Do Not Try This At Home

We had our wish list. Granted, it was the size of a metropolitan phone book, but at least we knew where we were going. Now we just needed some people to get us there.

When we looked for contractors in the past, we always followed the rules - word-of-mouth, recommendations, get referrals, check with Consumer Affairs, compare bids. And in almost every instance we got screwed, in one way or another. When we contracted for the roof and siding, we were the perfect consumers, even calling people who had used the company. Then, about a month after the job was completed, when I realized we hadn't gotten any extra material from the contractor in case we needed it in the future, I left messages - no reply. Then the phone was shut off. Mail was returned. In short, the contractor vanished. I'm just saying.

This time, we went with our gut. I had been involved in some commercial construction for an organization whose board I was on, and the contractor struck me as a straight-shooting problem solver who did excellent work. And responded when called. I told Shaw about him, he came to the house, and we both felt he was the right match. He was amazed that we knew what we wanted, since many of his clients simply tell him they want their house to be "bigger." Another plus was that he works closely with an architect who I had also met before, because even though I designed the addition and all the details myself, apparently the people who run our town weren't all that impressed by my graph paper or the letters after my name - we needed this to be official. So we gave him our wish list, he took it back to his office and then a few weeks later returned with an estimate.

Once I picked myself up off the floor and was finally able to say the number out loud, he convinced us that we were essentially getting half a new house. In that case the number was right on target. So, after meeting with the architect, we signed on several dotted lines in early December.

The contract called for a start date of around March 30, allowing for permits, and a tentative completion date of August 31. I'm just going to let that information sit out there for a while.