Adrienne, First I wanted to put in a mini-apology because when I reread my post this morning it read as more "attackish" then I wanted it to. My only excuse is that I had a longer day then I had thought and this is a sore point with me. It is SO true that I don't want to deal with annoying people. Lol! I am an independant contractor so in essence I am my own business. I don't sell cabinets, or make a profit off of someone else's time like a GC does. I rent my time on an hourly basis. When we talk about the making money side of things (why don't they want to make the money) it's not that we don't want the money, or even that we won't make the money, it's that we think our time is better spent making the money somewhere else. I only have a certain amount of hours in a day. If my goal is to work/charge for 8 hours in a day and I have two jobs available to me for that same time frame I'll take the job I'm more interested in and people are definitely a deciding factor. With something like an appliance salesmen the question may be why doesn't he want the money because it doesn't require anything more of him to get that second sale while with someone who sells their time it means late nights and working weekends. If I size up a situation and think that for whatever reason the job will end up costing me more than I'd get paid for (or would be frustrating or would take forever or etc) then I'll just take the second project. I can only sell my time once! I don't know if I've ever actually said "you smell" to a client, but I have definitely had things like unsanitary conditions play a role in if I want to move forward with a job. It's helpfull to know that I specialize in working with small budgets and often work giving advice to DIY. That's what I enjoy doing. And that entails spending a lot of time with the clients and often at their home. If I go to the home and they are heavy smokers so the house reeks and they have three big dogs that they can't keep off me and they keep talking about the neighborhood going to hell because of a mexican family moving in next door (true stories) I say things like "I don't feel like we are a good match. I don't particularly like dogs, the lingering smoke smell is bothering my allergies and I don't know what to say about the Mexicans. With these things in mind I would certainly give you a referral to another designer if you like and of course, I won't charge you for this visit." Something like that. I do try and be polite but I also want to be honest. Maybe when the next designer comes over they will put away the dogs and air the house out. I DO work with people I don't particularly like. As long as I feel like we have similar goals and values that's where I am at. But often, the reasons you might not like someone are reasons that seriously affect working together on something as intense as a full kitchen remodel. For instance, someone who is disorganized to a fault but still wants to be their own GC, someone with no construction understanding or background who demonstrates an unwillingness to listen to the GC, someone who complains at the quotation of your pricing (not a bill but the up front quote of amount per hour). None of these things make someone a bad person and if the job is interesting and we agree on other levels we may still move forward. But if you combine them together you get a project that is going to take forever, be painfull to execute, and I'll be stiffed somewhere along the way for my fee. In the same way you don't want your remodel to be a horrible process where everything that can go wrong, does go wrong, I don't want that either. I get very invested in the jobs I do. You don't want to start a job with a weirdo designer or a nut job GC and I don't want to start one with a nut job GC and a crazy person for a client. Somewhere a GC is thinking "that dang weirdo designer and crazy person client". A good remodel is a team effort! A bunch of us stuck in a life raft together until the thing is over. In sum, when you panic at 6:15 in the morning because you had second thoughts about your faucet and the guy is unloading the tools to start drilling your counter holes I want to laugh and say good morning! Not think to myself, why did I get into this mess!

We ended up with the "good contractor" :) His bid was reasonable, (a preliminary figure) but did not include gas, electric and plumbing, so we're finalizing those figures this week. He'll also do a walk through with me and be sure he's gotten everything in the contract that we want done so that he can give us a guaranteed bid for the entire job. We'll then have the attorney review it just in case, and we may want to add a couple things (a time line with financial penalties is of top concern) as well as limits on change orders, etc. Anyhoo, I'm hoping by mid week next week we should have a contract signed and permits started so I can take one last quick trip out of town to see the mother in law with the baby, and then hunker down for work on the house in Mid May. Out of all of the interviews we did, we only received one solid bid. The others are still working on theirs, and one wanted $4,800 to give us a bid :) Since we'd had a bid previously from our original contractor, I knew generally where we should end up on costs, so when the one we liked came in with a figure, we knew we could move on comfortably. I can't wait to get going! I'm so far ahead of the game it's crazy, with all of my tile, fixtures, sinks, toilets, tubs, marble, granite, appliances, sitting here ready to go :) Which is very unusual on a typical job I'm told, so we're hoping it will flow comfortably. It won't be a perfectly wonderful experience...they never are, but we'll hope it's "ok". And the contractor just had a baby girl last week so we're hoping we can swap out part of the job for diapers my son's grown out of...heh heh :oP

- How do you handle change requests? - How often are you on the job site as the main point of contact? (or who IS the main point of contact?) - Do you pull permits for all of the work to be done? - Who does the crew you use actually work for? Do they work directly for you or are they subcontracted? How long have you worked with them? - Are all of your subcontractors or workers licensed appropriately and bonded? - Do you provide cleanup at the end of each workday and portajohns? Do look at Buehl's "keep on first page" post that should be located on the first page of this forum. There is good information there. There will be much more input I'm sure on this thread. Another thing I did was get at LEAST 3 estimates, and 3 references. Then CHECK those references. I like that the GC I chose brought up the portapotty and cleanup himself. Also, we requested that the bids be specific so that we can compare apples to apples -- not apples to oranges: - cabinetry - countertops - flooring - electrical - drywall - painting - who pays for what fixture, appliances, lighting, specialty items. etc etc etc. I was also very clear with the project manager that since I do project management myself (computers), I really don't want to have to manage this on top of it -- that's his job. If there is a change request, present it to me, or I present it to him, and it gets signed and then gets done or its out. Boom - done. Another neat thing the one we chose did (which makes me think more and more of them - we're only one week in) is that they put a keyless entry on our front door. The contractors can let themselves in, instead of us giving them a key to our front door that could potentially be copied. Once they are done, the code can be changed. This is standard on all their job sites, and I never even thought of it, but really like it. Honestly, with the dogs, I did ask that they ring the bell though before entering, just to make sure I've put the dogs up in the morning. Not everyone is as much of a dog lover as we are, and 4 big dogs greeting you when you enter a home can be overwhelming to even grown men (lol). I was very specific with all the GC's I talked to. My main concern was I didn't want to have to run around coordinating everyone's time. I don't want to have to deal with people not showing up on time or in the middle of the day to START on a job. The GC we chose was slightly higher than the other 2 bids (one was so cheap I knew it was a farce, not to mention the people that never even showed up to interview). However, I am getting the feeling so far we've made the right decision. Our first bump was the subflooring. Our 1969 home has some water damaged kitchen floor. We knew it. We expected to have to have some repairs. Turns out its better to just get an entire new subfloor rather than patch it. The change order today was for $1915. If that is the worst thing I run into in a 62 grand remodel, then I'm in good shape. We were NOT suprised to hear we had to have a whole new subfloor really. Do be realistic about your expectatations. Plan on an addition 20% for "suprises". We do expect this will be our worst "suprise". I'm crossing my fingers. As of today, the old kitchen/dining room is completely gutted down to the studs. They will be back on Tuesday to start on the new subfloor. At least they were considerate enough not to tear it up tomorrow, leaving us with no way to get to our bedrooms Friday night through the holiday weekend! The ball keeps rolling though. The cabinet guy shows up tomorrow to do his detailed measurements. That is the mark of a good contractor - he doesn't drop the ball.

Dear Kim, I think you are a little ahead of yourself. Like the majority of people wanting new kitchens you are trying to get your new kitchen done. And Without being able to communicate what it is you really want and expect to Get AFTER your new kitchen is done. You are designing the kitchen but not Your Life You expect to be Living In It AFTER it’s done. “ I already have the kitchen layout chosen for the most part since a friend of mine who is a designer has the same layout and I'm probably going to go with a similar layout.” I believe a kitchen is a Home & Life Improvement Project, and NOT a get a new kitchen project to satisfy your urge for something new. Because you don’t like your existing kitchen, with the Hope of getting what you truly want and desire. This is a recipe for kitchen project failure almost everyone blindly follows. This is the Wrong approach and I believe the Wrong destination for you! What you truly want, if you think about it, is a new, different, better, easier life than the one you’re living now in your existing kitchen. That you know from your own experience doesn’t work for you. Because it’s Not Your Kitchen but the kitchen you inherited from the previous owner. That you had to Adapt to by putting your items where ever they fit and as long as you know where everything is you’ll make do. What makes you believe your new kitchen will be any different? What makes you believe you won’t Have To ADAPT to your new kitchen? If you want to get the new kitchen and new life you truly want and expect your new kitchen project to deliver, and not do any of the work yourself. I believe you will need to hire a designer and a GC. Your budget is going to dictate what you can actually get in design, product, and services. You can’t make a silk purse from a sow’s ear. Is your budget realistic? Fact: You are NEVER going to renovate this kitchen again for as long as you’re in this home. I believe that if you are going to take on a new kitchen project, Your Ultimate goal is Home & Life Improvement. And as dramatic an improvement in Home and Life, for your money, as possible. However, price shouldn’t be the Determining Factor. Why? Because you are NEVER going to renovate this kitchen AFTER it’s done. No Matter What Happens! You will be living with it, for better or worse, for as long as you own this home. Imagine, you’re in this home just 10 years from now. Will it matter then that you saved thousands of dollars, but have lived with disappointment and regret. That you didn’t get to live your new life you were hoping for, for the last 10 years? Or that you spent thousands more to get the new life and new kitchen you still love and enjoy living in every single day? Buyer Beware…Hiring anyone in the services industry is tough for everyone that has had to do this. Doctor, lawyer, plumber, electrician, GC, designer it doesn’t matter. Too many choices and it seems no easy way to tell service providers apart. You may want to hire a GC that does kitchens so you don’t have to find tradesman and do it yourself. That comes at a cost. You may want to hire a designer to create your kitchen design drawings for you so you can get bids and shop for your best price and value. This also comes at a cost. Which route is the best one for you to take? You can’t answer this question because you don’t have enough information. You are in the forest among the trees. So let’s see if we can get you above the trees to get you a 30,000 foot 360 degree view. So you can see clearly what is involved in what you are about to do. Every GC you talk to is a GC and every designer is a kitchen designer so far no help. We are all individuals and as individuals we are all uniquely different. We have different ways of doing the exact same things, we have different levels of perfect that need to be met. We all feel differently about what we do. And We all add different levels of value to the work we do. So although on the surface service providers are grouped together in your case GC, designer, every GC and every Designer is different and will produce dramatically different results at dramatically different costs. So How do you compare them to discover their differences and who’s best to work for you? You ask this simple question, “What do I get if I hire you that I won’t get from anyone else?” You care about What You Get not what they do. If you’re looking for a GC to do your entire new kitchen project chances are they design kitchens or are going to farm out your project to a kitchen designer anyway. To a designer you didn’t get to interview. These designers will design a kitchen (not your kitchen) that suits your budget. You’ll truly believe you’re designing your new kitchen too. Because you’ll get to make choices but you’re not. Because you’ll only get to see and choose from what they show you that fits within your budget. You’ll realize this is true, AFTER your new kitchen is done and you’ll blame yourself and regret that you didn’t do this project differently. NOW that you have the experience of HOW Not To do your new kitchen project. You don’t have the luxury of gaining experience this way. So what do you do? Think about your new kitchen project like a journey you’re going to take. To get you from where you are now, Your existing kitchen that doesn’t work for you. To the world’s perfect kitchen for you, that resolves all of your existing kitchen’s performance problems esthetically and functionally. And delivers that new, different, better, easier, more enjoyable life, that you don’t experience now in your existing kitchen. Where you want to be Living AFTER your new kitchen is done. How? 1. You start where you stand in your existing kitchen. Analyze it to discover what performance benefits exist that you’d like to keep and what performance problems it has that you need to resolve, fix, or eliminate. Now you are clear about what works well and what needs improvement in your kitchen’s performance of the 5 Basic Tasks (storage, preparation, cooking/baking, delivery (food & beverage), and clean up). Reproducing the benefits and resolving the problems gets you to the world’s perfect kitchen for you! And all of this space planning work should be done BEFORE interior elevations are ever done. Your goal is to create the world’s perfect plan that’s uniquely your own. Creating the Foundation your new kitchen will be built upon. How? 2. You create every possible appliance and cabinetry combination to create every possible new kitchen layout that provides a solution, to your unique kitchen design dilemmas discovered in step 1. Use the following link to see what I mean. https://www.kitchendesignco.com/layout-laboratory/ Analyze and Compare all of your new kitchen options you were able to come up with (there should be at least 5). If you need DIY kitchen layout help use the following link: https://www.kitchendesignco.com/diy-kitchen-layout-help/  Just like you did in step 1 so you are clear How each layout (plan) works day to day and when you entertain. After you’ve gone through all of them…do it again. Only this time by direct comparison and using the process of elimination you’ll get down to one plan. Your perfect new kitchen plan. How do you know for certain? You’ve seen and compared all other options leaving no doubt that you have your perfect plan. 3. Now that you have your perfect kitchen plan. Having your interior elevations and 3D perspective drawings done is easy. Actually you should be able to get an estimate on how much your kitchen will cost using your layout (plan) alone. However, if you have a complete set of kitchen interior design drawings done, like these (to see examples follow this link): https://www.kitchendesignco.com/kitchen-design-drawings/  Once you select your finishes you can get accurate pricing from EVERYONE on EVERYTHING you’ll need to complete your kitchen project and long BEFORE you build it. So you can discover definitely if your budget will get you the new kitchen, home and life improvement you truly want, and expect it to deliver. REMEMBER...You are NEVER going to redo this kitchen for as long as you'll own it. For better or for worse live with it and make do, or get what you truly want and expect. It’s your decision. Hope this has been helpful. Joe Brandao Kitchen Design Company