Winter Maintenance

Inspecting your home and taking care of it with regular maintenance protects your investment and ensures little problems don’t become big expenses. Although we typically think of home maintenance in the spring and the fall, there are a few tasks that should be tackled mid-winter, along with some diagnostic checks that are best performed at this time of year.

In order to ensure your home is healthy and is performing as it should, the following tasks should be on your January maintenance list:

• Change furnace filters
• Clean the humidifier
• Vacuum or dust bathroom fans, smoke and CO2 detectors, and the grilles of refrigerators and freezers
• Check under all sinks for leaks
• Test plumbing shut-off valves
• Check window latches, door knobs, and cupboard hinges and tighten if necessary

When these are complete, and if you are still feeling ambitious, you may want to take on the next list.

• Feel for drafts around doors and windows. Now may not be the time to repair or replace them, but it is a really good time to take note for when the weather warms.
• Feel for drafts at the electrical outlets. Again, this probably isn't the time of year when the drafts are going to be corrected, but later you may want to remember where the problem places were. This fix is typically completed when other exterior maintenance is performed, so take good notes--especially if you plan on replacing siding or making future energy improvements.
• Stick your head up into the attic and look around for signs of frost or mold. You’re only going to see frost in the winter, so now is the time. If you do see any frost, it’s a sure sign something needs to be addressed.
• Perform an inspection of your roof from the ground. Do you see ice dams? Uneven melting?
• Check all exterior vents to be sure they are free of snow and ice.

If you happen to find something that is not easily repaired, or something that concerns you, please give us a call. It might be something we can help you with, or it might be a task better suited for a member of our outstanding subcontractor team. Either way, we want to be your first call for any of your home care questions.

Updates

Some projects seem to go so fast, especially the ones where we are not replacing EVERYTHING in the room…which is an option we find a lot of homeowners forget is available.

Sometimes homeowners put off updating their old space because they think it might be too expensive, messy or disruptive. Worse yet, when a homeowner becomes disenchanted with the older space, sometimes they begin to put off needed repairs. This is a mistake – small changes now could save quite a bit of time and money later.

One of our recent projects was to transform a kitchen. This homeowner knew what he needed and what he wanted to spend. We knew the budget didn't have enough room to purchase new cabinetry. We offered a solution: replace the counter tops and leave the cabinets. They were still in great shape, well taken care of, and although not the newest style, they worked well. In fact, by not replacing the cabinets, there was room in the budget for a snazzy back-splash, which worked to make that not-so-new cabinetry look downright up-to-date!

The options are endless, and if you do a little something now, you might avoid having to do a lot of something later. Give us a call today, and let us show you what we can do with the budget you have. Even if it’s only repairs to your current space, why not enjoy living in your home now, without the worry and frustration of “the big project” looming in the future.

Hair Gel, Change Orders, and Trust

One day, I went to get my hair done at a popular “upper scale” salon that shall remain nameless for the purposes of this blog (If you ask me in person, I’ll tell you all about it).

I looked great. She cut my hair the exact length, she offered the perfect amount of pointless conversation to take my attention off her strangely applied eyeliner, and I walked up to the counter feeling spiffed up and ready for the rest of my day.

She, extending the camaraderie (or so I thought), walked with me, chatted with the cheery receptionist, and commenced to pull bottles off the shelves. She placed them in front of me, “you’re gonna’ love how easy this style is to maintain.” She waved at the clerk and bounced off to her next victim client.

And there I stood; buying bottles of junk I didn’t want.

I walked to my car, convincing myself I had not just been duped, but I knew better. She employed a tactic that worked on me, and probably a lot of other people as well.

You know the one. It’s the one where the customer unwittingly buys a bunch of stuff they didn't plan on buying.

Last week, I was talking to another contractor who had recently lost a bid to a competitor. The competitor bid low and planned to make up the difference in change orders. It’s sad to say, but this is a standard practice for many builders. Unfortunately, clients don’t talk about it much, because no one likes to admit they feel cheated.

After I got my hair cut, my friends all complimented me. Do you think I told them the truth about my experience? No way. I told them the name of the stylist and pretended like her up-sale at the end of the transaction was normal.

But it wasn’t. And it didn’t have to be.

If she wanted to style my hair in a way so I would have to buy bottles of goo, she should have told me, and I would have probably been on board – maybe even excited about the change. I definitely would not be writing this blog.

The fact is every sales transaction involves a level of trust. I will not return to that stylist. Not because my bill was too much, but because of the surprise at the end of the process. In essence, no matter how good the cut was, I do not trust her to work in my best interest.

So what about contractors who work with this surprise at the end philosophy, and do so successfully? Why do they get away with it? Why do people still use that styling salon?

It goes back to not wanting to be the person who was taken advantage of.

As contractors, this is frustrating. We are professional, we know how much something costs, and to have another “professional” under-bid to get the homeowner to sign the bottom line is just plain dishonest. But, there is little we as contractors can do about it.

However, there is a lot you, as a customer, can do.

The builder wants you to trust them. Make them earn it. Call their references, and keep in mind, like me not telling my friends about how I was duped, people do not want to think they have been taken advantage of. They probably won’t admit it if they went with the lowest bid and their finished project cost them more than the highest bid. Ask specific questions that go beyond if they liked their experience. Questions like:

-How many change orders were there in total?

-What was the dollar amount of change orders?

-What was the reason for the change orders?

-How much did you spend on your home outside of your construction loan?

-Were the contractor’s allowances realistic for your goals?

-Did your appliances go over your allowance?

-Did your flooring go over your allowance?

-Did your landscape go over your allowance?

-Did your lighting selections stay within the allowance?

-Was the decorating and painting budget sufficient?

-Did you feel like you had the option to reject change orders, or did you feel forced into them?

-After you reflected on the allowances you were given, did you feel like they met your original expectations?

A $50.00 haircut is not exactly what I would call low cost, but it still was a lot less than I ended up paying for the privilege of the experience.

How much will you pay for your experience? Has your builder earned your trust?

We pride ourselves on our honest approach, and yes, sometimes our numbers might sound a bit high. That’s because we will bid what you ask for and nothing less. If you want an expensive faucet, you will find it in your bid, and not buried in an allowance that does not get close enough to paying for it. On the flip side, if it turns out to be more than you wanted to spend, we will help you trim your budget in a way that will not come back to bite you in the end.

Working with unrealistic allowances cheats the homeowner, the builder, and everyone involved. At Degnan Design Builders, we design to your budget. That means you have to power to control your costs, and can be assured we will not suddenly raise prices at the end of the transaction and leave you walking to your car, wondering what just happened, and why your $50.00 haircut turned into a $100.00 experience.

Oh, and ask me for the name of my new stylist…she’s fantastic.

By: Cara Luecht - Office Manager