01/17/2025
The TRUTH is about to come out, and it’s MESSY.
The truth is, I need to start with a little backstory. You see, it was the summer of 2016 and I was being as irresponsible as I possibly could, I got myself into trouble, then out of it, then back into it again. All this trouble became obvious once I was driving on my donut spare for way too long and way too fast.
Truth is, I was broke. Even though I could afford the payments I couldn't afford the maintenance.
People are doing the same thing with their homes and businesses ALL THE TIME and most of them have no idea. They either don't understand the architecture around them or haven't found an honest contractor yet.
To make matters worse, most salespeople won't tell you about maintenance upfront because they could loose the sale to the other guy (who isn't going to mention it either). So, what can we do? Two options:
1: Educate yourself. Learn the basics of home repair (at least enough to know how to check a contractor's work), look into products and what differentiates high-end from low-end, read up on how long upkeep will last with the cheap option vs. the quality option; one size doesn't fit all.
2: Start working with a contractor BEFORE you need the work. People will be much more honest when they don't see dollar signs. Most contractors give free quotes and ANY quality contractor will be stoked to build a good relationship even if there isn't any immediate work needed.
What's the common denominator here? SLOW DOWN.
I know we all want everything done yesterday but I guarantee you'll have a better experience if you take the time to slow the process.
Some of our corporate work can take about a month for a moderately complicated repair to begin because of how many decision makers are involved. More complicated permitted builds can take YEARS to get out of the planning stage. Partially because dealing with municipalities can be difficult but also because it takes time to do things right.
If you plan your next build or repair properly you'll never have to ride on the spare donut for long. As they say, there's three ways to do things:
1) Fast
2) Cheap
3) High Quality
The catch is you can only choose two.
