Sunoverbeach wrote:One of the wife's arguments for getting a new house is that we can find a place "that I won't have to work on." I'm not as gullible as I look, so I respond with, "Right. Like your going to find a house painted exactly the way you want it to be." She goes, "Well of course there will need to be painting done."
I'm unsure how that's going to happen without ne doing any work
Yeah, I got sucked into that line of thinking when we built (well, the construction guys built it) our 2nd house.
The Ex played me like a fiddle. She knew I liked to have a chunk of land. The biggest selling point for me was the plot. 3 (or 5, I forget) acres of mostly wooded land. It was a slice of an old pick your own strawberries and blue berry farm and our plot was on the blue berry bushes end of the farm.
Sweet! Fresh blue berry bushes out front. While they were excavating, I told them to save as may bushes as they can. We ended up with like 20 bushes. We could pick 5 gallons of blue berries a week during the season (no lie).
Anyway, after signing up to get the house built... then came the upgrade options.
Tile floors in the kitchen and bathrooms instead of vinyl flooring = Upgrade.
You don' like our basic carpet selection? You want a different one = Upgrade
1/3 of the 1st floor was oak hardwood- dining room and another large room that I used as home office. I'm good with that so no Upgrade.
House interior walls are white primer. Don't like white walls? Want different colors = Upgrade.
Oh... you want recessed lighting.. that's an Upgrade.
Central air A/C... upgrade.
Garage door openers? Upgrade.
Kitchen cabinets, sinks, faucets, bathroom fixtures, and so forth beyond the standard package = Upgrade.
Kitchen stove and fridge - pick white or black for this specific supplier. Want to deviate from that? = Upgrade.
Lesson learned. It's PIA to deal with building contractors