Hiring a Contractor

Contractors can be tricky.  Honestly, hiring a contractor is one of the most daunting tasks, in my opinion.  Thank goodness for the World Wide Web.  I did so much research on how to hire a contractor on the internet.  The key here is this:  know the scope of the job, and know it well... don't let the contractor teach you, you need to sometimes be able to teach them. Not that their experience will be overlooked, but the internet in this case will be your best friend.  For any task, there is more than one way to skin a cat.  

However, there will always be better, faster, more efficient, cost effective ways of doing it.  Know your options.  

After getting recommendations and referrals, looking on service magic, I took 5 bids for the job.  One guy said he'd match the lowest bid given.  One guy told me a wall in the garage (obviously added to create a closet when it was converted into a room) he was afraid of knocking it down because he thinks it is a load bearing wall (SERIOUSLY!? SERIOUSLY???).  One guy told me he only works on homes that requires additions to a home, not renovations.  One guy told me that he wasn't licensed.

Enter Mark.  Mark was an easy-going, Ford F150 driving, old-school Levi's wearing kinda guy, in his late 40's.  I took him through the house.  He, right off the bat, gave me a scope of how he would tackle demolition, his approximate timeline, and understood the design I was going for in the kitchen.  His plan for demolition was what made me think, 'I think I may have a contractor'.  

After getting several bids, I hired Mark as my general contractor.  With these design plans:

Kitchen:

1.  White Kitchen Cabinets

2.  An Off-White color for the cabinets, and a turquoise based color for the walls

3.  Refinish existing (fingers crossed they are still there... because it is covered in vinyl) oak floors dark

4.  A glass subway tile with a strip of a decorative tile

5.  Tracklighting and Pendant lighting for the peninsula

6.  Oil-Rubbed Bronze hardware

7.  Corion top in "Night Sky"

This is the Before floorplan:

My proposed After:

Exciting!!