Mom & Dad took us on a trip to Disney and we had an amazing time (THANK YOU MOM & DAD!!!),
but of course the house was on our minds. One of the best decisions we made was to have someone else, Alvord Drywall, hang our ceiling sheetrock while we were away. They apparently got it done in just one day and did a FANTASTIC job! It cost us $1,056 but probably the best money we could have spent. It would have taken us WEEKS to do it ourselves even with the drywall lift we bought. It saved us time, and time is money!
The day we got back home from Disney there was no time to spare. We ran to Menards and rented an insulation blower. The 1st hour is $35 and then it's $5/hr after that. We blew in insulation in all of the ceiling. We used batting for the bonus room ceiling and the walls. If I have all the insulation receipts correctly:
BUDGET: $6445
ACTUAL: $4859
SAVINGS: $1586!!!
Other options would have been to spray foam - incredibly efficient but also incredibly spendy and something we were unable to do ourselves. We did not go light on the insulation and also insulted the interior walls for a sound barrier.
Now onto the hardest days - sheet rocking. Now hanging the sheetrock itself on the walls really isn't too bad. It's not the most fun part of the project but it's not too bad. The bad part is hauling it! We carried approximately 278, 4x12 and 54"x12 sheetrock into the house. The worst part and again HARDEST DAY was hauling the 35 sheets up the stairs to the bonus room. It was incredibly exhausting and pushed me to my physical limit. I would literally have to tell myself, "you can do this, you are a beast, pick up this f*#%ing sheetrock!!!" and then we'd lift and start up the stairs again and again. So my recommendation - get a couple sets of these:
Now sure you can pay the lumber yard to boom it in for you. And if money were not an issue, you better believe I would have had them do this. However, once you see the numbers you figure out a way to do it yourself.
BUDGET: $5273
ACTUAL: $2294
SAVINGS: $2979!!!
And once we were done hanging drywall it looked a little like this.
We then had Dennis Schmiesing (Breeze - 320-987-3662) mud, tape & texture. No one else could touch his bid and from previous experience we knew he did great work. Trust me when I say unless you are good at mudding and taping, pay someone else to do it. Dennis does an incredible job and is a great guy to top it off! His bid and bill were the same so our budget and actual are the same at $4216.68. If you've never hung drywall before talk to your mud and taper to get tips on how they like it done. There are right and wrong ways to do it.
Last tip before I go. We opted out of having a dumpster on sight. We had a dump trailer from my dad instead. We had to dump it only twice but did it with 2 different companies for 2 completely different amounts! Waste Management (who we have service through) charged us a whopping $103.62 to dump a trailer. Then I got smart and called around. Alex Rubbish & Recycling was only $37.80! What a difference! Kudos to Alex Rubbish for having great prices - we may be making a switch simply because of this and their amazing customer service!
I know those of you that are just reading for the design aspect are getting impatient but this was such a huge part of the process. It's a part that I'll never forget but I also hope it gives encouragement to those that are about to build themselves. I hope you find the information helpful and again if you have any questions on vendors or process please do not hesitate to ask!
In My Toolbelt:
-Mask
-Work Gloves
-Safety Glasses
-Insulation Cutter
-Drill
-Sheetrock Screws
-Sheetrock Bit (helps sink the screws perfectly)
-Panel Carrier
-Utility Knife
-Sheetrock Saw
-Chalk Line
-Drywall Lift
-Tape Measure
-Hammer
-Pencil(s)
-Rotozip (to cut our boxes & windows)
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