Circa 2012: New quotation

So I'm getting closer and closer to present day.

Note to self: Improve on your writing skills, lol

We heard back from Foundation Guy two weeks after. In fact, Samurai did and called me hastily while at work to get pen and paper to take down the list of items quoted:

140 lengths of 5/8" Corrugated Steel
180 lengths of 1/2" Corrugated Steel
120 lengths of 3/8" Plain Steel
1400 6"x8"x12" Concrete blocks
30lbs Tying wire
18 lengths of 1"x4"x14' Pitch Pine
8 lengths of 2"x2"x14' Pitch Pine
5 lbs of 2 1/2" Nails
2 lbs 2" Nails
2 loads of Gravel
40 bags of Cement
1 load of Plaster Cement
35 cubic metres of Poured Cement (Cement Truck)*

We also had the option of Foundation Guy mixing the cement himself instead of the Cement Truck which would replace that item with:

4 loads of Gravel
140 bags of Cement

So, this of course got me excited because I could almost see my foundation built in front of me. I created a nice little spreadsheet and started calling the popular hardware stores and a few random ones I chose from the telephone directory, informing them of my desire to get a quote. They all gave me their fax number to send it across. Some were more pleasant than others but I honestly didn't care, cost is what mattered at this point.

Some of the places I faxed the quotation to:
Central Wholesale Stores
Azad Abass Ali Hardware
Bhagwansingh's Hardware
Southern Wholesale Stores
Gopaul Lands Hardware
Ramlagan's General Hardware
Roopnarine Hardware

Quite a few of them did not sell gravel and the poured cement. I guess you need to have a really large storage facility to sell something like this. Some of them instead recommended I call the cement companies like Trinidad Cement Ltd and Readymix directly for that quote but the few that did, included a transportation cost that was of course cheaper the closer your destination was from their office. The level of difficulty in getting the cement to the location on the property can also influence the cost.

I was surprised at how quickly I got back some of the quotes. Some even called to discuss the purpose and other little tidbits of information I needed and left out. One error I made was putting plaster cement when it should read plaster sand.

The average price from the quotes I got back (excluding the gravel and poured cement) was around $35K. The few that were able to quote for the gravel gave an average price of $2,500.00. Only one gave a quote for the plaster sand at $2,000.00 and the poured cement averaged $28,000.00

I also contacted the cement companies but for nothing I could find my notes with these quotes. As soon as I do I will update this post.

Anywhoo. The total cost from what I do remember for the gravel, poured cement and the quotes on these other items above brought our material cost of roughly $100K. This plus the $50K in labour by Foundation Guy and minor unforeseen expenses gives us a rough estimate of $180K for the foundation. This was doable but this was also based on quotes at this time. With such an unpredictable construction sector and the boldface profiteering of some of these businessmen, we still had to re-do this entire quotation process closer to the time of purchase but at least we had a base figure to work with for now.

So, after receiving these quotes, Samurai and I were ready to submit our plans to Town and Country. We went over all the minor details again and took a deep breath an agreed, this is what we wanted.

We sent the plans over to the draughtsman via e-mail and we called him the next day. I guess with our history of postponing this decision, he had to confirm with us a few times if this is what we wanted with no expected changes. We confirmed

He then stated that he will work on them as soon as possible and briefed us again on the cost and process for submitting on our behalf.

I was crazy nervous.