Thanks dixie and sue for your responses. I appreciate your information. In the end, I paid the interest charges and all the invoices that he has provided. I didn't agree with all of them but we decided it was worth it to just pay and get him out of our lives. The anxiety of having to deal with him just became too much and I need to focus on other things like my family who have lived in 5 different places (3 hotels!!) in the last year. We just need to get settled an move on. The only outstanding items are the 10% hold back which we will pay when the 55 days is up and the lien is removed. There are a few things that need to be completed on the house but we have arranged to get done. There were 10 outstanding items noted on the Oct 25th inspection but no safety issues so the city inspector allowed us to move in. The items were things like completing the tile tub surround, caulking around the tub, installing a range hood, inspecting the attic and installing a timer on a bathroom fan. We still don't have a CO and he is blaming that on us but it is because the cabinet guys haven't shown up to install a piece that is required before we can install the range hood despite us contacting them every 2 days. Everything else is done but only because we arranged to have it done. "Your GC must have been a delight to work with through this experience..." The fact that he cashed the cheque for final payment and then filed a lien against our house 3 hours later because we held back the legally required hold back is a good example of the sort of stuff we were up against. But to be fair it was a learning experience for us too. I wish I had found this board before we signed the contract. Our last build was easy and not stressful at all so although we did a lot of research we should have focused on different areas. For example, he has built a number of different homes but we discovered after the fact that they were all spec homes that people had bought while he was building. We were the first cost plus contract he has done. Looking back it is so obvious that it was a question that we should have asked but we didn't think of it. We were too focused on the quality of workmanship etc. Guess we will be smarter and more prepared if we are ever silly enough to build another home. :-) The most important thing is that over all we are happy with our house and in a few months I am sure I will be able to laugh about what an ass he was/is. I did tell him that I could not and would not budge on the holdback amount and if he wanted to sue me over it he could fill his boots. I pointed out that it would cost him money and the holdback funds would most likely be tied up until the spring due to court scheduling. Until I pointed it out I don't think he even realized that he was arguing about a date that would be long over by the time we went to court. The money would have been sitting in trust all along and the judge would probably ask him why his was wasting his time.

There is no immunity in this economy for any company right now. The only protection you have is to check the license at the cslb and DO NOT pay any front load monies. Pay only for what has been done. If this company is sound, and who knows anymore, they will have a solid credit line at their supplier and will have no issue with you saying you are paying for equipment until it is on your property with a materials lien release. This is one area where people get screwed regularly as builders take money from one to pay the other quite frequently. I see Pac Sun on the road everyday but you never know what's up. In the Temecula Valley, just about every builder has left their office space and there is little construction. It's been that way for a long time. As winter approaches and business grinds to a halt in many areas, the industry is pretty nervous. I think the feeling is if we can make it through the off season, there may be hope. From manufacturing to the local pool guy, 2008 was pretty much given over in January to being a year of negative growth and one of the hardest we were going to see in 20 years. It has proven to be just that. What that means is that you need to be careful dropping any amount of money into contracting as companies are running on limited funds and cutting expenses. Odds are very high that insurance may not be paid, workers comp premiums have not been paid, etc. Ask any insurance agent right now about cancellations. There are a tremendous amount of people driving w/o insurance right now as the option is to pay the mortgage or the insurance. I don't mean to scare you at a time when you are excited to get going but this is reality. Our industry is suffering as there is no equity in California and won't be for some time. Yes, those who have moved into these foreclosed homes have a few bucks to spend but not a lot. Contractors are really on the hunt for work now and will do a lot and say a lot but cannot deliver in most cases. It may not be the prime contractor you have an issue with, it may be a sub. The boom of construction brought a lot of new builders and in bad times, these guys give us a bad reputation. They will fall away but you have to admit, we are seeing far greater names falling right now all over and in all industries. It is much worse than people want to believe right now. San Diego has seen its fair share of builder failures but it's all part of the cycle we need to live through to get to the other side. Begin you process at their suppliers. Ask them for names and then call. If you need a number, e-mail me and I'll get it for you. There are only a couple in the area that they would use. If a supplier says they are on good terms, that is a huge start.

We put our pool in about six months ago and are wishing like you wouldn't believe, that we wouldn't have. I'm a realtor and my husband owns a home inspection business. We feel like we're at the very top of the economic pain chain right now. First we had Hurricane Ike and no power for two weeks, then went straight into the 24/7 news coverage about how bad our economy is. Houston weathered the original mortgage crisis really well. Our market didn't take a hit like the others did. But now, my husband hasn't gotten a call since before Hurricane Ike. That's almost a month. He never used to go more than two days. We can't tell what's hurricane related, or what's fear related right now. My work has stayed pretty much the same, because I'm in the foreclosure industry. Because of the path I've chosen, his inspection business is the bulk of our income. (He's also a career firefighter, but it'll be extremely tight living off of that.) I look in my backyard and I love what I see, but I definitely do not like the fact that I ate up a huge portion of my equity when I put it in. Worst case for us, we might very well have to sell our house in the near future, and when/if we do, we're going to take a hit that we wouldn't have taken prior to the pool. The only way I'd put one in right now, is by paying cash only. No way, no how, would I finance one and eat into my equity. And I would do neither if my job wasn't secure. Just a thought.

It would probably be a good idea to have an attorney experienced in such matters review the contract. I couldn't imagine it costing more than a few hundred dollars, a tiny fraction of what you're going to spend on the addition.