After our first set of revisions were done, it was now time to start soliciting bids from general contractors.  There are many ways to do this, and we chose to engage with five general contractors and then narrow down the field to a negotiated bid with a select vendor.  All but one of the general contractors we engaged with were referred to us by either friends or by our architect or by both.  The general contractor that we ended up going with was referred to us by a stucco subcontractor that we had spoken to previously because we liked his work and wanted him to do our stucco.

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The planning department was a breeze compared to what we would encounter at the building department for our city.  Everything was efficiently reviewed in the planning department within six weeks.  Getting approval from the building department and being issued our permits would take six months - to our utter dismay.  It was almost always expected that there would be redline notes on our plans.  Our architect had warned us that no plan every submitted would come back with immediate approval not matter how simple the project.

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