Painting Quote from Painter #2 is In - Yikes!

Wow. When Colin and I first started thinking about painting the new apartment, we thought that we would be indulgent (perhaps realistic is more like it) and hire in painters. As we realized how much would go into such a project, we knew that trying to do it ourselves would be a disaster. We neither have the time, nor experience, to do a competent job. While we had no idea what this would cost, we assumed we'd need to spend a couple thousand dollars. As it became apparent that it was not just about filling a couple of holes a rolling the paint on, we prepared ourselves for quotes of up to $5k. Well, painter #2 has come back with his quote for the job and it's $8,250 which includes labor and materials for a 5-day job with a 5-6 person crew. Should we decide to skim coat the living room, entry, hall areas, we'd be looking at an additional $1,750, bringing our grand total to $10K. That's quite a leap from the initial $2K we had in our head. I'm not saying it's not worth it, but I now realize why people decide to paint themselves. A little imperfection here and there is charming, right?

What starts to figure into my head is how much is too much to spend on a 2 bedroom, 2 bathroom apartment? It's not a $1 million brownstone, where maybe an investment of $20k-$30k for a decent paint job is worth it if in the long run it increases the value of the property. But then I remind myself that this is not purely an investment, we're going to be living in this space, it's going to be our home. This isn't about increasing value, it's about increasing our enjoyment of the space. There has to be a balance.

I've once again turned to the Brownstoner Forum for their feedback. The feedback is that the quote is on the high end, but that it would reflect what should be a high quality and top notch deliverable.