Into the Land of Reality

Leaving La La Land for the Land of Reality wasn't a bad trip after all.  We ended up with a great contractor and a very acceptable solution - at a price that didn't have me reaching for the nitro.  Here's how we got there:

We went back to the original two contractors and asked for a revised bid based on our revised sense of reality.  They accommodated our sticker shock-based request cheerfully.  During that time, we happened to get the name of who turned out to be our chosen contractor from a friend, who knew of this contractor's work from a friend of theirs.  We thought, what the heck, throw them (two partners) into the mix for this revised plan.

At this point, I was beginning to believe the original two contractors were the ones in La La Land.  Their revised bids were less, but still within a baseball's throw of "ouch and boing."  The third (and now successful) contractor came at us with what we believed was reality.  We checked their Contractor's Board registration, references, and specifically talked to a previous customer.  After hearing just how pleased they were with their project and that they would hire them back in a minute, we were in.

Next up: project details and materials selection.