Before we begin, let me say thank you to the man above for all that he had planned for each and everyone of us. The challenges and difficulties each of us face on our journeys in life were meant to make us stronger. The mistakes we made were meant to teach us. And when in doubt, reach for the king as he will always be there to listen. Knock on the door…
The projects are tremendous and insane, especially for a one man team like yours truly. But life and projects must go on. Time is not on our side so continue we must. I am doing everything to this house what I had planned from the beginning, and most confirmed by the pandemic, or COVID19 as most of us know.
When I purchased this house, the family and recreation rooms were carpeted. And in the 5 or so years we’ve lived here, the carpet had suffered extreme abuses, from my grands and especially from the drips of the tiny coconut fruits I love to chew. I guess they call those betelnut stains. In addition, this is a coffee house, it has to be obvious since we live in STARBUCKS country, and so we have coffee stains everywhere as well.
So the plan since our purchase was to replace all the carpets with laminate flooring. Forgot to mention all three rooms upstairs except for my room were carpeted too. Already replaced those a while back. What remains is one of the largest area in the house, the RECREATION ROOM. And because of the scope of work involved, I had hired a contractor to do that.
Took me a while to hire a contractor because I had to scan social media and my neighborhood to find the right person/company to hire. I used google, yelp, homeadvisor, nextdoor, angi’s and so on to find the perfect contractor for me. Asked several companies including the obvious ones like Homedepot and Lowes for quotes on different projects to give me a good idea of how much the average cost is. I want to find that out myself instead of relying solely on numbers I get from social media. Those are also good for comparing and contrasting.
Installation labor cost for laminate flooring turned out to be in the $3K range, which I thought was too much. This is for about 400 or so square footage of space. No wonder the DIY youtube videos are so popular. Who would spend 3k on labor? Unless, you TRUMPETIZE it, I cannot afford to loose 3k on labor. Oops, TRUMPETIZE is a made up word means you hire contractors and then leave them hanging without paying them. When they sue you, you sue them back until they run out of money. Hahahahahaha. Mr. Trump, according to the news and social media did that successfully on many occassions. Or he’ll just file for bankruptcy. Brilliant man!
Let’s forget Trump for a minute. Enough dramas.
After spending hours, days and a couple of years looking for good contractors, I hired Mr. Elroy and his company to do the work for me. Mr. Elroy gave me a decent quote and told me he’d finish the job in no time at all. Never did I imagine my meeting with Mr. Elroy would turn out to be a story in itself. What a small world we have.
Hello Mr. Elroy, thank you for accepting this project and especially for giving me a great deal. I am planning to sell my house soon and getting this project done timely would be helpful. You see I used to rent a house on 6th Ave South and moved here when I bought this. Mr. Elroy interrupted me and said, that’s where I live. There was a pause and I said, were you the guy lived across from me? You look familiar it must be you!
See, it was a small world Afterall. Elroy was my neighbor since I moved to Washington until I bought this house. His kids know my kids, in fact his youngest used to run into our front yard to play in the grass. Sometimes God surprises you with things you least expected. I needed help with my projects and he sent me Mr. Eloy. Wow! Praise the lord. He placed someone I trust to do the work I need done.
The first thing Eloy did was actually offering me to use his trailer to throw garbage and move stuff if I need it. For Free! And other things I won’t share on here. Don’t want people asking him for discounts and stuff.
Anyways, I must say what we are undertaking is quiet a challenge, and I am praying and hoping that when everything is said and done, we’ll look back and say we did it.
