Nanci & Sam Rodriguez
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Nov 2020
Nanci and Sam Rodriguez, who live in Lathrop, California, about 60 miles south of Sacramento, wanted to expand their living space with a separate building on their lot. The goal was to have plenty of space for their hobbies. They chose a pre-engineered barn kit from Barn Pros and needed help getting the two-story 1,440-square-foot barn built.
Sam will have the bottom floor of the two-story barn, which will be an open space for his woodwork and tools. Nanci’s quilting studio will be on the upper level.
The couple has remodeled rooms in previous homes but this is the first time they have had land available to build a separate building. Even given their experience with other projects, they struggled to get their barn project going.
Sam, who makes furniture, has a lot of tools and not enough space in the couple’s garage.
Nanci and Sam say their biggest worry was whether the city would allow them to build the building, which they had dreamed of doing for years. In addition, while these prebuilt kits are great, there was still a lot of work that needed to be done. Therefore they needed a contractor to help build the kit and foundation, integrate the building into the property, and install the electrical and plumbing systems.
The couple says the city wanted plans for the building to review, but they thought it was risky to get plans and then have the city reject them. Eventually, the Rodriguez’s purchased a barn kit and structural plans for $80,000 from Barn Pros, but then they ran into another roadblock.
A neighbor of the Rodriguez’s had a contractor working at their home who had information about BuildZoom on the side of his truck. Within days, their project was moving forward.
BuildZoom found the couple qualified building contractors in less than two weeks. After the Rodriguez’s chose three contractors they preferred, BuildZoom gave the three building contractors two weeks to send in their bids for the barn project.
The bid the couple accepted from Khb Construction was $155,000 and covers assembling the barn kit, installing a concrete foundation, electrical and plumbing systems, a sprinkler system, a three-foot wide sidewalk and possibly solar panels.
- Money saved. "BuildZoom saved us so much time, which equates in our book to money," says Nanci.
- Contractors hired. "I sent out inquiries online for months regarding building contractors and did not receive any responses," says Nanci. "BuildZoom had the resources we needed."
- Peace of mind. "We both work jobs we love and enjoy our family time...and are happy to pass the baton to professionals so we can have less stress while getting our project completed," says Nanci.