2007 Wrap Up - Money Talk

There's one more day left in 2007 and I thought it would be a good time to give an update on the financial state since this renovation is about doing things on a tight budget (of course, tight budget doesn't mean you should sacrifice quality, and I'm definitely not going to).

So, the grand total spent on home renovation supplies, labor and services for 2007 is.....

$6,186.15

Ok, you're probably thinking that's a lot, considering I've only been at this really for 6 months. Factor this into consideration:

Electrical Labor - $5,016.67 (81% of total!!)
Removal of Kitchen Wall Debris & Moldings - $300 (4.8% of total)

This goes to show what happens when you hire a contractor to do the work in NYC. You get ripped off!!! To top it off, recall that I bought the recessed light fixtures myself and got the dimmers for free. Imagine the mark-up on those if I bought them from the contractor!

With 2007 almost behind me, I expect 2008 to be even more expensive. The earliest expenses will include architectural plans, building permits, trim replication and drywall. Yet, I still think it will be well worth it and money can be spent wisely.

Two Layer Tile Cake...Yum Yum!

It's Christmas Day and my Dad is visiting. I think he's the one person who's more enthused about this renovation then me and the likely reason for this is that he's not living in it. He shows up, tears apart stuff with me, and then leaves. Good plan. I look forward to the day my friends start doing this and I can show up with a crowbar, safety glasses, a six pack of beer and some Led Zeppelin to pump while we tear down a wall. Then I leave with a full belly of pizza. Good plan.

The itch got to me today, and I couldn't wait any longer to not do any work before I get these building permits. Since all my renovation work has been approved, re-tiling should be fine to start, especially since this doesn't require board approval. Remember, I've got a two layer tile cake.

We decided to quietly go-ahead and take an hour to rip up the old tile. Here's Dad hard at work on that checkerboard pattern.



The final result is the old tile is exposed. After a bit of Comet and elbow grease, it looks like...well, not new, but lts say "charming, 1923 style."

Busted - Part 5 - Details Complicate Things

Obstacles to overcome in obtaining building permits:
1) Workers Compensation Insurance
2) Contractor's License
3) Co-op insurance/owning shares in a corporation

These are the three things I need to figure out in order to get building permits. The Workers compensation is actually no big deal. I just need to get a form filled out and notarized and fax it into the Manhattan NY Workers' Compensation office. I should be getting that back in 5 days.

As for the contractor's license, I need to prove I'm doing the renovations to my own home to the Department of Buildings. This would be fine and dandy, except that technically I don't own a home. I own shares in a corporation, which are assigned to my apartment. Not one single expediter I've talked to so far knows how to deal with this either. I need to figure this out in order to get work permits.

The final piece of the puzzle is the insurance requirements my co-op has for contractors, which is a minimum of $2 million personal liability. This sounds like a lot, but it's easy for me to get $1 million with my home owners policy. Going to $2 million is a bit tricky, so I've requested that the Board of Directors accepts $1 million in this case as it seems fairly special. They approved all my renovations this week, given that I get the permits and have the proper insurance coverage.

All in all, I think I may be the first person in the building who has properly gone through this mess. It's clear that the Board and managing agent have little idea how to handle it. I hope we can all learn from this and make it easier for residents to do their own renovations in the future.

Busted - Part 4 - Expediters are robbers

Would you pay someone around $2000 to fill out some simple paperwork, stand in line, and get a few permits for you? If so, you believe in expediters. This concept/profession seems like a joke to me, similar to the state mandated law in NJ that you can't pump your own gas, only an attendant can.

Sure, I bet these guys know the building code in and out and have a good time bull crapping with their buddies they see everyday they go down to the Department of Buildings. I'm sure they do the job efficiently and timely. I'm sure they deserve $2000 for some work they do, but there's no way I'm going to pay that if I can avoid it.

I've started to gather the paperwork I need to fill out but it looks as if there may be a few complications. I will definitely need to hire an architect to stamp/draw the plans up. No biggie, as this shouldn't cost more then a couple hundred dollars.

I figure a day or two of my time off work will be well worth the $2000k I'll save as my piggy bank isn't endless.

Time to get back to the research.

Busted - Part 3

So it's been a few weeks and I've been travelling and too busy to actually do anything in the apartment....well, I couldn't if I wanted to, so no big deal.

The building's engineer has come to inspect the wall. The most annoying part was that it took him 10 seconds to say it wasn't a load bearing wall. Thanks for the known info.

To top it off though, he decided to also put in his report that my electrical work needed to be filed for as well. Isn't my managing agent supposed to be dotting the i's and crossing the t's on this? Especially after all the paperwork I had to give him for the electrical work. Grrrrrrr...

Now I need to get building permits for the wall, which I can feel in my bones that it's going to be nothing but a big pain in the butt and cost me more money. As well, I need to get board approval for all the other work I want to do, which is extensive and I hope that they don't freak out.

More in the near future.