Somewhere, maybe in our inspiration album?, on this site there are windows with stain glass pieces and glass globs glued to them. Then they are grouted in dark grey or black which looks like solder. They look just like "real" stained glass, but because they are attached to glass its relatively easy. They could be on the stained glass forum, not sure. I always thought I could try that because even tho I can't draw worth a darn, I could probably follow someone elses stained glass pattern. kathy

With respect to background, it sounds to me as if you're about as prepared to be your own GC as anyone. I know there are folks on this forum who will insist that you should "let the professionals do it" but... As far as I know, there are no colleges or trade schools that teach how to be a general contractor. Nor do I know of any formal apprenticeship programs anywhere although there may be a few somewhere. Many states don't require that GCs even be licensed. Some require a license but getting one is a matter of sending in a form with your name and address, a signed avowal that you don't have any felony convictions, and a small licensing fee. That means pretty much every "professional GC" out there learned on the job. Many of them started out as laborers in a particular branch of construction, decided they could run a business in that branch for themselves so started up their own painting/framing/roofing/foundation/whathaveyou business, and from there branched out to general contracting. Basically the GC's job is to keep the work flowing along, he pull permits, secures insurance, schedules inspections, hire subcontractors (and, IMHO, SHOULD make sure the subs work is done correctly), order materials and make sure they're on site when needed, handles the cash flow, and keeps records. If you need financing for your build however, you will need to find out if your bank will work with an owner-builder. Many won't. A few will. If your bank won't work with an owner-builder, find out what you must do, if anything, to get licensed as a builder in your state. Then set up a "building company" and contract with your own building company to do your build. As for whether it is a good idea to be your own GC... ARE YOU AN ORGANIZED PERSON? Can you keep up with names, addresses, sales slips, bids, contracts, warrantys, timelines, material's lists, etc. Do you know how to make and use spreadsheets? Are you willing to spend time learning everything you can about housebuilding? Are you willing to spend time checking references of potential subs? Are you willing to spend time everyday at your site checking the work of subcontractors and keeping up with use of materials so stuff doesn't "walk off" - at least without you knowing it? Will your real job suffer from neglect while you build? Can you be tough when necessary without getting emotional? Can you deal with people who lie to your face without losing your cool? Have you ever fired anyone? Have you ever run a complex project of any sort? Have you ever supervised a dozen people all at once? If you can answer yes to the above questions, I'd say go for it. It sounds as if you have a support system in place (parents) who can help guide you thru the order in which things need to be done and figuring that out is one of the more intellectually difficult parts of being a GC. Having worked in many phases of construction yourself, you probably know enough to at least be able to tell when most jobs have been done correctly but you might look into hiring a GOOD third party inspector with experience inspecting new builds at various phases. Getting subs is NOT that difficult and my experience when I took over GC-ing my own house after firing my sorry-a55 builder was that subs/suppliers were as willing to give me builder discounts as they had been to give them to my builder. After all, unlike my builder, my credit scores are good and I was willing to actually PAY for materials when they were delivered and pay the subs as soon as the job was completed. And the money I saved stayed in my pocket instead of going into my builder's. I found that the most difficult aspect of getting subs was getting them to actually show up when they said they would. When you're a homeowner building a single house, subs will often put off finishing your job in order to go start a job with someone else. Basically, they want to "lock in" all the work they can and they figure that once they've started your job and have some of your money in their pocket, you have no option but to wait for them to finish the job. The way to handle that is to make sure they never ever have any of your money in their pocket and that your agreement with them gives you the right to rescind the contract without notice to them and hire a replacement if they fail to show up. Email me and I'll send you a list of the terms that I started insisting be into every Sub's contract when I got fed up with being the "lowest priority job."

Glad to hear you're getting closer Eastsider :) As to the insurance because we own part of the company. We talked to our insurance agent (the commercial one) and there are no compromises in coverage if we don't manage the job (and we never were going to...we were just asking the GC to try a different sub). The electrical and plumbing were seperate bids and insurance policies. (Each having their own). THe balance of the job is at a fixed price (under the GC's responsability). Our insurance on the company level is significantly more than any GC would carry (because we build multi million dollar buildings and electrical structures). So the insurance hurdle on that side was dealt with. And just to be clear...our GC has full veto power on the electrician. He has specific standards for subs he'll work with (most likely because of these types of issues) so he is doing an interview and we've pulled this out of our final contract so that he can make his decision. Frankly our company is huge and his, while a good sized contracting firm, is very small in comparison. He's already said he feels good about the idea and dosen't mind being introduced to another electrician option because he's frustrated with the one he brought over (apparently he was bidding 3 jobs and each came in way over reasonable with no explaination). As to the holdbacks...we pay our contractor, he pays his subs. We aren't trying to get in the middle of that. The bank will track to see that folks get paid which is standard, but we didn't change that arrangement at all. We're meeting with our insurance agent (for the house) tomorrow at 2 to discuss issues like living in the house, etc. We're running into a road block on adding a builders risk policy because it's "a condo" (it's actually a townhome in PUD legal structure). We are going to live in the home (it's five levels so that's not crazy entirely...ok well a little), but I want to be on site and not force my son, who is ill, to have to go to yet another place he's not familiar with. He's been in hospital so much of his 18 months that he gets upset every time we spend even a night at a hotel anymore. We test drove the kitchen demo with him in the house on the bottom level and he did great so we should be ok (there is a level separating the demo and the level we will live on). We'll also be building a temporary wall to protect us as much as possible from dust issues, which adds to cost, but is worth it for us to stay home. Besides temporary housing in Alaska in the summer is almost unheard of...tourists you know :) Our total budget for the job is actually up to $250,000 plus we have a 20% reserve in the bank. The electric is about $10,000 of this and the plumbing is about $20,000. The majority is "stuff" cabinets, granite, the french stove, tile, lighting, blah blah blah :) You know the drill. In alaska it's tough to get into the summer schedules with any contractor. They have a limited building season and want to do any open air stuff during the summer and push folks like us to the winter. That's part of the problem with the electric. We would use either of his other two normal companies but they won't take on any new jobs before September and we're not going one more month without starting heh heh Anyhoo, we'll nail down the insurance stuff this week and demo next I guess...I say demo :) We already gave the kitchen away lock stock and barrel so we have to go forward now huh? We had cabinet folks out for final changes and orders, and have our Lacanche order ready to fax in as well as the orders for the balance of the appliances. We did sign contract after it was reviewed (leaving the electric out) and everyone is happy so...fingers crossed, hammers will hit walls soon (or I'll do it!) How close are you East?

As a chronically starving artist, I'm always looking for ways to recycle things. I got the tail end of a roll of newsprint, years ago, from our local newspaper office. It's not ideal for patternmaking (tears easily, isn't see-through) but it was free and as I also do a lot of sketches (and like to let my little nieces and granddaughter draw, when they come over) it has been broadly quite useful. I've also used it, lots, for applique--I cut shapes out of it, pin pieces to it, iron the edges over it, sew the applique pieces down, about 7/8 of the way around, and then since it tears so easily, am able to take tweezers, reach under, and pull out all the paper, then sew down the remaining edge. For something also free, this is what I've been using for drafting smaller pieces of patterns (also good for my applique work): I buy those flat, large desk calenders, and when the months have expired (or if there are months I haven't used), I save the sheets and use them, back side up, to draw on. But I'm going to look into getting some Tyvek, for larger, durable pattern pieces. (You can see some of my applique work at my site--along with some of my jewelry designs, and thanks!) Here is a link that might be useful: Heron Moon Designworks, on Etsy :)