Move Up or Renovate?

About a year ago I got sick of waiting for the bathroom. So, I took out a tape measure and walked around the house picturing where I could stick an extra bathroom. The most obvious places are closets—converting closet space to a bathroom. Sure, we’d lose some closet space but I have 3 kids and two of them are boys. I can’t tell you how tired I was of using a bathroom that smelled like a locker room (good day) or portapotty (usual day).

I went through both the pennysaver and yankee trader looking for a contractor. I made several calls and left messages on answer machines and cell voice mail. I took a pad of paper out and listed each contact and their phone number and made a small notation on whether I left a message and what time. I wanted to know who called me back and how long I waited for a return call.

I made approximately 25 calls and received about 10 callbacks. 5 guys actually came to the house to give me an estimate (10 said they’d come but 5 showed up).

By the way… don’t mop or vacuum before these guys come over. They are usually coming from a job site and they are likely to track in dirt or sheetrock dust.

Have you ever had to find a contractor? Would you look in the paper or would you only use someone that a friend or relative used?

How I evaluated each contractor is next…