Dating is never easy, and dating at my age is really hard. And dating from 1700 miles away is plenty awkward. I feel like I’ve been dating throughout the process of choosing a contractor to do the renovations for the cabin.
Once the architectural drawings for the renovations were refined – back in late April – I planned a trip to the house to meet with potential contractors. I made arrangements in advance to meet with three: Luke, Ken, and Ryan. They were all suggested by the architect. That is a full service shop: not only do they do architecture they are matchmakers! While I was at the house I met with them separately and showed them around. I tried to get a feeling for what it might be like to work with them. Of course it is impossible to get to know someone in less than an hour, but it was more valuable than looking at their Match.com profiles.
Luke came first and he seemed like a really nice guy, he walked around with me and complemented me on having bought the ranch property. It was instructive to watch what he noticed and commented on.
Ryan came by the next day. He seemed qualified and enthusiastic and a good communicator. He too had some interesting observations. Another pleasant date. In his rush to get home he left behind his notepad with info about all sorts of stuff. I called him to let him know he could pick it up anytime and I never looked at what was written on the pad.
Finally Ken showed up. He had been a bit hard to pin down on when he would come but once he committed to a time he was prompt. We hit it off. He was a bit older than Luke and Ryan, more experienced, and his comments reflected that he probably knew what he was doing. He made some suggestions on how the work might proceed.
Throughout the process of buying this place I have been amazed at how nice everyone has been. The NJ/NY side of me finds it all very suspicious – “Why are they so nice?” But the Ohio side of me thinks… “This is how things ought to be!”
In the end two of the three proposals were incredibly close in price and the other one came in 15% lower. The styles of the proposals were wildly different and each one found different ways to categorize the work which made it hard to compare the three proposals. I created a spreadsheet and tried to add each one’s items to similar categories. It was important for me to keep in mind that these are rough proposals with many unknowns so the numbers are wild guesses. Then you add in the old saying: “double the money and triple the time”, or is it “double the time and triple the money”? I asked each of them some follow up questions about things which I felt were unclear, all had quick responses .
An important criteria was when they would be available. The contractors in the area are really busy so getting on a schedule can be a matter of waiting months, many months. I wanted to get into action ASAP. Most of them were ready to start in September. I asked the architect if that was too late and he assured me that no, it might even be better because in the summer you get intense thunderstorms that are less common in September. The challenge would be to remove the roof and create a new truss system and close it in without a big thunderstorm.
I checked out each one’s online presence. One had a wonderful slick website with professional pictures, another had a website with pictures he probably took himself. The third disdained advertising and only had a Facebook page with his phone pictures. I checked for reviews and complaints for each of them, no red flags. I checked the state licensing board and there were no problems. I slept on the info, I talked with the Jersey Girl, I agonized and cogitated. I asked the architect – who refused to take a position: “They are all good” he said. I didn’t want to be seduced by the slick website but that guy also had some super enthusiastic references who I spoke with. And his price was lower. I wouldn’t normally choose the low bidder (these aren’t really “bids” just rough estimates) especially in this rough estimate phase. I decided to wait until Monday to make a choice, no reason to rush to decide on Friday afternoon.
Monday morning I heard from Luke, how soon could we start? His big job scheduled for July and August was canceled and he was available right away.
Bingo! My decision was made. I was leaning toward asking Luke to go steady but worried that he would put my job off until spring. Now he was the one who was available soonest, had the lowest estimate, and the best references. We have a date – literally and figuratively!
For your viewing enjoyment: Michael Jackson, Farrah Fawcett, Suzanne Somers and Arnold Schwarzenegger appeared on The Dating Game and are in this clip from YouTube: