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Hello! I'm Suzannah, a serious DIYer and mom of two little ones. Follow along with my DIY fixer upper house renovations, sewing and crafty projects, real food recipes, and de-stressing goals.
I believe you can love your home just the way it is, AND have the power to design and make big changes to make it better.
I'm also the author of DIY Wardrobe Makeovers!

How to Get Started Finding & Hiring Professionals for Home Projects (+ before/after landscaping demo!)

This is kind of a scary topic for me! Hiring a pro usually means spending more money, and actually often more time because I like to get multiple quotes--and contractors are pretty busy in my area right now.

But, I've learned quite a lot about finding and hiring professionals for home projects in the past couple years and fixer uppers, and I'm sharing today!

On this week's episode of the Your Home Story podcast, Ashley and I both share tips and experiences on what's worked for us when hiring contractors for projects. Honestly? It is HARD. So is doing a massive plumbing, electrical, concrete, landscaping, etc. project yourself... but I've found there is a lot of stress around communication, budgeting, and timing.

Some of what we've learned? How (and when) to be clear with contractors about what you want, how to save time getting quotes, and most importantly, how to choose the best person for the job.

Resources we mentioned:
  1. Ashley’s post on the cost for enlarging a window
  2. Our "DIY or Hire Out" episodes. (download them in iTunes/your podcast app or listen here!) In these episodes, we talk about when to DIY and when to hire a pro for each of these topics.
    1. Ep 6: Flooring
    2. Ep 15: Wallpaper
    3. Ep 20: Small Electrical
    4. Ep 28: Windows and Doors
    5. Ep 37: Painting
    6. Ep 46: Wall Treatments
  3. HomeAdvisor
  4. Porch
  5. Angi

Exclusive photos coming up...!

In the episode I talked about our experience hiring landscapers for a ton of demo at our current house. (I also share about this in the podcast Instagram account highlights.) I actually haven't shared any before/afters yet from that whole project! Because it's still far from done. We have some more demo to do and hire out, lots of junk to clean up from the back yard, and then (at a minimum) plant some grass... but it's still a pretty good before/after and you can see we had LOT of stuff demo'ed! We hired a landscape company to demo/clean up and haul away all of this and it was a great experience. 

Front...!

Grapes and bamboo on the south side of the house...

Rhododendron taller than (and probably the same age as) the house, and more, on the north side...

Holy cow, right?!!?!? Now, I'm not saying landscape demo is definitely something to hire a pro for. (We'll have to do a "DIY or Hire Out" episode on landscaping sometime!) But we are very happy with the landscapers we used, we will use them again this spring, and it's a great visual for a successful experience hiring professionals!

Listen here or in your favorite podcast player!

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