I am also lucky, very lucky. My GC cemented my mailbox in when he saw it was getting wobbly. He built me new steps that go down to the lake. He stopped one day and plugged in the heat cable that's on my roof because he saw some ice build up. He's the sweetest guy and I know I can call him about anything and his wife is just as nice. I had them over for dinner after the kitchen was done and he really enjoyed showing off his work to her. He also brought his son over, who will be graduating from architectural school this spring. He told me to call him if I had any problem with anything too. Some of these guy's are really nice and not in it to rip you off. Nancy

OMG acountryfarm, I'm so sorry to hear about what you're going through. That sounds just awful. I really appreciate the support and wish you all the best in getting through your project too. It's so hard. I wish I had found this site before I started this project. I wish I had listened to my gut when I was deciding between this and another contractor. Such a mess. Fern4, I might be mis-stating the term "allowance". You're right, typically allowance is for materials that the owner will choose later, like tile or appliances, and the installation of these materials is included in the contract. However, like I said, the original proposal was for things like a stone bathroom, and I knew we'd be doing ceramic (which is less for material AND installation), so we put a figure in for the whole thing and now we're bidding it out (or rather I am). But one thing I can say for sure is that in no way should change orders carry a larger Profit and Overhead than the base contract. P and O should be the same amount no matter what, so that a Contractor doesn't have a benefit to changes, it should just be fair. Yes, change orders are usually items where you make a change. But they also include "unforeseen conditions" which can be a point of contention as well. What should an experienced contractor with 20 years under his belt have "foreseen"? Should they only look at the drawings and exclude everything else even if they know it's going to be necessary by Code, or whatever? It depends on the Contractor, their experience and integrity. I raise a glass to all of you GW's who are such a great source of support and knowledge.

Hi Nanatink, I'm new here, let me say Hello....I haven't tried it yet but I have always wanted to try to sell a craft, etc.....Why does it have to be one or the other as far as your passion or your resume? Why not both? I am assuming you are saying you need some sort of extra income? I don't know the circumstances but I'd say never give up a passion....good luck !

I guess my perspective is a bit different. Maybe I've been more fortunate in the two GC's we've worked with. The GC for our initial remodel generally took responsibility for the work of any work that he arranged for. We never had a change order because one of the workers made a mistake that needed to be corrected. There was an allowance for cabinet hardware (pulls) and it would have covered a reasonable choice such as the Amerock pulls that we considered. We decided to use the larger Schaub higher end pulls which went over the allowance so we had to pay for that, but the original allowance wasn't out of line with good materials. He generally kept us informed of the plans for work ahead of time. He and his workers did a good job of ensuring that our home and the prior parts of the work were undamaged by work - e.g. putting hardboard down on the wood floors which we weren't replacing to protect them from cabinets and appliances being installed, doorways were masked whenever there was messy work. Before work started, they went through the house and asked us to take pictures down from the other side of walls they would be working on so I felt they were pretty cautious about taking care of our things. I can't recall any damage occurring. Junk or dirt was never left around at the end of each day. They would sweep the floor if necessary, consolidate their equipment into a part of the room we didn't need to walk through, etc. I guess I didn't notice whether they locked up when they left for lunch breaks and we weren't home. My husband is retired and I work from home so generally one of us was there. They had a key and did lock up if we weren't there at the end of the day. They weren't perfect. On the down side, we did from time to time notice something that they were doing that needed correction. We checked progress every day and let the GC or the worker know right away and they would correct it or explain satisfactorily why what was done was correct. Sometimes we would spot a potential problem before the contractor and workers were aware of it. For example, the back side of our island had a row of 12" wide cabinets facing the ends and 12" deep cabinets facing the back. It turns out that the cabinet manufacturer makes 12" deep cabinets a tiny fraction of an inch over 12" and the 12" wide cabinets are spot on so a small shim was needed to even them up. That broke down at the very end over issues with the vent hood. The roof jack they installed was too small for our high CFM hood and we felt that they hadn't mounted the hood securely. They didn't agree that either was a problem so we brought in an appliance installer who agreed with us and changed the roof jack and mounted the hood properly. The GC got in a huff and terminated the contract. All the rest of the work was pretty much done at that point (final inspection was complete) and final less than $2 K payment that we didn't have to make covered our costs for the appliance guy, roof jack, roofing guy and some minor paint touch up. While our spotting things and helping come up with ways to correct them saved them some time and cost, there were clearly times when dealing with such hands on involvement stressed them out.