Contractors, contractors and more contractors

We currently have a four bedroom house. Jared and Laine occupy two of the three upstairs bedrooms and the third is our guest room. Jed and I debated about where the baby should go. We considered putting her in the guest room but since all of the grandparents live out of state it would be a big loss for them not to have their own room when they visit. Then we considered having the two girls (Laine and the baby) share a room. That didn't seem practical because of the difference in their ages.

The upstairs of our house has a large playroom and a smaller "game room." The game room is really just more playroom space. So we decided to add a wall and create another bedroom from the playroom. That seemed like a pretty great solution. The game room is definitely big enough to be a bedroom and there is already a closet in that room.

I called a contractor that a friend recommended and had him come out and give us an estimate. Once we had the estimate I would ask if it included a certain part of the work and he would say no and add more money to the estimate.

So I joined Angie's List and got a list of 6 contractors that all had good ratings. Two of the six never returned my phone calls and the other 4 I set up appointments with at one hour intervals on Monday.

I have now discovered that in the world of remodeling there is a big variation in quality and workmanship. Two of the four contractors want to build the wall on top of the existing carpet. The other two plan to cut the carpet to fit the new wall. Two of the contractors talked about how to exactly match the door and doorknob to the other doors and two of them plan to "try to" match it. One of the contractors kept trying to add on things I didn't request (ceiling fan, extra electrical outlets).

Three days after their visit only one of the contractors had sent me his estimate. He was the one I liked the best but his estimate is more than we can afford. I can already tell that dealing with the contractors is going to make me a little crazy.

Suddenly converting the guest room or having the girls share sounds like a pretty good idea.