Thanks, Steve... You're a good man. Okay, Steve has set the ball rolling - lots of nice slots left. I think the New Year place looks really tempting.

Because the print means so much to you, it's worth it to get exactly the frame you want without repainting or making do, especially if you don't like the profile of the moulding. A decent frame can only enhance it and you'll always love it. My brother used to own two frameshops and always framed items for me at cost with no labor charges. Because he bought quality supplies, was, himself, a perfectionist, and I could get very nice frames with the discount, they still cost as much as retail. Since then, I've had numerous prints and original paintings framed at Hobby Lobby and found they were more reasonable than Michael's and have been totally pleased. It's kinda like the cost of eyeglass frames, without the glass-it's hard to explain the huge difference in cost for basically, plastic frames.

Timely quotes are important. I give a week on my small cabinet job, and my general contractor came back in one week via email for the other work. I was pleased with that. I'd have allowed more time had I been doing odd things, or ordering hard to find things. Ability to communicate through email is very important to me. It makes it easier to ask tough questions, and makes the person answering have to explain things in a more understandable way - and in a format you can keep and refer to later. For instance, when I asked my cabinet maker why he couldn't do full overlay, I would have prefereed a written explanation, instead of hearing some mumbo jumbo on the phone that I didn't understand and couldn't refer back to. When you work in an office, it can be difficult to be discussing things like this on the phone. Who wants to wait for snail mail? Not me. If contractors want business to flow, they need to get current. I might take exception with a highly referred master craftsman who is older and not computer savvy, but produces something rare and of very high quality. But, if you have the brains to fix my porch or renovate my kitchen, then you should have the brains to operate a computer. They are cheap enough nowdays, as are ISPs, and a cheap printer that scans! Sorry for such a long answer, you can tell this is one of my pet peeves!

In this Oh-BLHA-Ma-Conomy, guys should be JUMPING to get work... I know that here in PHX, guys are turning around bids in a day or less - there just isnt that much work out there - contrary to all of the "media talking head's chatter on the networks....... After your discussions with the fabricator in question, (especially after you corrected him) -he prolly threw your drawings in the "round file" and decided to put you in "mega" mode (make 'em go away)..... There's two sides to every story, all we've heard is yours - maybe he's a jerk - maybe you came off as one to him... I dunno................. not saying that you are at fault here...... but if you started arguing over a 25 sq ft job that's 40 sq ft in your eyes - maybe he figured your job and the aggrevation of dealing with a customer that thought they knew more than him) wasnt worth it to him.... again, we're only hearing your side of the story.......... IMHO - the better road for him to have taken, would have been to tell the truth and say that your job wasnt what his company does or just wasnt worth it to him....... We all rub people the wrong way from time to time - Lord knows I do !!! LOL....... WHen I'm in a situation like this (speaking from the other side of the fence) I usually tell the prospect that "I don't think I can give you what you are looking for" and refer them to someone that I know that can or is willing to take the abuse that I'm not... usually, if it's a PITA customer, I send them to a guy that's really "deserving" of that kind of quality in a customer...LOL in any event - I'd move on. find a guy that's willing to do the job, contract him, have him do the work, pay him, and keep moving forward..... sorry of it's not what you wanted to hear, but I hope that helps