Vicky & others, I too have problems now & then. There is no rhyme or reason, apparently. Whenever I contact Tamara, I get the feeling she thinks I'm an idiot beause of course the problem doesn't happen for her - & it does go away the next day...only to reappear a week or so later. I actually had a different problem just last night -- a survey box kept popping up every single time I moved from one thread to another - even when I repeatedly clicked on 'no thanks'. Of course, it didn't happen for Tamara, & I've only been here today, so we'll see. I suspect it won't happen today -- simply the law of averages. Or is that Murphy's Law?? I forget! LOL I do get disgusted, & if it weren't for the friendships formed here, I would probably leave. It seems with the number of us that have problems things will get better - we can hope! :)

For what it's worth, we had the same situation in that we originally costed based on custom cabinets, and then decided we needed to cut back the budget substantially. The first thing to change was the cabinets. The GC was initially very reluctant, but my DH basically sat him down, told him this was what we'd decided, and if he felt it would be beneath him, or not good for his professional reputation, we would quite understand if he wanted to refuse the job. He confirmed that he did want to do the job (and I do know he's not short of work) and would accept what we wanted to do. He's worked on the house before, and we know him pretty well by now. He raised his concerns with me only once more, but I didn't get into it much: just reminded him that this was what we wanted, that I appreciated him raising his concerns, but based on my experience in the UK, this was what I'd chosen. Since then, we've worked together closely on all the ordering including all the trim pieces necessary, and so on, and it's been smooth going. Incidentally, for those that don't know, all the cabinets for the US market are manufactured in the US, but in accordance with German environmental standards, which are the highest in the world. And there's a 25 year warranty. Particle board is pretty much the norm across Europe and my friends are very surprised at the reluctance of US builders to use something so tried and tested.

annie-lee...you are off base here. Wayne isn't missing appointments...because he isn't making any. I do agree with you that's a very poor way of doing things from a customer's point of view. We have schedules too...and mine at least or much more rigid than Wayne's seem to be. But if he doesn't give a firm appointment, he has never broken one! I am willing to bet that as the time gets closer to your service call, he indeed gives you a call and firms things up a bit. It would be ludicrous for him to just show up after not speaking to you for about 2 weeks. Nobody would be at your home. In this line of work, there is no way on God's green earth you can schedule exactly how long a job will take...on old construction in particular. In my own home for example I had to drop a line down a stud cavity. Imagine my surprise when I found the cavity blocked off about half way down...yet tapping on the wall and using a stud sensor didn't detect it. It tripled the amount of time to do the job. You can't predict that. I think their practice of doing things is just fine...as long as they keep in touch with their scheduled customers and let them know where they are with their time. I'm sure Wayne does that.

Apparently I'm all alone in the no clean up camp. Either that or nobody else will admit to it. I leave everything, including the 8-12 inches of oak leaves that routinely fall on my main hosta beds. After the first killing frost I simply walk away. The birds do love the scapes, checking those out all winter long, even when there is no hope that any seeds remain. It also gives me a nice number of volunteer seedlings every spring. I have not had any problems with pests or disease in the 25+ years I've been doing this, and yes, even the mini hostas will come up through the oak leaves, which by spring have composted down to almost nothing. I do walk through regularly when the hostas start to show green, and manually remove any oak leaves that have pips coming through or showing underneath (alright, I mostly use my foot, but pedally just sounds odd). This is for the hostas in my upper gardens, which are mostly for public viewing. My lower garden a work in progess, and is mainly for growing out divided plants, lining out small divisions, but also has some more landscaped areas. And by landscaped, I mean 98% hostas, but grown more as specimens, with 2% astilbes, bleeding heart, ferns, and a few other perennials. This area gets no attention at all until I'm ready to start dividing hostas in the spring. Maybe a little weeding if I'm feeling up to it, but for the most part those hostas make it all on their own. That area gets some oak leaves and lots of walnut leaves. My only slightly coddled hostas are some very small minis that live in a bed that generally doesn't get many oak leaves. Things like Manzo, Kifukirin Otome, and few other tinies live near cedar trees, but in a mostly sunny area, in a slightly raised bed, and they overwinter very well.