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Hobo
What are some ways of trimming a quote from a contractor down to something feasible?
We're planning a fairly major improvement and extension to our place, which has barely been touched since it was built in the 50's. It needs completely rewiring, replumbing, reproofing, plus new windows and insulating all round. We'll also need a new kitchen and bathroom. The extension involves knocking through into the garage and putting a timber-framed box on top of it, so there's a bit of steelwork and new blockwork to support it but relatively minimal groundwork (thanks to some clever thinking by the architect and engineer we've been using).
Despite promising early indications, quotes from contractors who could deliver this are coming in way above our budget. Our first instinct is to forego the upstairs extension and just knock through into the garage for a bit more living room but (in addition to the annoyance of not getting an extra bedroom and bathroom), this would be really frustrating as we'd end up putting things in place that we might rip out again in a few years if we end up being able to afford the remainder of the work at a later date. Essentially it just feels horribly inefficient to not get the big structural work all done in one go.
We've been thinking about how to minimise costs to allow this by, for example, getting second hand/ex display fittings, doing some work ourselves or even just leaving a bathroom unfitted for a while. Does anyone have any other ideas of how to make this work?