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I'd like to make an addition to my home - Most will be over one of the garage bays (1 story), the other portion would be behind the garage bay and above (that there is two stories, plus the slab/footings needed). Basically... extending garage out the back and building above it to describe it another way.
I essentially want the basics done - frame, roof, barrier and maybe plumbing. It'll be a bathroom addition and a closet, while that first floor portion will be a mud room area. Seperate us from the elements and I'll be able to finish up the rest.
1st questions - Logistics - opposite the other end of the bedroom is the hallway bathroom and the 'master' bathroom. Should I just shift the walls instead? Making the bathrooms and the bedroom larger? Or sandwich the master bedroom between the new bathroom/closet while making the old two bathrooms one long skinny 'hallway' bathroom?
2nd set of questions: I plan to do the cabinitry, the fine details, flooring etc... myself - I suck at the wiring and plumbing - is that a reasonable request for a bid? Does that really save me alot?
You can save a LOT of money by doing anything you can yourself - unfortunately you also add to the 'hassle' factor of hiring contractors. We just built our own house where I was the 'general contractor' and my husband ws the 'foreman'. Mostly that means I lined up the crews & he made sure they did what they were supposed to (men always take direction better from men. Irritating, but true). We did the wiring, plumbing, floors, finish carpentry & painting ourselves - hired out most of the rest.
However, I believe I had the harder job. Most of the general contractors in this area will only do 'turn-key' jobs - you pay them the money & they present you with a complete house you only have to 'turn the key' to live in. And the framing crews don't seem to advertise in the yellow pages. We found ours by visiting a few houses under construction in our area (after work hours), finding one that had good quality work, then coming back during their working hours to see if they'd frame our house.
For your job, it sounds like you'd need different contractors for the following jobs, in approximate order: mason (who may or may not have a team for digging the footer - some will just lay block), framing, roofing, siding, plumbing, HVAC, electrical, insulation, drywall, (painters?). So you have to decide if you'd rather hire one general contractor who lines up the rest or hire each one yourself. Some GC's will "dry-in" a place and then let you do the rest and they are much more likely to do so with a remodel/addition than a new house, so you might just have some luck. But if you have the time and the basic knowledge to oversee all the work, you can save a lot of money by skipping the GC and doing the hiring yourself (40% was not an uncommon number that I heard).
As for your first question, that sounds like something only you can decide based on the rest of the layout of your house and your traffic patterns within it.
