hiring the contractor

It was a tough choice as all the contractors we interviewed were great, and we felt we would be happy with any of them. In the end we hired Erik Ostmo of Ostmo Construction. During the bid process, Erik was extremely customer service-oriented and willing to work with us on refining the design and the bid. Communication was very easy and clear, and he took the time to explain things. He gave us a thorough and complete bid. The bid was also “open book” which made it easy to reevaluate some design and material choices. Having visited one of his projects, we were impressed by the quality and craftsmanship of Erik’s work and his attention to detail. He gave us confidence that he had the necessary skills and was the best man for the job. We also felt that he was a very good value. He wanted the job and he made us want him to do the job. Simply put, we liked him.

After we hired Ostmo Construction as our contractor, there was a month dedicated to “project start up” items when the contractor scheduled his crew and subs, ordered materials and the like. We used this time to tweak the design a little. During the bid process, other design opportunities came to light. We decided that moving the furnace to an exterior wall, placing the water heater in the laundry, rotating the wet bar and family room, and creating an AV Storeroom was best.

To recap the schedule, the below outlines a realistic timeframe for a similar project:

1 month: interview and hire architect
4 months: design
1 month: get bids and interview contractors
1 month: review bids and select contractor
1 month: pre-construction project start-up
4 months: construction
1 month: post-construction move-in

As some of these phases can overlap, the total time for a full remodel from start of design until the end of construction is about 6-12 months.

We can't wait for the deconstruction to begin. Whoohoo!