You Get What You Pay For

Materials: Canvas, acrylic paint, a love of quality, plenty of renovation mistakes, thousands of dollars overspent on poor work by deceitful contractors, lessons learned

Dimensions: 48x48

Series: None

Year: 2014

We all eventually learn what our money can buy us. How far it can stretch and where it will fall short of reaching that ideal bar we set. In almost all endeavors you can choose two of the three of the triangles sides, the choice is yours. Choose wisely.

The sides are Cheap/Fast/Quality.

Say you hire a family friend to do a renovation for you. He’s skilled or maybe retired, but it’s not his full-time profession. He does great work (Quality) and does it inexpensively for you because of the relationship (Cheap), but it takes him 3 times as long to fit in the project in his spare time than it would have if you’d hired a dedicated professional.

Now imagine you hire the best contractor you can find, his references and spot on (Quality) and he has a very efficient timeline (Fast). You should already hear your dollars rolling out the door away from you, because that work is not going to come cheap.

Now Imagine you find a small local guy who has the time to dedicate to your project (Fast) and he’s happy to do the work for a lot less than the big guys (Cheap). You decide to use them and in no time the job is done and you’ve saved a ton of money, but the day after the work is completed and you’re enjoying your new space you see all the imperfections, mistakes, rushed cut corners and novice inconsistencies the you’re going to have to live with forever.