Saturday, September 15, 2007

Bids & Legal Stuff

Today was a busy day for a Saturday! I started by meeting with the air condition man that my family has used for years. He's a perfectionist and he knows what he's doing. So I plan to use him unless his prices are sky high.

Later, I finally got a framer to meet with me. That has been a struggle. His bid was higher than I was told to expect, at $6.75 per square foot. I look forward to getting other bids to compare to.

I also went to Luling to look at the work of one of my potential slab guys. This job is in the forming stage. The work looked neat enough. I saw another slab that had already been poured, and I wish I could find out who did that job! It looked very neat, and the finish was level and polished. My guy's work also looked okay for the stage it was at.

I also met with a lawyer who is working on the contract template I will use when hiring each tradesman. He gave me a draft of the contract, the "acceptance of work" form, and the lien waiver. He also gave me material to read so I can learn about this construction business and the issues I need to know about with Louisiana law. I'll be absorbing that over the next few days and getting back to him so we can narrow down to the final versions of the contracts & forms.

One thing I learned is that it's best to have each contract and acceptance form "recorded" with the parish. The way I understand it so far, this makes everything more official and provides backing if someone wants to make a claim or otherwise cause trouble.

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