I have tried the Angie's list, which has glowing reviews for the lowest bidder. Several reviews sound very similar... And one bad review for the high bidder from a long time ago.
Be careful with Angie's list. My SO recently hired someone with stellar (and seemingly authentic) reviews on the site and, while it may be true that he did great work for those people, the project he is working on for us has been a nightmare and he is clearly out of his depth on this one. So do take positive Angie's list testimonials into account only as one of many factors.
Most of all, take your time choosing someone, don't talk yourself into someone because you want to get it started by X date. Better to take more time beforehand in choosing the right person than hastily choose the wrong person and then once they've started the job spend hours of your life making sure they are doing it right, making them redo things they got wrong etc.
