The Start of it all...

We need a bigger kitchen.  Well not NEED exactly, but I want a bigger kitchen.  I would LOVE a bigger kitchen, and another bathroom, and another bed room.  Hence the home redo.  Well, not completely redo, we didn't get everything on our wish list.  Too expensive.  But we are going to completely redo the kitchen/ dining room areas, the flooring on most of the first floor, and redo the upstairs bathroom.  We are not going to be able to add on another bedroom and bathroom.  We had wanted to do this over the garage, but we were a bit naive as to what something like that costs.  Right now, its WAY out of our price range.    

So we've  gone through the "bidding process"  which was new to us, and took a lot longer then either Len and I thought it would.  I would say we started talking to a few contractors in October, and its April and work hasn't started yet.  It took us until January to pick a contractor and get that part settled. We got bids from 3 different contractors.  So if you undergo something like this, don't be in a hurry.  We ended up picking the one who was slightly more expensive, but we liked A LOT better, and overall we feel his company will do the best job.  After all , we are going to have to live with it for the next 20 years.