Place your bids!

Yes, this post is a bit overdue. Yes, we are still going to build a house. Yes, it is a remarkably slow process. But...the ball is finally rolling. Today I finally got the pleasure of taking the survey to the lawyer's office so that the deed could be drawn up. (Dear Michael, please hurry!) We are also in the process of finding someone to come and performs "perc" test. Now there's a sweet job. You go out and dig two holes, comparable to the the size of a 5-gallon bucket, fill them with water and see if they drain. Then the lovely landowners, who can not build without your services, pay you $400! How do you get that gig?
The real news is that Josh survived his first experience with the bidding process! We needed a few trees cut down before the build starts and these are not the kind that can be taken out by the Carettiville crew. So we got out the phone book, rolled up our sleeves and Josh started calling people for estimates. That was last night. Today Josh met with two different guys and got estimates on the work that needed to be done. The first bid was $300 lower the second bid and way lower than we expected!
The bidding process scares me. It has been one of my major concerns about contracting the house ourselves. We do not like to hurt feelings and we hate telling people "no". Unless we want to pay out the nose, we have to be smart and tough, shop around for the best prices and check references. Yes, it is more time consuming. But in the end, it will be worth every penny we saved. Today, Josh saved us $300!