Finding a good brickie

We were so lucky with the builder we hired. We only paid him for the labour as we wanted to keep a handle on the our outgoings. I had tight hold of the purse strings. This meant that we were free to shop around to get the best prices.

The builder was recommended to us by one of our ground workers (who I really wouldn't recommend to anyone else!) The builder was excellent. He came on site when he said he was coming and grafted the whole time he was on site.

He also (which we cannot thank him enough for) was that he gave me plenty of notice of what materials he needed and when he would need them for, plus he recommended the other trades too. He suggested the plumber, the electrician and the carpenter.

The advantage of this, in our minds, is that they would be more reliable because they were people he used all the time and to a certain extent relied on him for their work. We were not wrong. We couldn't really criticise of any of them.

It goes to show that if you find the right trades at the beginning then it can have a knock on affect.