Do's and Dont's

Before i write anything about anything, here are some absolute Do's and Dont's. These are hard learnt or rather hard found pearls of wisdom.

1) First make a project plan in terms of identifying tentative dates for some important milestones and a budget sheet for the projected expenses after gathering some information on rates from the market. The latter is not necessary if you have loads of money and is not a concern :-)
2) Always work with a contract no matter if on a plain paper.
3) Wherever possible, address exit clauses in the contract in case of termination of contract.
4) Always do your due diligence before fixing the contractor. If you get even a single negative feedback, get to the bottom of it and convince yourself about the person before signing him up.
5) Get your existing electricity and water connections cut otherwise these people will knock at your door with heavy penalties later.
6) Also get your sewer connection blocked from inside as it can potentially give you hard time later.
7) you like it or not but "Bargain Hard" after taking prices from as many places/people you can. It applies from signing up the contractor to buying cement/saria anything and everything.
8) In my experience, always keep the next guy/material ready instead of buying it when the need comes. There should be minimal delay between two dependent activities and it should work like a well oiled machine. If have bought the saria then the lauhar needs to be standby to start work on it rather than finding one after the saria is bought.
9) Never ever let the altercation with labour/contractor go as far as scuffle. It can turn so ugly which you wont even imagin. Its absolutely not worth getting worked up to the extent of "dhakka-mukki"/"maara-maari". if the things are not working out and you are not happy with the contractor, settle his dues and get him out of the way.