's right where I budgeted for."

[kfops]

I have a sneaking suspicion a lot of people must look at their [item] and think to themselves $1000, which may come completely out of the air. With-out doing any research on their own they then approach contractors, completely floored that it would cost more and doesn't take the half-hour that most home reno shows condense things to.

Maybe it's almost a let-down for contractors as they've already gotten themselves geared up for the whole sticker-shock motif!