Wanna see my kitchen?

[Iowanian]

Originally Posted by Dartgod

You're like some kind of incompetent moron magnet, aren't you?

Keep in mind what city my bRainman resides within.

I worked for a contractor outside of Denver, and delt with several businesses like granite, door manufacturers etc.

Oh...and the people.
"You've just blasted 80 ton of rock, poured a foundation, framed and sheeted the house and drywalled the 4000 sq' interior.....Could we just put a small rooooooooom under the foundation for my son to play in"

I"m not BSing...that quote happend.

Same house...lady buys these custom, solid oak double wide front doors....probably 3-4K....then decides they should be "distressed". The custom door company was going to charge the contractor a bazillion dollars to "distress" the wood.....We put bolts/nots on the end of a couple of chains, beat the piss out of it....paid vandalism....and she loved it.

CaliRado......

[StcChief]

Granite installer: Hey...uh...your order didn't show that you were getting a backsplash, so we didn't load it. We found it in the warehouse where it had already been cut, and we'll install it today.

Somebody got the FAX....just happened to be the person that needed it.
You got lucky.

These folks sound like they could F'UP a One car parade.

[Hoover]

I hate all contractors.

Originally Posted by Hoover

I hate all contractors.

I don't blame you. We hate homeowners, too. But it's not your fault. It's a human nature thing. People are incredibly protective with the largest investment of their life - as it should be. They also expect to get a lot of work for a little bit of money. This is where bad blood comes in. People have no problem spending $79 for $1.25 worth of leather, plastic, and rubber with a Nike swoosh on it but they don't want to spend too much markup to the guy working on their largest investment. It's a strange phenomona. Don't ask me to explain it. I used to be you when I was on the other side of the fence.

[bogie]

Originally Posted by Phobia

I don't blame you. We hate homeowners, too. But it's not your fault. It's a human nature thing. People are incredibly protective with the largest investment of their life - as it should be. They also expect to get a lot of work for a little bit of money. This is where bad blood comes in. People have no problem spending $79 for $1.25 worth of leather, plastic, and rubber with a Nike swoosh on it but they don't want to spend too much markup to the guy working on their largest investment. It's a strange phenomona. Don't ask me to explain it. I used to be you when I was on the other side of the fence.

People that are spending the money can say, I hate blah, blah, blah. It may not be right, but they're spending the money and they have a right to expect excellent service. If contactors hate home owners, that's a big problem with the industry as I assume, home owners are contractors bread and butter.

[Rain Man]

Originally Posted by Phobia

I don't blame you. We hate homeowners, too. But it's not your fault. It's a human nature thing. People are incredibly protective with the largest investment of their life - as it should be. They also expect to get a lot of work for a little bit of money. This is where bad blood comes in. People have no problem spending $79 for $1.25 worth of leather, plastic, and rubber with a Nike swoosh on it but they don't want to spend too much markup to the guy working on their largest investment. It's a strange phenomona. Don't ask me to explain it. I used to be you when I was on the other side of the fence.

I would never be a contractor for exactly this reason. People do tend to be hypersensitive about this stuff, even if they aren't paying a ton of money for it. We're talking about large expenditures, long-lasting effects, and lots of uncertainty and stress. That's a volatile combination.

[bogie]

Originally Posted by Rain Man

I would never be a contractor for exactly this reason. People do tend to be hypersensitive about this stuff, even if they aren't paying a ton of money for it. We're talking about large expenditures, long-lasting effects, and lots of uncertainty and stress. That's a volatile combination.

If the contractor can't deliver a quality product to the customers satisfaction, he/she shouldn't be a contractor.

Originally Posted by bogie

If the contractor can't deliver a quality product to the customers satisfaction, he/she shouldn't be a contractor.

That's very black and white. I wish I lived in that world.

[NewChief]

Originally Posted by bogie

If the contractor can't deliver a quality product to the customers satisfaction, he/she shouldn't be a contractor.

Heh. What you're missing is that some customers are never satisfied. On top of that, there are customers out there that will change their mind 10 times on a project and want you to stick to the initial bid, nevermind the extra 50 hours of labor their revisions caused.

Two brothers currently in construction and my own time as a framer taught me that construction is quite a bit different than other service/product based businesses.

[Bob Dole]

Originally Posted by Phobia

I don't blame you. We hate homeowners, too.

Which is why no reputable contractors in Texarkana will even deal with private home remodels.

[plbrdude]

Originally Posted by Hoover

I hate all contractors.

thank you

[bogie]

I had a similar incident with custom windows. Unfortunately, this happens quite a bit when you custom order things. If you can use stock items, it will prevent quite a bit of hair pulling. Has your chandelier arrived?

[patteeu]

Dang, Rainman. What did you do to deserve this kind of karma? I hope the rest of the project goes more smoothly. Are you sleeping in the new bedroom now?

[Rain Man]

Originally Posted by patteeu

Dang, Rainman. What did you do to deserve this kind of karma? I hope the rest of the project goes more smoothly. Are you sleeping in the new bedroom now?

We are indeed in the bedroom now, and it's fabulous. There are just a couple of little finish-up items that we're waiting on: a door that hasn't come in yet, and hooking up the swamp cooler to a water supply. I'll post photos when the whole thing is done.

Overall, the project has gone pretty well. We're in about the 15th week of an 8-week schedule, but I've been around long enough to know that construction schedules are always underestimated. I can live with that. My big worry is getting the final invoice and seeing where we stand on price. The contractor has been good to work with, but has been very laissez-faire on the change orders. We've had very few, but when we would talk about something he would say, "Oh, the cost is trivial. We'll get it to you" and then we never get a price. I don't think they're dishonest at all, but rather they're just too busy right now and their finance person is way behind. (They've never even sent us the final contract to sign, so this whole project has been done without a contract. I think that's to our advantage, so I've let it ride.) He's also had to work around at least two major design flaws by our incompetent architect, and I don't know who's expected to absorb any extra costs there. If nothing weird happens with the pricing, I'd certainly recommend the contractor to others.

I find it a little odd to be so ticked off about the backsplash on a kitchen counter, but you get that way on these projects, especially toward the end. "WHITE? WE HAVE WHITE OUTLET COVERS!?!?! I SPECIFICALLY ASKED FOR BISCUIT!"

[patteeu]

Originally Posted by Rain Man

We are indeed in the bedroom now, and it's fabulous. There are just a couple of little finish-up items that we're waiting on: a door that hasn't come in yet, and hooking up the swamp cooler to a water supply. I'll post photos when the whole thing is done.

Overall, the project has gone pretty well. We're in about the 15th week of an 8-week schedule, but I've been around long enough to know that construction schedules are always underestimated. I can live with that. My big worry is getting the final invoice and seeing where we stand on price. The contractor has been good to work with, but has been very laissez-faire on the change orders. We've had very few, but when we would talk about something he would say, "Oh, the cost is trivial. We'll get it to you" and then we never get a price. I don't think they're dishonest at all, but rather they're just too busy right now and their finance person is way behind. (They've never even sent us the final contract to sign, so this whole project has been done without a contract. I think that's to our advantage, so I've let it ride.) He's also had to work around at least two major design flaws by our incompetent architect, and I don't know who's expected to absorb any extra costs there. If nothing weird happens with the pricing, I'd certainly recommend the contractor to others.

I find it a little odd to be so ticked off about the backsplash on a kitchen counter, but you get that way on these projects, especially toward the end. "WHITE? WE HAVE WHITE OUTLET COVERS!?!?! I SPECIFICALLY ASKED FOR BISCUIT!"

I don't think it's odd at all, given the scenario you've described. I'd be pretty darned pissed if I were in the same boat. You can't do much more than you did to get things to work out right from your end.

It's good to hear that the big picture is going better than the backsplash picture.