If you are trying to write your own contract without professional assistance it is wise to use or at least refer to a standard published contract form in order to avoid making mistakes that could be costly later. Here is a summary of contract terms I prepared for another thread for a Fixed Price contract: FIXED PRICE CONTRACT OUTLINE - The Contract Documents - list of Drawings, Specifications & Addenda, etc. - Dates of Commencement and Substantial Completion - Contract Sum - Contract Sum, any Unit Prices, any Allowances, any accepted Alternates, and mark-up an Change orders. - Payment - timing, payment schedule & prodedures, interest on overdue payments - Insurance - contractor and owner liability and property insurance - Waivers of subrogation - General provisions - written modifications, definition of the Work, Intent of the Documents, Ownership and use of documents - Owner - responsibility for surveys & legal description of site, approvals, easements, assessments, OwnerâÂÂs right to stop the Work, and OwnerâÂÂs right to carry out the Work; OwnerâÂÂs right to perform construction and award separate contracts - Contractor - Responsibility for: Review of Contract Documents and field conditions, preparation of Construction Schedule, notification to local building authorities, compliance with building regulations, supervision and construction procedures, construction means, methods, techniques, sequences and procedures, coordination of the Work, acts and omissions of the Contractor's employees, Subcontractors and their agents and employees, discipline and good order among the Contractor's employees and others, employment of unfit persons or persons not skilled in tasks assigned, delivery, handling, storage and installation of materials in accordance with manufacturers' instructions, substitutions, warranty, taxes, permits/fees and notices, submittals (shop drawings, product data, samples, etc.), cutting & patching, clean up, Owner access to the Work, and indemnification of Owner, ownerâÂÂs consultants, agents and employees - OwnerâÂÂs Consultant and agent responsibilities - Changes in the Work - Time adjustments, minor modifications, adjustments for concealed or unknown physical conditions, Change orders - Time - Payments and Completion - Applications for payment, materials stored on and off site, title to work, liens, implied acceptance of the work, Substantial Completion defined, Final Payment with release of liens. - Protection of Persons and Property - Correction of the Work - during construction period and one year (or more) afterward. - Miscellaneous Provisions - Assignment of contract, tests and inspections, governing law. - Termination of the Contract - by owner or contractor. - Other Terms and Conditions - to be added by the parties. - Date & signatures of the parties

cpartist, You understand where I'm coming from. I'm not an artist, but I'm gathering photographs and making sketches (I'm certain they're not as good as yours), and I don't want to feel that I'm being a pest. On the other hand, I'm thinking about last fall when I had a guy over here to rip out my girls' hall bath tub (which was sinking into the crawl space -- not good) and replace it with a walk-in tile shower. I bought the tile myself -- large tile for the wall, small tile for the floor -- and I just assumed that he'd use the small tile as an accent in the storage niche. He thought I wanted it to blend in with the rest of the wall. Because I was here at the house while he was working, I saw what he was doing, and he did what I wanted. But if I hadn't been here, I couldn't have criticized him because I did not say I wanted the accent tile in the niche. Lesson learned. GreenDesigns, I believe what you're saying!

THINGS I'M GLAD WE DID We planned for the future and ran PVC pipe underneath all our concrete walks and drives so landscape lighting could be added later. Also ran pipe for electric wires out to the backyard where we would be building our barn the next year so we wouldn't have to dig up the yard again. Wired for an entertainment system in the basement (which we are finishing now -- 2 yrs. after move-in). DH insited on 400 amp service so we would have plenty of electrical for pool, barn etc. Splurged on the kitchen cabinets and appliances. It's one of our favorite rooms and is large enough for both of us to cook at the same time. Makes cooking & cleanup easy and enjoyable. Insisted on a pool bath with a separate entrance into the home. We fired our first designer when he insisted it was a waste of space in our northern home and would present a security risk because it makes another entrance to the home. It's great not to have guests walk across our wood floor when coming in from the pool to use the restroom. It's also a great changing room for the pool and hot tub and the shower is a great place to wash the doggie. Lots of very large windows to view the beautiful landscape and wildlife from everywhere in the home. What a way to increase the endorphins during an upper midwest winter. We used to live in a house where we could barely see outside. Our coffee area in the MB suite. We saw this in a parade home and had our second (and final) architect plan for this. It consists of some cabinetry, a small refrigerator and a bar sink -- perfect for making coffee in the morning or storing juice and sodas. It's located outside the bedroom, bathroom and closet area but still inside the suite area. Planned for a single, very large MB closet. It's 10 x 15 and is a perfect size for storing all our clothes and is also a roomy changing room. A covered lanai in the back of the house to escape the summer heat but enjoy the rainstorms. Our hardwood floor (Brazilian Teak) throughout the house. One of the biggest "wow" factors to people visiting. THINGS I WISH WE HAD DONE DIFFERENTLY Mostly small size changes which you wouldn't understand unless you were inside the house. A couple of feet here and there to make a room slightly larger. We actually cut those feet off the original plan to keep it just under 4000 sq.ft. Boy, I wish we had kept them. Really checked our cabinet layout. Our laundry room has a tight area when using the fold-down ironing board. It's mainly because we chose a front loading washer & dryer which are deeper than traditional machines. Try to visualize the cabinets and how they work in the room.

We're not quite finished yet - finishing details, trim, baseboards etc - so I guess it's a little premature to post to this, but what the heck. I can say that the ONLY things I'm not 100% happy with are the things I didn't decide 100% for myself and/or resesarch like crazy but chose without having explored all the options and educated myself enough to be able to choose based on the facts. Thankfully, there are VERY VERY few of those! Specifically: 1. I originally wanted the floor tile laid diagonally. I got talked out of this because of the extra time and labour involved in layout and cutting, but I suggested we do a diagonal border at the entrance to the kitchen and the backdoor to further define the spaces. I pushed for it somewhat against my GC's recommendation, but it seemed a fairly easy way of adding a little bit of bling, and having SOMETHING in the space that wasn't on the square, since we have shaker doors, square pulls, square tile, brick backsplash etc etc. It's ok, but because the border wasn't done in smaller tiles but used the same ones, there was no way to line up the points of the diagonals evenly across the row compared to the square tiles on the other side. It doesn't look "bad", it's just not what I had imagined - the ONLY thing I didn't draw in my software so I could "see" it, and the only one I look at and think "Darnit - that could have been better!" 2. The threshold between kitchen and diner. I didn't offer any input into this and my GC just did what he liked. I had anticipated that the hardwood would run directly into the pantry, with a threshold only across the line between tile and wood; he chose to run the threshold all the way across (having left a gap under the pantry door). It's a reasonable decision, just not the one I would have made if I had thought about that first. 3. Not a "regret" but something I only JUST thought of today... *after* they had finished the back of the peninsula! They stained a clean piece of veneer to cover the back of the peninsula and it looks great, but only NOW I thought, "We could have stained beadboard and used that!" which would have looked GREAT and added a little more texture. 4. Not a regret as much as a "I wish there had been another option": there really was NO appliance colour that would have worked. The budget dictated we stick with white (especially since our existing fridge - which we have kept - is white), but although classic, it does call a bit more attention to itself than I'd ideally like. Black would have been too much of a "hole", stainless doesn't entirely float my boat unless it's REALLY high end, and almond/biscuit/brown (all of which would actually have looked really good with my materials) are so out of favour that I could'nt even find any. So, white it is. I figure that as the appliances need replacing I can find a good colour and slowly upgrade them. To be honest, overall everything has come out beyond my wildest...