Where do we begin?

So what's the first thing to building a house?  We thought that we had to find an architect first to get a drawing then submit it to the city to get a permit to build.  We were wrong.  Finding an architect was second.  First we had to get a survey of our lot.  No, that little survey that came with the house was not enough.  We had to hire a surveyor to get a very detail 'map' of our lot.  So those guys who stands behind a tripod attached with a camera like tool are surveyors!  I had no idea what they do when I see them on construction sites.

After calling up a few surveyors and getting quotes, Scott decides to go with Parooz.  Our real estate lawyer used him so he should be able to do the job.  We heard that you should never trust guys in construction, that they're out to rob you.  We wanted to be really thorough and get everything in writing.  We had never written a contract for a surveyor before so Scott got his hands on a contract from another surveyor, tweak it a little and then sent it to Parooz to have him look it over.  When Scott went to meet up with him a couple of days later to go over the contract, Parooz had a little smirk on his face and asked Scott where he copied this contract from.  BUSTED!!! 

It didn't help that Scott kept asking 'stupid' questions like what are we supposed to do next?  and then after that?  The guy's probably thinking: And you want to be your own General Contractor?  Do you know what you're doing?

Scott bought this book and has been reading up on it every chance he gets.

I borrowed this book from the library and had to return it because it was overdued.  We will have to buy this one as well because it is very useful with lots of checklists to follow.





So why does Scott want to be his own GC?  Money and bragging power.   Well, hopefully we'll have a house with all four walls intact or he won't have anything to brag about!