Why not hire someone for some of this stuff?

Somebody recently asked me "Why don't you just hire someone for this stuff? We are now into a lot of jobs we can do ourselves, so we don't plan on hiring out for some of them.

Well, there are many reasons. People who haven't remodeled don't understand that hiring someone to do work on your house isn't as simple as picking up the phone. There is no remodeling concierge that will magically make your wishes come true. I've hired enough people to know that it is not easy to get what you want. It's always a good idea to get at least 3 bids for every job. This is not only to make sure you get a good price, but it is also to make sure you are well informed before hiring someone. Each person you talk to brings a new perspective and new information. Considering just how many jobs we have left, this translates into at least a few hundred calls, maybe even more. This is a massive amount of time which is now way guarantees anything is getting done. If I put that time directly into the house, things will get done. There is also a large time investment in making sure you accurately communicate what you want and often that process doesn't go perfectly either.

For many jobs, I find that other people's standards are just too low. For example, I am applying Shellac to the wood window trim, and it takes a long time. I've put in several hundred hours, and the job is only about 1/3 done. It would cost meat least $5,000 to hire someone to finish this job, and it probably wouldn't be as good as I would do it. In any case, I would have no way of knowing how good it would be before the job was done. I just can't see spending that much money on a job that won't add that much equity, that I have no guarantee of being quality work, and that I could do better myself.

Another reason is the cost differential between what the job would cost if I hired someone and what it costs me to do it. For example, I have Ikea kitchen cabinets that come sitting on legs. After installing them, you add a baseboard. It's a simple job which I can easily do myself. If I were to hire it out, it would probably cost $500-$1,000 and not add that amount in equity. The math just favors doing it myself. In the time it would take me to hire someone, I could have a good part of it done myself. Between making calls, interviewing people, explaining the job to them, comparing bids and laying out the materials, it would take a lot of time before the person could even start work.

So, no, we won't be hiring out a lot of these remaining jobs because for so many reasons it doesn't make sense.