This is a book designed to guide a homeowner through the challenge and mystery of planning, contracting and building a new home or remodeling an existing home. This book discusses feasibility; planning and zoning; how to choose an architect or a builder; how to bid plans and to understand the bids you receive. It leads the reader through contract documents; payment requests and how and when to pay them; and how to avoid liens; as well as how to deal with insurance, and punchlist and warranty. It is a guide to the process of building, designed to give the reader the tools to manage and control the construction process from beginning to end, written by an experienced builder with over 2,000 completed houses to his credit. The author's experience infuses these pages with an authority found in few other books of this type.