Gosh, and I only charge less than half of what you were quoted on the hourly. Plus, I mill all of my own trim, doors, cabinets, etc. from the rough so that saves us a bunch. And then there is the fact that I do all of my own work without the aid of a lot of help. I hate having to keep track of people and looking over their shoulders to make sure the workmanship is up to my standards so maybe that's part of the increase. Maybe you could find a couple of old retirees that do what I do. The money is pretty much secondary to me. I do stuff because I enjoy the new challenge and because I cannot leave any job unfinished I try to keep busy so the Good Lord might let me hang around a while longer at least until I complete the task. It's a good thing I know how to overlap my work. At this rate I won't be finished for at least another 50 years.
I tried bartering to get some work done on my house. Supposedly the guy was gonna scrape off any mold and paint,the areas around the porch., He was letting me think he didn't need a lot of payment, so I was thinking of some smallish things to offer for the job, like my kayak etc. Anyway, My roomie had an older Chevy Blazer at the time, still worth money though. The guy said, what about that???? Yeah, right, it was not mine to give consent for. but besides that, the job wasn't worth that much. Someone else I talked to didn't want to come all the way out here, because of course, as we know, I live in the boonies.
I've found that many people expect something for nothing these days, and it seems few want to actually work to earn money. I've been trying to sell some furniture and other items for a while now, and I'm tired of the lowballers. I'm not sure which is worse, them or the ones who waste my time by stating they're interested, then keep asking for concessions that are unreasonable...throw one in for free, deliver it, etc. I'll have to remember staining mittens. I'm not familiar with those, but they sound as if they'd be easier to use than other products. I'm sure at some point I'll be re-staining a few of my pieces, although not any time in the near future.
Oh yeah Diane Lane, that is one of the hazards of selling things. Either they portend interest, and never follow up, or they want unreasonable things like expecting you to drop everything and go meet them. So, anyway, I have decided anything else I post, I am going to add the caveat serious inquiries only because you are right, you can really waste a lot of time with people who seem interested, but when it comes down to it..aren't really, (a little bit like dating) hahahahha.
We've asked our trained and licenced builder-friend because we know he'd do an honest good job on our house, like what you're doing to your project. He knows that we don't have money and are just borrowing from our bank. So, he'd quoted (after inspection) an estimate. And that helped me and my husband to trust him to do the job. A young hard working Christian husband of 5 children, so, we are willing to pay him his due. My husband builds and does carpentry, sometimes. But works in an office and doesn't have the time, mostly. :-/