+1

Sparks, you're sounding like the sort of customer I avoid like the plague, and you're basically asking for a contentious project where everybody is miserable. Nobody is going to sign a 50 page contract with liquidated damages and a bunch of other nonsense for a kitchen remodel. Frankly, nobody is going to sign your contract at all. You'll be signing theirs. And anybody you do find who will work under those sorts of conditions will constantly be looking for ways to screw you over because you're creating a hostile business environment.

Find a reputable contractor you like, form a positive relationship with them, and they will treat you well in return. I can't say the industry's reputation as a whole is entirely unjustified, but it is definitely exaggerated and there are plenty of good guys out there who will charge you a fair price for quality work and do everything they reasonably can to meet your schedule.

This is gonna be a damn near unanswerable question, but people who do this/have had this done before please give me something.

We've got a 25' x 25' carport/shed behind our house that we would like to knockdown/replace with a 1-car garage/shed with 1br studio on top at some time in the next few years. What kind of cost are we looking at here?

This definitely depends on a lot of factors so I get that it may be a wiiiide range, but just trying to get some idea what we should expect after getting an architect to draw something up. As you can see it's already wired for electric (although prob not with enough power as it would need for a standalone unit) and would also need plumbing run out there as well.

Some pics for those interested:

If wanting to be clear on the scope, schedule and price "makes everybody miserable" you sound like the type of contractor I would never hire. Understanding those things up front is perfectly reasonable. It sounds like you are one of those contractors (if you are one) that want's to keep things nice and vague, rack up the change orders, and take forever to finish the work. I'm not saying you are, I'm saying you sound like one.

Any push back from the contractor on the type of project I'm describing is a big red flag to me. I mean the scope? The schedule? Jfc, those are so basic. I'm not even talking about workmanship and a detailed specification which would probably make things miserable. Just the basics. Surprised at your response.

My expectation is that being clear when getting bids would weed out the garbage contractors and attract the quality ones.

Here's the thing about LD's, yeah on the surface it's a bitch move. But at the same time, I'm going to be paying rent and I don't plan on moving in until the work is substantially completed. The obvious problem is you don't want a contractor rushing to finish the job. I'm just really worried that for whatever reason, the contractor gets busy or something, and just puts his guys elsewhere. I mean that's a disaster and without LD's what would I do? Call him up and say please work on my house? I don't know the best answer to this conundrum because there obviously won't be a specification written to guarantee quality workmanship. Get references, research the guy, and then pray you don't get the wrong guy? From my research Angie's List and the like aren't really reliable since they favor contractor's that advertise on their site. Man, not sure at all how to approach this. Anyone know a good contractor in Orange County, CA?

Sparks, my point is that you're already coming into this with a negative attitude before you've talked to a single contractor. You seem to have an unreasonable schedule and you're trying to contract the crap out of it to make up for that. I don't know the exact laws of CA, but in most states mountains of laws and precedent already exists to protect you from bad business practices. You don't need to reiterate every aspect of common law in the contract, you just agree to a completion date with the people doing the work. The rest is already built into our existing legal framework.

My earlier advice still stands. Start talking to contractors. Find somebody you like. Develop a good relationship with them.

And if you're really hellbent on trying to legalese every micro-detail, keep in mind that a smart contractor knows how to get a favorable contract far better than you do. As evidence, I point to the ubiquitous and ridiculous 1 year express warranty.

Zikzak,

Appreciate the comments. And you're right, I'm totally negative coming into this, probably because I'm an engineer who does contract blueprints every day, and I fight with contractors over plans and specs, blah blah blah. I'm an electrical engineer, I have little clue about architectural stuff, I'm usually designing transformers and switchboards and crap like that. So, I had a plan of approaching this remodel in a certain way, like preparing some home-drawn sketches and stuff, and getting bids. I suppose for a home remodel the contractors would want to come by and take a look before giving me a price.

So, help me. As an example, this is a demo drawing that I guess I would provide to prospective contractors. Not sure if this is unusual or not, for some reason it feels nitty to me, like you say, as if I'm trying corner the contractor into a whole sh*tty experience, which I'm very much not wanting to do. I want a relationship, etc.

Is this kind of drawing, and I was going to do one for the new work too, just stupid? Are home remodels more of the contractor coming out, taking a look, and going from there? Man I'm new to all of this but my experience with dealing with contractors for a living on large industrial projects has me like wanting to be a c*nt. Assist please!

Like saying in the notes "demolish and remove." Ha, that's just straight from my work experience. I mean duh, of course "remove" is part of it. Thoughts please.

You were expecting them not to?

Demo drawings are fine. The drawings you should have are of the kitchen, especially cabinet elevations. Whoever you get cabinets from will help with those. Even if you've already laid out the kitchen yourself you'll still want to bounce the plan off the cabinet people. They'll know details like door clearances that you might miss, and they'll probably have some suggestions about functionality as well that may not occur to you.

If you're changing lighting you'll want that spec'ed out pretty clearly, along with any other work that isn't obvious. Removing the wing wall is a good example. The note you have there is exactly the sort of thing you should be doing.

Spec out your appliances, flooring, counters, sink, faucet, backsplash, etc. A list is fine for this unless you're doing something unusual with the backsplash or counter height or whatever, in which case you'll want drawings for that too.

Most contractors aren't looking to gouge you with change orders, and they typically don't like them any more than the customer. They happen when something unexpected is found, like water damage or out of code wiring, when the customer wants something non-standard and non-obvious but didn't make it clear up front, or ldo when you change something.

So yeah, meet a few contractors at the new place and talk it over with them. Show them any drawings and specs you already have, but it isn't necessary to have everything hammered out and on paper for them. Somebody who spends the time to understand your project, your expectations, and offers feedback about how to bring it all together is probably going to be a good choice.

Your work experiences might translate pretty well to a large scale commercial project, but residential is a different world entirely. The scope of work is much simpler, and the contractors are used to dealing directly with homeowners. Most of them are just trying to make an honest living and maintain a good reputation.

Final thought is I'm kinda shocked you're still doing manual drafting in 2016.

Why can't you live in a house without a kitchen? This is SoCal and you are The Grillmaster.

LDs are not a bitch move they're a best practice for construction contracts. Especially if the use of the property will be displaced during the work.

Hey, do you work in the industry?

Scope, schedule and price all should be perfectly clear. I give a price for a job. I do the whole job, material, labor, everything. I don't sell goods and I don't sell labor. It's just extra work for me to try to break it down that way. Most people who want to do this either want every contractor to do it so they can use other bids to negotiate price (why is your material $500 more than theirs? ) or they want to buy the material directly or threaten to as a negotiating tactic. And like zikzak was saying, it sets up an adversarial relationship from the start.

Scope, schedule, materials, etc, all that is cool, and negotiating price is cool too, but not dissecting it.

Any here has experience dealing with an underground oil tank? The house we're in contract to buy apparently has an underground oil tank (properly abandoned very recently) despite the seller representing to us in the contract that there is no underground oil tank. We asked the seller to remove it but haven't gotten a response back yet. What do you guys think? The oil tank remained unused for decades and it was only recently dealt with.

Lawyer

Lawyer and 99% of the time gtfo of that purchase agreement. Oil contamination sucks and if they are hiding it you can almost guarantee they think the land is dirty.

Sparks,

Something from custom software development that I think is also true for materials construction:

Budget/time/scope, you get to pick 2.

more like cost, speed, and quality

Synonyms imo

naahhh...scope and quality are two related but different things in the world of construction (not sure about software dev).

Sparks:
regarding the LDs, if you don't work from home (i.e. won't be home during the time of day when construction is happening), i'm also surprised you're going to pay rent for somewhere else and eat that cost. i know several people that didn't move out while going through a whole kitchen remodel (only a couple did it themselves).

if you are going to be stubborn about still including the LDs, you better specifically define what qualifies your project as being substantially complete. I also don't know the specifics about the lease agreement for the place you'll be renting, but i think it's only fair that if you're going to include LDs you should also include incentive for the contractor to finish earlier than the established schedule. if you don't have to pay an extra week or month of rent elsewhere (once again, i don't know the terms of your short term lease), then you could incentivize the contractor by offering to pay him half of the money you save by not having to pay extra rent.

I walked away from a contract for this reason - we simply requested it be tested for leaks and they said no. If properly closed up by a certified company, with permits, I think you're okay legally. Otherwise I would never buy a house without knowing the status - I might go as far to request it be removed.

Separately, I bought a house and 4 years later I found oil in my back yard. Fortunately it was a minor leak from a very old tank and the whole think cost me a grand to get it out.

Right, agree with this. Since I'm trying to define time and scope, it will cost me more, I know that, and I my thought is to be clear up front that I want the contractors to price the aggressive schedule. I was at Home Depot and Lowes today and one thing is for sure, they absolutely aren't going to agree to a schedule. At Lowes, 6 months would be written into the contract, period, no option to change that. The gal told me "we don't have an option to change that clause, but we'll probably finish in a couple of months." Not sure I could swallow that, but I may have to, whether it's a Lowes contractor or an independent.

Had a terrible experience at Lowes today talking about this work I want to get done. Short story, I've got a 1000 sf of engineered hardwood to put in, and I think I'm going to do it myself. My research tells me it's pretty doable. In my case, i'm going to float the wood over the top of a perfectly smooth granite floor. Looks like the doors won't be a problem, wood depth is 3/8". Not decided, but I got so frustrated talking with the gal about schedule, for that part I think I'll just do it myself. For the wood floor kitchen, think I'm going with wall to wall flooring, so under the cabinets. Big debate on the internet whether the wood should go under the cabinets.

You are the one that started that ridiculous restaurant thread in OOT right? Assuming so, do you ever wonder why you keep getting so unlucky with customer service?

Love this idea, but again, you obviously don't want them rushing your job and sacrificing quality.

The question is simple, and I think really tough. How do you encourage the contractor to do an expedited job without sacrificing quality. I think it will end up being simply paying for it.

Are you talking to me? If so, wat?