A SIMPLE PLAN

I thought I was good. I had a plan , i ran it past a contractor, he understood and said he had a window of opportunity where he could get me in and said he would get back to me shortly with material ideas and pricing. Never heard from him again! Three e-mails and two voice mails and nothing. I’m looking to replace two windows in the front wall of the basement apartment in my house, replace a built-in A/C in the same wall and have a door cut out of where a window is on the second floor and put a trex stair and landing down to the backyard. Not a huge project but perhaps a little tricky. Not too expensive but enough to keep a contractor interested, or so I thought. I spoke to a contractor friend, whom principle precludes me from using for the job, and he said the explanation was simple: he got a bigger job. One that pays more. To which I responded: but wouldn’t he worry about losing me and my decent-sized project? No, he said, sometimes they just don’t think that far ahead or that wisely. Any ideas from the collected wisdom of this forum? I don’t want to start from scrat ch and cold-call three or four GC’s and get estimates. etc. The GC I was going to use was a guy whose work I had seen in the neighborhood and had contacted on my own. Seemed nice, and friendly and reliable but…