Direct Buy - A scam?

Ever heard of them?

They are all over the TV and in plenty of magazines.  They are supposed to be a way to order product at wholesale prices - cabinets, furniture, flooring, etc.

Are they a scam?  No, I suppose not... not technically.  But I will tell you, I will never ever deal with them. I'm so sure of this I'm not even going to give them a link from my blog.

It all starts off with high-pressure phone calls.  3, in our case.  They call, want you to sign up for a "personal seminar" with them to understand how the whole thing works.  Honestly, this part seemed fishy, but doable.  When we dug a little, we got thousands (and I do mean thousands) of hits about how much of a horrible place they were.  One of the sites suggested we ask them about the membership.

Membership? WTF?  Like Costco or BJs?  Ok... fine, I can see how that might be necessary.

So, Sandy gets a call, and chats a little. Uses her husband as an excuse for not committing to joining up on the phone right then and there, and for not being able to set up a time for a session.

Second call, they try again... sign up.  Sandy asked about the membership, and the person's response?

It depends.

What?  Seriously?  Come on now, lets have an answer here.. if we're going to do something like this it is important to know what we're getting in to.

Well, it really depends on what you want to buy.

OK, so it is based on how much you participate?  What type of discount you get?  Fishy and getting fishier.  We press for an answer.

Direct Buy:  Maam, I really have no idea at all.
Us:  Well, are we talking hundreds?  thousands?  tens-of-thousands?
Direct Buy:  I really can't tell you.  I only answer the phones.  So, can I sign you up for the session this Saturday?
Us:  No, not yet.  I don't think my husband will be able to come. (Lying)
Direct Buy:  Well, we really need him there.  Why can't he come?
Us:  That's not really your business.  We need to know how much it is before we can commit.
Direct Buy:  We can't tell you over the phone, we have to have you in the seminar first.
Us:  Thanks, no.  Good bye.

Got a call the next day, wondering why... actually chastising us for not being able to commit.

Do yourself a favor... check out the reviews online before you do anything with them, ever.


Needless to say, we're not going with them in any way, shape, or form.

Appliances / Ikea Kitchen

Now come the fun part!  Actually, this has all been fun.

Kitchen creation.  We love Ikea stuff... style is right up our alley.  Sometimes quality can be a little less than perfect - and what do you expect for the price. We have some friends in CA that just did an Ikea kitchen and love it.  But, is this really for us?

Hell yes!

We went to the showroom to do some serious thinking about it all, and were surprised with the quality that was available to us.  Sure, they do have the particle board cabinets and counter quality available for insanely low prices - but for a very reasonable price, you can get some solid wood systems too.

Impressive.

What is even better is that Ikea has an online 3D CAD tool for building out your kitchen...

So we did.  Nice stuff.

What is even better, is that it produces a full on list of what is needed for purchase.

Great stuff.

We are trending towards a glossy red island with white cabinets surrounding.  Counter top, TBD, but probably a dark color.

Engineering Firm Bids / Estimates

Turns out this is going to run about $5k to get

• water runoff calculations, 
• impervious coverage calculations, and
• updates site survey 

Needs to be done... but that's not chump change.

On top of all this, there is a bit of history here that needs explaining.  As it turns out, the previous owners had worked with Houtman in the past to get things rolling on their build.  For whatever reason, that build never happened, but Houtman did the initial work to get the site surveyed and basic plans ready for submission to the township.  It seems that since the job never went anywhere, they never completed it - and never got paid.

This is where we come in.  If we go to a new Engineering team, Momenee, we get someone local that has worked with Tony.  If we go with Houtman, we get the benefit of any work they had done on the previous owner's dime.    We had some issues connecting, quickly, with Houtman and decided to reach out to Momenee for the work.  Along the way it was determined that we might be able to get the previous work anyway.  So, down that road we went.

Ends up, this kind of thing is very frowned upon, and we ruffled (un-intentionally) a few feathers.  After a few conversations we ironed things out - let the water under the bridge and engaged Houtman for the complete package.

Makes everyone happy in the end. Unfortunately we had to jettison Momenee Associates in the shuffle. They are a good team, and I would recommend them from the honest and professional stances they took.

Anyway, 5k gets us Township Ready documents.

Cha-chin... $5k it is.

Engineering Firms

One of the rather significant things we did not know about in this process was that of an Engineering Firm. Our Architect, Tony, did of course, but it was new to us.  Seems that you need a full engineering survey to help determine things as complex as water run off and percolation rates.

To put it simply, they need to calculate how much of the ground are covering because of the fact that your house will be preventing the soil form absorbing precipitation.  Pretty big deal, in our case, as our house is covering a significant portion of our lot.  Really, they have to account for every drop of water that is re-directed by our home, and then provide a way to make sure it stays on our lot and not pushed off into the street or a neighboring lot.

Based on some suggestions, we went out to Momenee Associates and Houtman Engineering.

We'll see how much this runs us.

Virtual Model

Things are starting to come together!

The 'Final' Plan...

This is it... this is going to be our house!  The garage works the way we want it to, the tree is safe, the floorplan is perfect for us. 

Next up, virtual model. :)

High Resolution PDF : Site Map, 1st Floor, 2nd Floor

You want to park a car too?!?

As we think we're nearing completion on the inside of the house, we started to look on the outside.  Garage, in specific.

The issue is that we want to be able to pull in to the driveway / garage.  To exit, we want to back out of the garage, and be able to drive out forward on to the street.  That poses a bit of a problem with both the Japanese Maple tree and the width of the lot itself.

So, make those kind of concerns known to an architect... this is what you get:

attached are various driveway / garage schemes. schemes b thru d have alterations to the floor plan.

scheme a –

current scheme, van reverses into garage and goes out forward.

scheme b-

garage gets shallow but longer with storage nooks, van goes in forward and reverses all the way out to the street.

scheme c-

angled parking, forward in and reverse out to street. potentially weird roof.

scheme d-

forward in reverse all the way out to street or reverse in and forward out to street.

none of the schemes are ideal. it depends if you are comfortable with backing out to the street. I supposed if I had to choose it would be scheme b. it has the least impact on the tree and still achieves the entry court that I was after. I haven’t studied them in form yet but scheme b looks like it would have the most interest from the street.

if you want I could have a scheme with the garage doors facing the street tomorrow.

we probably should have a conference call to discuss.

tony

Garage Scheme A

Garage Scheme B

Garage Scheme C

Garage Scheme D