Jeff is absolutely right on with his comments. You can work with a California contractor to get your job done. You can go to the CSLB web site to check to see if a contractor you might work with has a valid license and is in good standing. Here is the link:

http://www.cslb.ca.gov/

At the upper right area of the web page look for a section titled "Quick Hits" and the underlined link "License Status Check".

Good luck,
motozilla