Getting Ready For The Addition

While we haven't committed to anything yet, we do believe we're getting close to signing a contract and having work begin on our new addition.

To this end, we've cut down 3 trees in the backyard to make room. It's made the backyard much sunnier, yet at the same time there's a more desolate feel to it compared to the intimacy that the cover of the erstwhile 3 trees provided.

We had talked to some people about the bid process, and one acquaintance of mine said that the 3 bids for his remodel project all came back at pretty much the same number. Not so with us. There was a pretty wide variation in terms of the bids we got back.

All the advice we've read (like This Old House magazine) have said to reject the lowball bid. Bit our low bid was so attractive price-wise that we could not ignore it.

The premise behind rejecting the low bid is that the contractor is probably taking some shortcuts to arrive at that price point, or is desperate for work. However we don't believe that to be the case here. We know that he is in the early stages of another sizable project. Also, in our dealings with the bid process, he has been the most detailed and organized of the 3. He was previously an engineer, so we believe that his meticulous preparation allows him to spec a job with more detail and accuracy than the others, who have probably built in a sizable safety margin to protect themselves.

If things go according to plan, we probably will start the project in a matter of weeks. Check out a previous post for details on what we're going to do.