A Builder Is Chosen?

Everyone has told us we need at least three quotes, but we've only had two. But all the same we seem to have settled on a builder to do our renovation work....

The business is run by two brothers. One is friendly and accessible, and we felt after first meeting him that we could develop a good working relationship. The other is, well, quieter and not so communicative -- but he was friendly enough as he showed us around a property they have been working on. Altogether, we were impressed; and pleasantly surprised when their estimate came in almost 20,000 euros less than the rival company. From the cost breakdown, we realized we could probably reach some kind of compromise -- the minimal work we need doing to make the place (semi) habitable for a price we can afford.

Today, we had a meeting with our architect and the (communicative) brother. Without much ado, we managed to go through the work and cut it down to something he seemed to think would be close to our budget. Along the way we discussed bathroom fittings (he's budgeted for good quality stuff), windows (aluminium or wood frames), the round window that Megumi was determined to include (can we afford a granite surround?), and the pros and cons of installing the central heating pipes later. What I expected to be rather difficult negotiations were actually a rather pleasant discussion session. We are going to meet again next week, when we'll get the revised estimate. If it's acceptable, we are assured that a start can be made in the first week of May....