The very first thing you have to do is have a solid plan in place to handle your erosion problem. It would be a monumenetal and expensive mistake to start any type of landscape construction project without first having your erosion plan as well as drainage plan in place. If this is a large job as you have stated then you should have a decent set of plans showing all your built structures along with the materials specification sheet and construction specifications. If you do not, you are not ready to start your project. How will your contractor know how to bid and effectively build your project if he does not have any specifications written up on the product that he is suppose to supply ? In regards to your contractor asking for 50 percent down. That would not fly in my state if you were a licensed and bonded contractor. It would be against the law. As a contractor in California you can only request 10 % of the cost of the job prior to starting the job. Once the job is started you can then negotiate for any type of payment schedule that you work out with the client. 50% down is a poor amount for the homeowner to negotiate. When a contractor asks for this amount it is a tell tale sign that they do not have established accounts at the local supply houses, and one has to ask the question WHY does a reputable contractor not have established accounts. It also sends a message that the contractor does not have operating overhead in his account. _ Not a good sign. As a landscape designer I work with all of my clients to negotiate a fair and reasonable contract , in this situation I would still be sitting firmly at the negotiation table. This would not be a satisfactory contract for my client to sign.

Oh gosh, Marie, you sound like you are in a panic!! Truly, your family is coming to see you, not to do a inspection of your house. If it were me, I'd just do a few things each week and not stress so much. If you try to do everything just before they come, you will be exhausted and not enjoy the visit. Why don't you hire a helper the day before they come to dust, clean baths and run the vacuum? In the meantime you can focus on other things that concern you like the spots on the carpet. Have you tried one of the good carpet spotters on the market (like Folex) or tried the carpet stain website to get help? It's below, and I believe they even have an 800 number you can call for help. Do your carpets need cleaning? You could have professionals come in and do a room or two instead of the housecleaning help. There are lots of tile cleaning products on the market. One I have heard mentioned but not used is called Finazzle. I saw it at my grocery store. Truly, don't "kill yourself" cleaning. It is too stressful, and I bet your family's homes are not spotless. I used to do this, and believe me, it's not worth it! Good luck. Here is a link that might be useful: Carpet stain removal

Thirteen years ago my mother suddenly died and I was left with a 3,000 square foot house that she had inherited from her parents. It was absolutely loaded with very fine furniture and every conceivable antique, valuables, paintings, clothing, jewelry, etc. Here's how I handled it. The local estate sale pro came and told me she would do the sale for 25% of the gross. I decided against giving up control over pricing and giving such a big "cut" to that woman. I had a cousin who is very familiar with estate sales, so I asked her to help me. It took me 7 weeks, working 10+ hours a day, 7 days a week, to organize for the sale. The cousin helped me for about 20 hours during that period, she was key because I had no idea how to price things. She had these thick books about antiques that helped us with pricing. My brother and I chose all the furniture and items we wanted to keep and we put these in bedrooms, which were off-limits to people coming into the house. We started with local used furniture and antique dealers, who were invited to come to the house to buy - that took several days. We then had a word-of-mouth estate sale every day for a week, then advertised in the local paper for another week. Finally, we had garage sale type items left and we conducted that sale on a weekend. The following week I had the movers come and pack shipments to the 2 cities where my brother and I live. I donated the remainder of the items, keeping careful records for the tax writeoff. The proceeds from the sales were $18,000, moving costs were $6,000, so we were very successful. I gave several valuable items to my helpful cousin (worth $1,000 at least and they were sentimental things that she wanted and chose) and I paid her $700 for her help. I also gave some items to my mother's friends, they chose items they wanted. I always had at least two people present during the estate sale days and we watched people like hawks. We had no theft, but we only let a few people in the house at a time and they were confined to the living and dining rooms. I had more help for the garage sale days and those were the most stressful, but by then there weren't any especially valuable items left to steal. Final thoughts would be that, if you do the sale yourself, sorting things out will take more time than you think. Unless you know how to price things, you will be at a real disadvantage. Mark every single item with a price and put signage on anything "not for sale." You can phone local used furniture stores and antique dealers to give them "first pick." Make sure you have 1-2 other people in the house to help, watch the people who come to make sure they don't switch tags or pocket small items. Good luck with your decision and the task ahead.

Sophie Wheeler: You're assuming way too much. What makes you say that I don't seem to take into account the associated costs of removing bearing walls, when I clearly stated above: "I hate surprises, especially big ones. That's the reason we would like to know BEFORE we commit to this project just how many dollars we'll be spending on putting in beams, RELOCATING PLUMBING, ELECTRIC, DUCTS, etc." All the affected rooms will need new flooring that's not a news item for us. We also know we will need to spend money on floor matching if we enlarge the narrow opening between the kitchen and dining room. How much we will spend on this kitchen reno will not be limited so much by our finances but by the value increase that a large family kitchen will add to our 3000sqft , 4 bedroom house that has one big problem: A tiny, 60's kitchen more befitting a small cottage. We just simply don't want to overspend. The estimated size of the value increase will mostly inform our decisions.