The Contractor and his Contract

The other day, our contractor came by to present his first draft of the contract, the official document that would legally obligate him to the work, and us to the financial obligation.<br />n<br />nIt wasn’t as dauntingly legal as I thought it would be. It’s pretty straightforward and there are only a couple of minor edits we’ll want to make on it.<br />n<br />nThe other thing that was interesting was the payment schedule. Instead of forking over a huge wad of funds after some major milestone, like when the foundation is poured, or the framing is complete, he’s suggesting a weekly payment, and at which point he’ll also provide receipts for materials, and we reimburse. That seems fair.<br />n<br />nHe mentioned that he has a couple of small projects on his radar between now and our anticipated August 1st start date, but he is reserving the rest of the year to us, which he considers his top priority project. He’s also turned away other work in anticipation of our job.<br />n<br />nWe also learned that there will be a fence around the property, even though previously he mentioned we wouldn’t need it. This isn’t so bad, since it will shield us from the rest of the neighborhood a bit, and it may even lend itself to allowing a semi-permanent black water connection to the cleanout on the driveway. Since he, and most likely his crew, will be coming over from Scotts Valley every day, he will be leaving an enclosed, lockable trailer at our job site. It will be full of his tools and other material needed for the job, and that way, he doesn’t need to cart it over the summit every day. And the fence provides a bit more protection for it all.<br />n<br />nWe all hung out for over an hour and a half, going over the draft contract, but also chatting about lots of other things. Still, after this meeting, we still feel pretty good about our choice of contractor.