Frustration

We met with our contractor again, who assures us everything is on track but so far he hasn't talked to any subcontractors except the roofer, hasn't given us any cost estimates, and doesn't have a schedule. Now he says he can't give us an estimate until we hire an architect to draw up the plans. Why he didn't mention that six months ago is beyond me.

His time "estimate" (off the top of his head) is nine months. If we take care of the roof in the fall, then the crew can work inside all winter, and we can open next July. That seems like a tight squeeze, but either we open in July 2005 or we open in March 2006 - there's no point in opening during the winter. So we're really pushing for the October start date.