General Contractor: A Whole New Hat
General Contractor Hat
Starting my own company has led me to wear many different hats over the years… visionary, businesswoman, marketeer, hospitality management, cleaning lady, artist, farmer, gardener, handywoman. My latest and newest hat… General Contractor!
This spring I decided to tap into one of my retirement accounts and build the shell of what will be my future art studio. Once it is completed. I will make the studio available for artists’ retreats and residencies. As I will be building it out in stages finances permitting, it will take at least five years to finish. This is why I decided to get going on constructing the shell.
When I had the Airbnb built, I hired a contractor. This time I decided to go with a company that builds shops, aka workspace or in my case an art studio. I was a little slow to realize that by taking this approach, I was also becoming my own general contractor! Although the company I hired to build the shell also takes on submitting the plans to the county for approval, laying concrete and creating a building design, I am the one responsible for coordinating all the subs that don’t fall under the building company’s umbrella.
After I got over the initial shock of this revelation, I decided to embrace this new hat and I got to work! I also bought myself a hard hat to symbolize my new role as General Contractor. Silly I know, but I figured hey why not? I then called my plumber and the excavator and coordinated a meeting. Next per their suggestion I called the utilities locator to schedule a time for them to come out and identify where all the water, power and gas lines are situated.
Although my builders are the ones taking care of the permits, that whole process is still a mystery to me. For example, they technically don’t cover the plumbing rough in. However, my plumber told me I just needed to give them his ID to add to the permit application and I’m golden! Thank God for amazing team players!
Also at this meeting, they explained how the various trades work together. With this solid piece of knowledge, I now have a good idea of the order of things and how to stay on top of everything. They kindly assured me that being the general contractor was easy. So, I’m going to take them at face value and just run with it! I figure it is a learning experience and just one more hat I will wear as I finish building out Palisade Posh!
Its exciting and scary but I’ve never been one to run from fear so bring it on baby and let’s get to work. I love learning new things and even more so… I love me a new hat!
