Quoting Wars: Home Depot 2; Rona 0

I promptly received a call this morning from Mark Leger who is the supervisor at the contractor desk at Home Depot. It was a pleasant call. He asked a few clarifying questions, and then addressed two issues in the request for quote.

First he suggested that he not quote on the sections involving items that require choice, if fact he was very intuitive and further to say that perhaps these are items that would require my better half in the decision making process... as if us men ever have a choice when it comes to picking styles and colours! Rather he said he would concentrate on the construction materials.

Secondly, he suggested that would not be in my best interest to insist on a 90-day quote guarantee as lumber costs are dropping, so I would miss out on any savings.

He thought that I would have a quote by Friday.

No word from Rona - enough said...

The bottom line is

• Home Depot: 2
• Rona: 0
• Home Build Centre: n/a (they haven't received the RFQ yet)

Coming up: I am traveling up to the cottage lot this weekend for two reasons. First to check out the depth of the snow and how it is melting so I can gauge when operations can start. Secondly, I need to visit Bobby Dale at the Home Hardware Building Centre in Otter lake to start the quoting process with him.
;-)

Seeing is knowing... the power of 3D CAD

I am using a great CAD package called Punch! Professional Home Design Suite. Although it is inexpensive, it is pretty darn powerful for $69.95... (CAD == Computer-aided Design)

This CAD software lets you design all of the critical components for your home or in my case cottage. It includes foundations, HVAC, electrical, plumbing, custom windows, roofs, decks, and more. I can position the cottage on the hill, and plant trees all around so it can be very realistic.

The neatest function is the powerful 3D graphics engine that lets you create real-time walk or fly-throughs - for a Hollywood-style voyage through your new creation! I am able to see what the inside, and outside of the cottage will look like and actually walk around and inside. This feature has turned out to be invaluable in designing the layout for the basement and making modifications to the layout of the main floor. I have already avoided a few design mistakes by using it!

For such a small price it is really a must for any would be cottage builder!

Punch has a few different CAD software packages, some less, some more expensive but I have found this one to be just right for my needs. You can find them all at www.punchsoftware.com.

$70K + You would thing they would be scrambling for my business...

It never ceases to amaze me how some businesses do everything in their power to turn customers off.

Just back from dropping off my request for a quote at the local Home Depot and Rona stores. They both can't handle these requests on weekends both stated that they only handle that during week days but they both said they would pass them on to the manager at the contractor desk on Monday - and I would be called! Gee I hope so... an order of $70K plus is up for grabs...

The Home Depot fellow at the contractor's desk said that he would look at getting to the quote first thing on Monday, after the weekend madness. I actually didn't expect an instant turnaround because I know they will need to call out for various sub-quotes for floor systems, roof trusses, etc. But the fellow immediately started to look at the material list and started to ask a few clarifying questions. I was pleased that he was eager to get at it. Well the weekend madness beaconed his attention so we agreed he would call me on Monday with further questions.

I left Home Depot with a smile - actually a stayed a bit to have lunch in the Harvey's which is inside the store -- I had a 'Gary's Burger"... ;-)

A little less satisfying was my experience at RONA. What really floored me was before I left the "lumber" Desk at Rona the fellow at the desk slipped in that a $100 fee would be required for the quote - which of course would be refunded if I actually purchased with them. Gee I guess they think they are doing me a favour or something... I promptly replied that perhaps Rona really didn't want my business after all! The fellow curtly said well the contract desk will call you on Monday...

I and my wife spent a about an hour walking around in RONA - it had been a long time since I had been there - and I just wanted to get updated on the kinds of brands and materials that they stocked for future reference. Unfortunately, my previous impression of RONA was only strengthened... RONA could learn a lot from Home Depot. I left with the following perspective:

• Rona is generally more expensive ( you see I had already did a preliminary costing at Home Depot the previous weekend - that is why I know it is going to cost me about $70K) Yes there were a few, very small few, number of products where Rona was marginally lower in price - but not many
• The place is horribly disorganized, and a mess. I was looking to price some woodstoves and the chimney accessories, and while I new where the general area the product were in, when I got there I almost passed it by. The aisle was so cluttered it obscured the things I was looking for and until I did some acrobatics thought they didn't have them
• The place is filthy! My wife said she was afraid to touch anything as just about everything was covered with a thin film of dust. As we left she said to me "I feel like I need to take a shower!"

It is amazing what some businesses will do to reject your business.

THE SCORE: So far Home Depot 1; Rona 0

I mentioned in an earlier post that I will be getting 3 quotes. My experiences with Home hardware will be coming soon. That store is located near where the cottage is to be built so I need about an hours drive to get there. That will a future story here...

Getting the Material quotes...

Armed with the material list, details for the exterior windows & doors, and a copy of the architect drawings, I am off to start the quoting process.

I also created a supplier cover sheet where I listed a few quoting rules like:

• Substitution of materials - I listed a few brand names for materials
• Location of the construction site - so they know where they are delivering
• A delivery schedule - I grouped the materials in to delivery lots because I don't want materials sitting around for itchy fingers
• How to contact me
• Return of the plans - they are damned expensive and in limited supply
• The quote must be valid for at least 90 days

I have chosen to get three quotes. The lucky suppliers are Home Depot, Rona and Home Hardware Building centres.

A new way to do concrete piers... no concrete!

The deck surrounding the Cottage requires 16 concrete piers for the supporting colums. Which means digging 16 holes, most over 5 feet deep to get below the frost line. Furthermore, six of the posts require a 36" footing. I am not looking forward to digging those holes - especially on the side of a hill. They will likely all need to be dug virtually by hand.

Not that I am allergic to hard work - just if there is a better way I am all for it!

Well at the Home Show in Ottawa this past weekend, I happened to find an interesting alternative. It is a post pier that is quite literally screwed into the ground. So you can see the obvious advantages -- no digging - absolutely no digging.

This screw-in post is called "techno METAL POST". To find all about this technology go to www.tmpo.ca.

I am still investigating, and if it compares favourably with the standard sonotube and concrete approach both in price and bearing strength, I think it may be a winner for me. Stay tuned I'll let you know what I discover.

39 Steps... Heck no we have 104!

I mentioned the lot is steep. But that doesn't bug me one little bit as the view from the top, of the lake, is fabulous!

It was quite humorous as I was building the stairs down to the lake. It took me an entire summer. As I started from the top and worked my way down, neighbours paddling by on the lake could only head the hammering and the occasional saw. As I got closer to the lake, I weaved my way between and around trees - yes I am a tree hugger - I could to begin to see out on to the lake, but paddlers and boaters could see me. It was quite funny watching them stop, squinting their eye trying to see where all the racket was coming from.

In the end I finally broke through the trees and began to build the dock. The mystery solved - well sort of...

The Perfect Design

The cottage will be truly 'on the edge'.

The lot is flat at the top but slopes a bit and then very sharply down to the lake. In fact the steps, already built, down to the lake number 104. So the cottage design we were looking had to fit that shape of the lot.

We settled on a small one story cottage with a basement. The basement will, of course, because of the slope, be a walkout basement. In our mind's eye it fits perfectly!

I purchased the plans online from Drummond Designs Inc. They can be found at www.drumonddesigns.com. The process went smoothly, and my plans arrived in no time via the post in a big shipping tube - I received 5 sets of plans. The only thing I might have done differently is opting for the electronic version. That way I could have popped the drawings directly into the CAD package I have... But then that is a subject for another time.

The "Plan" - creating the Material List

It took best part of a week, well evening each night after work, to create the Material list.

The architect plans for the Cottage came with a material list, however, I found them to be a bit wanting. First the materials needed to be updated to those I could actually get here in Eastern Ontario. And then there are the myriad of small changes to the plans that mean changes to the materials required.

With list complete, well almost, my wife and I were off to Home Depot on Saturday. I didn't need a formal quote yet, so I just walked the aisles and discovered prices and learned about various options to consider. The staff at Home Depot were actually very helpful, in two departments, electrical and windows/doors, a store person stuck with us through the entire list for that section. That made the process go much faster.

Well at about 7 PM my wife says, "Gary, we have been here for nearly 4 hours". I was floored - I had lost all track of time - I guess I was having too much fun...

Well so far the material list is standing at just shy of $65,000.

The "Plan" - creating the Schedule...

I have been spending the better part of every evening for the past two weeks creating the plan. For me the plan includes a couple of components:

1) The Schedule
2) The Material List
3) Supplier List
4) Contractor List

The first that I have tackled is the Schedule.

I started out using a spreadsheet but quickly discovered this was not going to be an adequate way to create dependencies among the various tasks. As you add new tasks - and you always forget something - the new tasks will cause a ripple effect through the schedule.

So I needed a formal project management software!

My three key criteria for selecting for a project management software were:

• Free
• Complete enough
• Simple to use

The "free' criteria being the most important!

After a not so thorough Internet search I have settled on software called jxProject (www.jxproject.com). This project software is exactly what I need - it has just enough functionality:

• Enter, link, and constraint tasks
• Enter and constrain various resources
• Print

I had downloaded and installed the software, in just a few minutes, and had my first version of the schedule in just a few hours!

I now had the schedule printed and taped to my home office wall. And it is is becoming very useful as I discuss the project with my work team - my three sons...

Is the snow going to end?

I am in the planning stages! The preliminary schedule is based on breaking ground on May 10th. However, with over 350 cm of snow on the ground and as much as 40 cm more to come this weekend, I am beginning to be concerned that the start date may be in jeopardy.

The reason is there are some critical requirements. The key one is getting the building permit... and that is dependent on getting an engineering report for the type and placement of the septic system. Each of these steps requires time... anywhere from two to 4 weeks for each. Working back from May 10th, let's assume best case for each... say 2 weeks for each. Then that means the engineer needs to survey the cottage lot the first week of April.

It gets ugly... With near 400 cm of snow so far (to March 9th) - right now there is well over four feet of snow on the ground up at the cottage lot, is that snow going to disappear? ...and the ground frost be out by the first week of April?

If I was a betting man... I would say not!