Do I do my floors myself or hire a contractor? If I do them myself, the quality of work may be marginal but I will get back into my home faster. Also, the new grant will be an incentive to have pre-award repairs performed by contractors if it only pays for actual costs of repair.

Therefore, I need to know if the grant will also be awarded based on reliable estimated costs even if those repairs are actually performed by the homeowner. In that case, I may obtain a reliable cost estimate and do the repair myself.

By Al Pettigrew

Homeowners Meeting

We will try to have a homeowners meeting as soon as the guide lines for grants come out. I spoke to John McKay. He said he would be glad to come out and speak with us.

Thanks,

Terry

Grant Appointment

The appointment is basically just an intake of your documentation. You can save some time by filling out the application on line and delivering a copy of your support documents at the appointment to cut down the wait time the interviewer would use to copy the documents. Maybe even save them more time if you scan your documents into PDF format and deliver a disk instead to the interviewer. They are saying to expect a site visit from an estimator within 4 to 6 weeks and distribution of grant funds in about six months. If anybody has additional information that can help speed the process and increase the fairness of the process, please share.

By Al Pettigrew

Grant Estimators

Heard a rumor today that the Grant estimators will be appraisers. Interestingly, I have been informed by an appraiser that appraisers lack the tools to estimate the cost of repair or renovation. Their ususal source material is based on national averages of cost of new construction per square foot and they have no idea about how much labor goes into demolition, what is required to install new materials, and how much material is necessary for a job. If the rumor is true, homeowners need to get their own estimates from builders and engineers.

By Al Pettigrew