Home, sweet project!

After two years of hemming and hawing, we have decided not to sell our house and just renovate here. AWESOME! Until...
What to do first? A pool? Painting? New siding? A mental institution for Sarah?
We have had quote upon quote upon quote and are more confused than ever. The siding quotes had more than an $8000 difference for the same product?!?!?!

The pool quotes were like comparing apples and oranges to mangoes and pineapples. One company refused to do salt systems, while another didn't offer anything else. One said to do solar powers for heating, while another said electrical heat, and still another said gas. We got different prices for everything under the sun, which all ended up with grand totals that were all virtually the same except for one company that was almost $10,000 more. How does that happen?

Painting? How can painting have that many variables that would affect quotes? One company that will call Kent's Painting gave us a fairly reasonable quote, but we had to be "smart consumers" and get more quotes. The second company, that we will call George's Painting, was $4,000 more expensive. Just to see what else we could get, we contacted a MEGA HOME IMPROVEMENT STORE to send out one of their contractors. They happily did, and the estimator pulled up in a truck that said Kent's Painting. (Wait a minute, didn't they already give us a quote?) And this quote was $8,000 more than the first. Huh?

After many Excedrin Migraine pills and confusion, we have decided to start with painting, and do the pool sometime before next April. Now we just need to pick a paint color....