Getting a friend who can cut you a special deal, etc. would be a good option too, assuming you are pretty confident that they will do good work.

Any way you slice it, I am saving a hefty chunk of money, since I’m only paying for materials (which would be the same any way you go) and no labor cost, other than just my time.

I actually don’t mind doing the hard work, either; it’s probably good for me in many ways (physically and “character building”). For this one, part of the motivation (aside from the whole saving money thing) was just to do it to prove that I could, to myself and anyone who may have doubted

I’ll take future projects on a case by case basis. We already have other things on the list that we’re probably going to hire out, like painting our room and the new one I just finished (because it would be a pain with the high ceilings) and we’re going to replace all the carpet, so we will of course have that installed by professionals.

You make it sound rather difficult for a contractor but fairly easy for yourself. Anyways, our guy is busy at our house anyways so you couldn’t have him.

I suggest next time you get someone who knows what they’re doing with the tools needed and then help them. That’s what Roger and I did with the cabinets and it was actually a good time since we’re friends too.

And you know Martha is always right, right?

I do believe that it would have been at least a couple thousand to have a professional do it. Maybe only one thousand for some random person who isn’t very experienced in that area, but still, it’s quite a bit of money.