I agree. I'm far from rich, but also not poor. I'm the struggling to survive middle class!
I am far from a builder and even further from an insulation expert. I'm trying to teach myself something on the topic and only plan on doing it once. I'm leaning towards 1" spray foam and then hanging the big ole bats. Thank you so much for all your words of wisdom.
I know exactly where your coming from, we dealt with so many customers with all budget ranges and it was my job to find a solution to give them the best they could afford, many times this often included eliminating something that could be done at a later date. I would talk them into say, using spray foam and eliminating us rocking and finishing the interior of the shop....because that can be done later as time and funds allowed.
The biggest thing to remember, for anybody, is try to do the stuff that is hard and expensive to get to or will save you money long term, and skimp on the "pretty stuff" you can always do at anytime. I would rather stare at ugly foam walls for a couple years and know it is tight and wont cost hardly a thing to heat and cool, vs skimping on the insulation aspect so I can buy a hoist at that same time of the build.
Your obviously an intelligent consumer, researchiing and arming yourself with everything out there before pulling the trigger, I applaud you and wish all customers would do the same. In 20+yrs of remodeling, I can count on one hand the number of people that knew anything, or even what they wanted...but these folks were a dream to work for since I did'nt have to do all sorts of homework to present them options. Bath/Kitchen remodels, I'd get a phone call to give a bid, meet the couple and in almost every case they'd answer my questions with, "I dunno, your the contractor, just do whatever everybody is doing nowadays", or "well I dont want the cheapest, but I dont want the most expensive, just spec everythiing with middle of the road products"......this ALWAYS led to hours putting proposals together since I would overkill info and lay everything out product wise, price point wise, etc...and offer advice and then let them start picking and chosing from what I presented to come up with a project plan. This is why I stopped doing "free estimates", it helped eliminate the tire kickers from the serious buyers, and I also tired of spending hours on something and not getting the job because of price point. I'm not a saleperson, so I could'nt and would'nt try to kiss somebodies azz to make a sale; just presented honest up front costs and if they wanted it, great, and if they did'nt, I was'nt working their project at a loss just to get the bid.
