And the drama continues.....

Last week the contractor who we thought we would be working with over the next couples months came over to finalize all of the details of the project so there are no surprises along the way.  We added and clarified some items with him.  It was a long detailed process making sure the entire scope of the project was completely understood.  Maddy was feeling neglected with all of the business being done and attention not being given to her and threw herself down the stairs.  Ok, not really.  We are not sure what happened exactly but we heard boom boom and then cries burst out as she landed on the tile in the hallway.  She was fine, nothing some gummi worms could not fix, but it was scary.  Crazy enough in 2 years, that was the very first time she has ever fallen on the stairs - and lets hope it was the last!  So during the meeting we got a timeline, he predicts about 8 weeks start to finish which would be incredible and I was getting very excited hoping to start soon and get it hammered out before the cold comes back and we are stuck inside a house in complete disarray.  The next day we received the revised contract to be signed.  It seemed many things we thought were included in the original bid were not and became additional costs.  The several costs ended up being like $300 here, $400 there but several extra lines.... the additional costs were a surprise and left us with a bad feeling.  The worst was the front door.  The proposal had stated $1300 (includes $1000 door allowance).  We had gotten a quote from Home Depot and they said door installation was $300.  One of my insureds quoted me the same and the original construction company we had brought out was $325.  (Their quote stated $1000 (includes $699 steel door)).  So we thought he probably was the same and was $300 to install and was giving us $1000 allowance to find a door.  Not so much!  When we clarified he stated $1300 was labor and the $1000 allowance meant it might be up to $2300 if the door was damaged and some wood or moldings needed replaced....  When Matt told me this I made him forward me the email because I was in disbelief.  When I saw it with my own eyes, I won't lie, my heart sunk and disappointment began to set in.  My excitement from actually seeing a start and worked out timeline vanished quickly with doubts and questions.  If the door was so much higher, was everything else??  We thought we had done a good job finding someone reliable, with a good reputation and comparable prices to others.  However now there is so much doubt - and sadness.  I won't lie I am ready for this to be over.  Not just started, but completed.  The sooner the better for me as this has been a long time coming and I don't want another winter to come and go with the house still in shambles.  So on to the next contractor....  We have not completely written off this one as we like him and I supposed could always just have the front door installed by someone else however with the doubts and questions we are now bringing in yet another contractor to make sure we are not being taken advantage of or over paying.  We have the detailed exact written contract so it at least will be able to compare as I have just deleted the prices and hope to get an exact quote from this next contractor to compare.  Just another bump in the road on a journey we have yet to really begin.....  My fear now is the appliances will be delivered (which we set to be delivered over 2 months out) and the work will not even have begun yet.