Tag: transformation

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5 Reasons we are NOT Using a General Contractor

When this process started, I thought that a “general contractor” was just the fancy term for a person who was licensed to build things with permits and stuff. That just goes to show how much we actually knew about construction! We originally planned to have someone do our entire backyard transformation for us, and of course we first went to some general contractors to get quotes. It didn’t take long for me to realize that a “general contractor” is actually someone who charges you to get quotes and juggle all the people that have to come together to build something. The “official” definition of a general contractor is,

“[Someone who] is responsible for the day-to-day oversight of a construction site, management of vendors and trades, and the communication of information to all involved parties throughout the course of a building project.”

Don’t get me wrong, I am certainly not undermining the value of this position and I can only imagine how important it would be to have a general contractor for any major build. However, for a backyard deck demo and rebuild, it seems a bit excessive and after our first quote of $50,000, downright crazy.

Here’s why we chose not to use a general contractor on our backyard transformation.

1. Steep Price Tag – We are just literally not able to spend $50K on a backyard makeover. So we have already started cutting and shaving items off our “dream list” and one of the first things to go was the general contractor.

One thing that we will not be cutting from our “dream list” is how we plan to incorporate one of our backyard live oaks into the deck plans! 1. I can’t bear the thought of taking down the tree with all the little bird nests nestled up there. And 2. Live trees worked into the architectural design of outdoor spaces are seriously one of my top 5 favorite things. How can you not love this?


– And this beauty designed by Dana Pacific Landscape in California. Hats off to you Dana.


2. No Time Crunch – I can see the value in having a project manager overseeing the building, scheduling the workers and making sure that each piece of the puzzle fits in right where it belongs. I know the process would be quicker and more efficient if we had a general contractor running the show, but frankly we aren’t in a time crunch. We don’t have deadlines, we’re not rushing to get our backyard ready, and I would rather take my time and live in a construction zone for a little bit longer if it means saving big bucks on this transformation.

3. I Know a Guy – I get that one of the benefits of having a general contractor is being able to use their connections to get the best prices/quality work, but we already know a guy- we know a handyman who’s offered to help us with some of the big demo pieces for a steal of a price. We know the best concrete guy in the city shout out to No Boring Concrete in Lakeland, FL. We have a couple builder friends, and when all else fails, social media is the best avenue for getting some solid recommendations for local businesses. So even though it might take us a little longer to weed through the quotes/reviews/options, we’re already halfway there and willing to put in the work.

Check out some inspiration from our concrete guy’s previous projects!

Aren’t these concrete countertops dreamy? Check out the built in herb planters – makes me wish we had a wall of windows in our kitchen!


And just try not to drool over this modern wood accent on these concrete counter tops! No Boring Concrete did these for one of Lakeland’s new coffee shops (Concord Coffee).


4. I Know What I Want – The more I talk to contractors/architects/pool guys/handymen/painters etc. about my vision for our home, the more I realize that what I like and what I want is not the “norm” around here. I don’t know if it’s the modern, mid-century vibe that throws people or if they just don’t understand implementing something with clean straight lines and a minimalist approach, but I just can’t rely on a GC to be able to get quotes and carry out my vision on this whole project. I know what I want, but no one else seems to! And let’s be real, some things are bound to get lost in translation right? It will feel good to know that I can control who does what and I can take each person step by step to see my vision and make sure expectations are clear (plus possibly save money by doing some things ourselves!)

Speaking of DIY, we’re thinking about DIY-ing our own privacy fence once we get things cleared out. Check out this chalkboard privacy fence some friends of ours found at The Bearded Pig in Jacksonville, FL! I love the clean, modern style plus the bonus of a lifetime of family chalk drawings. It could also double as a handy scoreboard for outdoor games, seasonal murals, birthday decorations, practicing ABC’s… the possibilities are endless!


5. We Learn More – We are admittedly not experienced in construction work, building things, cutting things or any other number of home projects. I’ve learned a few things from watching my dad over the years and JP knows even less than I do. So we’re really learning as we go. Not having a GC will require us to be involved in every aspect of our backyard transformation, and we are bound to learn a few things. We will be more hands-on and by default able to take some notes and get some good tips for more DIY projects in the future – which will all be thoroughly documented right here of course!

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A DIY Backyard Demo to Kick off our Backyard Makeover

Today we started demo on our backyard deck. It was a total sporadic, impulsive decision that is completely characteristic of my husband. He went to the gym to get in a quick workout while the girls were napping and came back with a circular saw that he had borrowed and picked up from my parents’ house. He proceeded to walk right outside and start sawing our deck and pulling up boards. (In case you missed the memo, we have big plans for our backyard space- but we’ll share more about that later)

Here’s a little more on the story behind this impulsive (yet wonderfully frugal and DIY-ish) decision to demo our own deck:

When we moved into this giant and beautiful fixer-upper that we call our home, 90% of our large backyard was full of decking that had probably once looked amazing. However when we moved in, the wood boards were rickety and on their last leg. They were borderline unsafe to walk on and certainly not “family friendly” for a family with a soon-to-be toddler. Imbedded in our deck was a run-down above-ground pool that was serving as a breeding ground for frogs and mosquitos and any number of other green slimey organisms. We decided that needed to go as soon as possible. We hired a handyman to rip out the pool piece by piece and the rim of deck immediately surrounding the pool which left us with a couple steep drop-offs on the side of our deck and a large hole full of dirt on one side of our yard. We have been living like this for a little over a year and half. So we have had plenty of time to dream up what our backyard will one day be.

After tackling the non-cosmetic “required” fixes in our home and several months of planning and saving (and a forth-coming tax return), we are finally ready to redo our backyard. So first things first, we need to demo what we’ve got before we can build new stuff. Our first quote to demo our backyard woodpile was $14,000. -yes, JUST the demo! If your mouth dropped when you read that, then you share my sentiments exactly. When we were shopping around for quotes, we didn’t know what to expect or what standard prices for this kind of stuff would be, but we definitely never dreamed the demo alone would cost $14,000. This demo includes TONS of decking, a second story balcony, outdoor stairs, an outhouse [yes, someone built and outhouse in our backyard] and a large wooden building that was at one time used as a dog pen and/or fish cleaning station, but it is all JUST just wood.

So we set out for some cheaper options…

We reached out to some handymen to get demo quotes and we found a guy who quoted us just $3,000 for the demo if we could provide a dumpster. All-in we were looking at $3,500 to completely remove everything made of wood (barring the live oaks) and that was something we could stomach.

We began to move forward on quotes for the build of the 2nd store deck, the polished concrete that’s going to make up the ground floor, modern steel railing for the stairs and top deck and dirt/sod companies to fill in the rest of the yard. All the while we have been saving.

Fast-forward to this afternoon. My husband shows up with a saw and says, “babe just think what we could do with $3,500!”

Okay! You got me. Have at that deck with your saw that you’ve never used before. Just don’t lose any fingers okay?

Here’s JP making the first cut. He’s standing in the hole that used to be home to the above ground pool and surrounding deck that I mentioned earlier. Now you can visualize the “unsafe” edges I was talking about right?


Look at him go. There’s nothing sexier than a man with initiative and determination am I right? He spent about 20 minutes outside and this was the result:


Pretty good right?

There’s still a lot of work to be done, but we’ve never been so determined. Now that we have seen just how easy it is to pull this stuff up and add to that the promise of saving at least $3,000, this decision seems like a no brainer.

Feeling good about the plans ahead. More on our Backyard plans and the inspiration behind it coming soon!

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The Phillips Flips- 3 houses in 2 years

Yes. We DID buy 3 houses in 2 years. We started small, tried our hand at renovating, got familiar with the real estate market and ended up in our 5 bedroom, 4 bathroom, 3,500+ sqft (fixer upper) dream home. It needs work, but we see lots of potential.

Here’s how we did it!

We closed on our first home (the Pinellas House) in March 2013.

The Pinellas House- BEFORE

Pinellas Stats:
Bedrooms: 3
Bathrooms: 2
House size: 1,600 sqft
Lot Size: 1/4 acre

We shopped for about 6 months before we landed on this beauty. To be clear- we were looking for a fixer-upper. This was still our first home though and we weren’t ready to delve into major plumbing/electrical/construction. So we set out to find a nice house with good bones that was preferably outdated and therefore on the market for a “steal” of a price. One thing we could have done better with our first home was pay more attention to the location. We weren’t in a terrible neighborhood, but we were located right in front of a 3-way-stop intersection which we learned quickly meant having headlights shine through our front windows at all hours of the night. We were also within 1/3 of a mile of several commercial businesses- which isn’t really the greatest for up-sale later. Also, Walmart is great to have nearby, but if you live TOO close to one, there is a good possibility of having shopping carts left in your front yard- not great for curb-appeal. All in, we spent about $10K in renovations and ended up selling this house for $16K more than we paid for it which was a $6K profit on the sale alone. We also rented it out for several months during the time that we owned 2 houses at once and we made a total of $11,700 in rental income. So all-in-all we made $16,700 on our first flip.

The Pinellas House- AFTER

It didn’t take long to learn that although we were in a good school district and not far from other really nice neighborhoods, the exact location of the Pinellas house wasn’t really a great location. We knew this wouldn’t be our forever home. We knew we wanted to be closer to the historic district and in a bigger house- big enough to house ALL of the kids we wanted (about 5 kids give or take). So we kept our eyes peeled. Even as we fixed up the Pinellas house, we were constantly checking out other for-sale signs and browsing the online listings.

Then we found Kensington.

Kensington Stats:
Bedrooms: 2
Bathrooms: 1
House size: 1,300 sqft
Lot Size: 1/3 acre

Kensington was a smaller house on a bigger lot, in the perfect location- a dreamy oak-tree lined, brick-paved street less than a mile away from some of the best (and most expensive) historic houses in the city. We got Kensington for a crazy deal and acted fast. It actually didn’t need much work. We spent about $80 renting a sander to sand down and re-finish the original hardwood floors ourselves and didn’t change anything else in the whole house (not even paint colors). We sold this puppy 9 months later for $19K more than we bought it for- making ourselves a profit of $18,920.

Our original plan was to either add on to Kensington or demo it and build from scratch our dream-house. When we lived here, we spent most of our evenings on Pinterest, pinning all of our ideas and drawing floor plans that we hoped to bring to life one day.

Then we stumbled across the Sagamore House.

Sagamore Stats:
Bedrooms: 5
Bathrooms: 4.5
House size: 3,500 sqft
Lot Size: 1/2 acre

When I say we stumbled across this house, I do mean that literally. We were out walking our dogs one night and just one street over from us, we saw this house with signs all over the window. JP (who had gotten his real estate license) looked up the code to the lock-box and we went in right then and there to check it out. It was enormous inside. It was a bank owned foreclosure and it was listed just $10K more than what we had sold our first house for, but it was more than double the size and in a better location. The house needed LOTS of work, including but not limited to: new windows, new A/C unit, updated electrical, completely redone plumbing, paint, fixtures, doors, a demo of the existing run-down moldy above-ground pool, removal of a giant rotten wood deck in the back- and the list went on. So of course, we decided we had to have it. We put a bid in the running $10K above list price and won our dream-home auction style. One year after we purchased this house, we got a new appraisal done. In one year we had spent about $30,000 in renovations and our home appraised for $115K more than what we bought it for. And that folks, is why we love flipping! Buy the fixer-uppers, fix the fixer-uppers and one day you’ll be able to fix-up the dream house you could never have afforded otherwise. Read on to hear more about all the fun projects we’re doing on Sagamore these days.