After meeting a bunch of different types of trades at the Seattle Home Show, we also realized that we needed to research builders before even wasting our time on interviews. The first step in doing that is checking them out at Washington State’s Department of Labor & Industries. It’s a great resource to use to check out anyone that may work on your home (general contractor or not). The website lists the following things that you can look into:

• Verify a contractor’s registration, bond, insurance, and infractions;
• Check to see if they’re licensed;
• Find out their worker’s comp status;
• Look up their safety inspection history and violations; and
• Track a contractor

They also have an interactive sister website to help with making sure that you hire and work with contractors smartly called ProtectMyHome. They include links for step-by-step hiring guides, you can verify contractor’s registration, research common contractor problem, avoid scams and report any frauds.

We looked up all 5 of the contractors that we interviewed on these websites as well as researched things to do for hiring a contractor. It’s a good resource and I’m sure that we’ll be referencing it throughout our build (let’s just hope it’s not to report any problems or frauds).

Today we went to the Seattle Home Show at Qwest Field.  A much different experience than when we were there for the Seahawks Superbowl Rally!  It was the first time either of us had ever been to a homeshow – picture a college career fair on steroids.  There were so many booths of vendors.  It seems like a lot of people and vendors were there for remodeling.  I would guess that the majority of home construction projects were remodels and not new construction so that definitely makes sense.

We were on the hunt for general contractors that we could interview and maybe throw in some interior ideas as well.  For some reason, I was expecting to see a lot of innovative products for new homes there – but there really wasn’t much of that at all.  The Home Show was really geared at finding a contractor for your project – remodelers, roofers, windows, doors, decks, patios, etc.    There was really only a handful of general contractors that specialized in new construction.  A bit disappointing, especially since we are looking for a smaller family-owned company to build our house.  Having a small family owned company instead of a large builder feels like the right way to go for us.  At the home show we only met ONE builder that was a small family owned general contractor that we felt matched our style.  Needless to say we spoke to him for a few minutes and gathered contact information so that we could set up a follow-up meeting.

While there, we also found a few smaller companies that we found to be nice to speak with and we’ll likely follow-up with them as our design/construction progresses.  We met with the husband/wife owners (Marc & Kathy Christiansen) of wine/beer cellar design company called Inviniti Cellar Design.  We were the first people that they met at the Home Show and we spoke for a few minutes about our future house.  They were extremely knowledgeable about wine cellars and really nice to talk with.  They offered up some really great suggestions about our wine cellar and genuinely were interested in our project.  Although we’re not planning on installing shelving right away in our wine/beer cellar, Marc mentioned that there are key things we can do with the construction of the walls and framing to make them forward compatible with a future wine/beer cellar decked out with the proper shelving.  For example, leaving a knockout area in the wall for a future temperature control unit to be placed, or being sure to include vapor barrier on the concrete walls to ensure the correct humidity.  Marc gave us his contact information and we’re looking forward to working with him on the design of the room!

We also met a few patio/deck install contractors and got some good ideas for our design.  Of course, there was a lot of designs that were Seahawks focused.  A couple of our favorites was exterior stonework and decking cut out in the shapes of the Seahawks logo!

Seahawks logo made of composite decking

Seahawks logo made of concrete pavers

Builder C

We met up with Builder C at our property, by his request.  That was actually pretty fun because we got to show him our property and he really got to understand where we were going to build and how our home would sit on the property.  It definitely gave him a much better understanding of the project over Builder A or B.  Builder C was recommended to us by my dad – one of his good friends used him to build a home in the San Juan Islands and raved about him.  In fact, Builder C builds a lot of homes on the San Juan’s but also does some work around Seattle as well.  He started his career 32 years ago in the northwest as a carpenter, became a finish carpenter, and started his own general contracting company because he felt that he could do a better job than the generals that he was working for.  Although he subs out some of the trades, he still completes a lot of the work himself and will basically act as both the general contractor and a sub on the project. It’s apparent that he stays 100% focused on the project he’s working on – only taking on one project at a time.  He’s there every day ensuring that things are done correctly, keeping in mind the project as a whole.

Schedule

We didn’t discuss how Builder C manages the schedule – but we would definitely be meeting weekly or more with him on site to discuss the schedule, budget, and the construction progress.  The time he estimates it will take to build our house is about 12 months.  That’s more than Builder B but the same as Builder A.  The difference between Builder A & C is that C would be taking his time and building a lot of the house himself which takes longer, and Builder A would be subbing all of the work out to crews of people.

Contract & Cost

He took a full sized plan set home with him and in the next few weeks he will put together a preliminary budget for the house.  His contracting was a little difficult to understand, but from what we gather, it’s cost + percentage.  He figures out a true budget ahead of time though and will stay within that budget though. He doesn’t charge for change orders, unless it’s something outrageous.  We definitely like that he doesn’t nickel and dime us on every little thing. Builder C did say that generally his projects are approximately $150-$200 per square foot.

Deposit

Builder C doesn’t charge a deposit if we wanted to work with him.  But he’s actually deciding if he wants to work with us as well!  Over the next few weeks he’ll think about taking on a year long project that’s not in the San Juan’s and see if that’s something he wants to do.  I get it – who wouldn’t want to spend boatloads of time on the San Juan’s…it’s gorgeous up there!  So we’ll see how it progresses, if we like his budget and if he chooses to work on our house.