Hi Connie, It is a much busier time for professionals than it was 12 months ago, I understand why you may be going through all this. Here are 2 things to try. Try the Houzz Professional pages if you haven't already. Be clear on the phone about your timeline and budget and see what that nets you. If it doesn't work, I recommend coming to a builder via a different route. Perhaps via a subcontractor of a key department (plumber, framer, etc), an involved architect or a designer. Our professional relationships are so important to us, if a trusted builder asked me to take on an additional client to help their company out, I would expand my office staff etc to meet the demand, as we are all repeat business for each other and our livelihoods depend on the quality and quality of our professional relationships. As far as you physically performing labor, in many cases, tradespeople who spend all day every day performing tasks on an expert level save you money because they are doing it much, much faster than a DIY could and will likely have the experience to avoid mistakes that can cost you time and money or, in a more subtle way, there may be something you do that makes it more difficult or time consuming or costly for the trades that come in after your work- that could be avoided. Overall I think you should stick it out on the contractor search! You need one, there are so many good ones-- hang in there!! Good luck- this is no one's favorite part!

Sound's like a great idea. One thing I have found lacking is the general public know nothing to very little about what specialist's such as surveyor's, architect's, designer's, draftsman, engineer's, etc. actually do. They also have little to no idea of what costing's are involved and why we charge what we do. Many ask for quotes over the phone which is almost an impossibility to give as there are so many variables. It's not the general publics fault, it's just that they've never needed our assistance before and as it's a minefield of continually changing 'goal posts' these usually sane people can easily end up being confused and going nuts!! Good luck and I'm looking forward to the website.

Try to relax, Carol, it will all be alright. Once you get your things the way you like them, and layer the rooms with decor and the detritus of family life, the things that are glaring at you now won't be noticeable at all. We tend to be picky on this site because that's part of what we do, but in real life, you and your visitors will only notice that you have a warm and loving home, with laughter, and good food and drink. Just don't overcapitalise, so you have some money left over to afford food and drink! Relax, it's difficult now, but it will pay off.

@ minebathroom and @ Luke Buckle, our electrician has informed us that we don't have to put solar panels on our house roof if we don't want to for aesthetics or if for example the roof was old as you mentioned Luke. Panels can be placed on a shed or garage roof anywhere on your property if you are rural like us for example, as the power can be directed into the grid from anywhere the solar panels live and that doesn't have to be on the house roof. We would love to go solar but agree with all your other points @minebathroom, too expensive and expected lifespan and feed in tarrifs are very ordinary but then there's also the back up service too, will the company still be around in one year let alone 10 years. When our electrician got his solar, he got such a fantastic tarrif rate which was offered at the very start of the solar revolution, he was recieving a cheque or refund of something like $500 a quarter but the rates are so low now, there is certainly no chance of recouping some of the instalation costs, although I wouldn't be so fused about that if I thought I would get say 20+ years out of the system before it begun to possibly fail in some way. Things do have to get allot more reliable if nothing else!!