Contractors

As  soon as we had the contract, I got busy meeting contractors.  Bless Susan's heart, she met me out there with over a dozen contractors--and even met some of them out there WITHOUT me when I couldn't make it.

Septic, electricians, carpet guys, general contractors, mold remediation, and architects.  I got my sales pitch on the house and list of requirements so down pat, I started a spreadsheet and just started sending it to potential guys we talked to.

Over about 6 weeks, I set up or met with no fewer than 8 general contractors.  Why? Because (as we learned) contractors are flaky.

One blew us off entirely, several didn't want to do the work, some clearly had NO idea what they were doing, and still more tried to politely price themselves out of the work.  WHY is it so hard to get someone who wanted to work?

It was super frustrating for us especially, because we HAD to use a GC.  The components of the reno mortgage specifically outlined that we couldn't do the work ourselves, but rather had to do things according to the structure of the Wells Fargo mortgage.  Boo.

Once we finally found our GC--the one who we liked, actually did what he told us he'd do in terms of estimates and contracts, we were excited to get started.  On the way home from our initial meeting with him, I mentioned that he and I had discussed that he used to be a college football kicker.  Eric about made me run off the road when he realized that Stultz Design and Build was Dan Stultz from OSU 96-00 fame, and he was sold.