I have issues with the EXPLANATION your builder tried to give you regarding the 5% deposit he is asking you to pay to him. He says this provides the bank with extra security... HUH? How can your giving extra money to the builder possibly make the bank more secure???? Yes, banks want you to have skin in the game but I suspect that bank would much rather have that extra 5% of yours in a deposit account in their bank ready to pay out to builder once he has earned it than in builder's pocket before builder has even broken ground. And, it actually sounds like the 5% is going to have to come out of your loan amount rather than out of your pocket now. If so, what builder is actually asking for is a 5% draw from the bank before he ever does any work. NO WAY! The last thing banker's want is for builders to get any of bank's money BEFORE they earn it. Getting money upfront (before work is done) is how shyster builders operate. They are the ones who then disappear leaving you with a half-built house and not enough money left in the bank to finish it...which often forces the homeowner to walk away leaving bank owning the half-built home. If builder had said something like: "the 20% down is to purchase the land. You will then own it outright and I will give you the deed for it immediately. That means that, if you then decided you wanted to, you could walk away from me and go find someone else to build your house on the land. So I want an additional 5% deposit to ensure that you'll stay with me and let me build your house because otherwise I don't want to sell you the land." Well, that would have made sense and at least sounded honest. (That is, assuming the land without a house is actually worth that 20% and you could build the house you want for the remaining 80%.) But "pay me an additional 5% because it will give the bank more security" is, IMHO, pure flim-flam! And, if builder will attempt to flim-flam you at this point, he'll do the same thing repeatedly over-and-over again as the work progresses. Frankly, this is a red flag that should make you wonder if you even want to get into a contract with this guy at all. At the very least, ask your builder - in the presence of your banker - to explain to you EXACTLY how your putting more money into buider's pocket before he actually does any work for you is somehow going to make banker feel more secure. And then ask your banker if he agrees with builder's explanation.

We signed w/PB April 19. At the time, he said he would probably be able to start in Mid May, and that it should take 2-3 weeks to complete (vinyl inground). They started May 31. I'm not surprised that they started late-that's the "nature of the beast" w/construction. Husband told PB at signing that one of the reasons we went w/him was that he said he could have the pool done by mid June (-instead of later, the other PBs said they couldn't start 'till mid June). The workers told us that this is the first year the company has a couple pools going at the same time (-it was a beautiful day Fri. and they did not even show up here). Worker said if the PB would "leave them alone" and let them work on one pool at a time, it would only take about a week for them to finish. DH wants me to call PB and "talk" to him, which I don't want to do-I side w/your opinions :). We do have a reputable company, but husband is somewhat aggravated, since the main reason he wanted to go w/this company was the fact that they said we'd be in it about now, and end up w/a full season this year. -thought I'd post our situation on here and relay everyone elses "words of wisdom" to DH.

You have a large, flat roof. You could put solar panels up there and heat the pool. I am a pool man, not a bird man. ;-) I might suggest you set up a small hen house for him o roost at night. Keep his food and drink away from the deck area. IIRC, bird poop is acidic and can stain. I wonder if my Labrador would try to fetch, get scared, or get tough. Or my German Shepherd, or my cats, particularly the one we call The Pig(he eats everything, meat on your plate, sweet peas, a snake, frogs, crickets...). Scott Scott

There are several different categories of construction contracts, but it's important to understand that these contracts are all about risk management and which party takes the greater financial risk. For example, in a Fixed Cost contract, all costs of the scope of work are included and the builder has all the risk to complete the scope of work within the Contract Sum. At the other end of the spectrum are Time and Materials contracts in which the owner is billed on a regularly scheduled basis for the material used and time of workers which has been incurred. In this type of contract the owner has all of the risk for completion of the scope of work. Finally, there are a host of "Cost Plus" contracts, in which the owners are billed for the cost of the work incurred plus general contractor's OH and profit. In it's simplest form, this is not much different that Time and Materials contracts. As a result, many Cost Plus contracts include a "guaranteed not to exceed" or "maximum cost" provision, and perhaps other provisions as well. For an incentive, there may be an added agreement between owner and general contractor to share in any savings below the maximum cost number in a ratio of, say, 50%-50%. In this type of contract, risk is shared to a greater or lesser degree between both owner and builder. It's always amazing to me that many consumers simply accept a builder's "standard" contract for construction and never think about the risk management aspect of construction contracts. My advice is to find builders with good business reputations, but it means nothing if it's not in a printed and signed contract for construction. Get the right words, for all parties, on a piece of paper which can be signed and monitored for the duration of the project.