Bossyvossy - sorry to hear of your issues. It's a lot of money (remodel or building a new pool) and it's within your right to ask as many questions as you want, you should never feel bad for asking questions. To echo something that you said - we walked away from a builder that had a stellar rep but we didn't get the impression they wanted to build OUR pool. They weren't listening and were pushing their ideas over ours. I'm sure the pool would have been well built but I don't think it would have been our dream pool. Our builder reassured us because he happily provided a list of names and phone numbers of builds, so we got to speak to owners (all were happy - we only spoke to 3 as we thought that was sufficient) and we also know someone in our neighborhood who had a pool built by him a year ago. I used the BBB to thin out the obviously bad companies and then searched forums and online reviews to narrow it down, then chased up references of the builder we were most interested in. The other thing I thought it was worth doing was to ask upfront who the main subs were, especially the gunite/plastering company. A couple of PB's said they had a selection to choose from but wouldn't name them which made me suspicious and walk away from getting bids with those PBs as it sounded like the didn't necessarily use the same crews frequently. Of course, they may have just not wished to divulge that information but the PBs I actually got to quote had no issue whatsoever in telling me who their crews were. I really hope your issues get resolved for you.

Just to help clarify. Hopefully. The console table in front of the window IS the table that's in the close up picture. The round table is what the brass lamp is currently sitting on. Here's some room shots. That close up pic is why I didn't think it would look nice in front of the window...because it's all like big table, big lamp. Squirrel - IRL the cream shaded lamp is actually gold that's why I was asking. It does look more cream in these pics. Lol the hybrid lamp! The candle covers, I can't believe I'm admitting this but they're rolled up pieces of poster board! The size of the hole is larger than any candle sleeves I can find anywhere. I actually did buy some fat candles at michaels to stick in but it seemed if the cats even ran by the table fast they'd fall over. It was driving me crazy. The poster board was my alternative for now. (See why I should've bought that ebay lamp!) :) Bronwynsmom - I like those lamps. Part of my dilemma is if I don't use that brass lamp in the LR I don't know where else I could use it. And I really like it. Where do you put something that tall?

It's 36" to the top of the vanity and nearly 41" to the top of the sink. Our upstairs "normal" vanity is 33". We needed to cut off some of the legs to bring it to that height. It worked out well because my husband is quite tall and he appreciates every little bit. I'm short and it's okay for me too. The dreaded finishing question... Prior to the project I had anticipated using a marine varnish on the top, I wanted a really hard, almost bar-top finish. I purchased the bureau on eBay and the finish wasn't very good, I sanded it to smoothe it out and went to our local unfinished furniture store to look at stains. There I got talked into gelstain and a poly gel finish. They insisted it would be hard enough to withstand the water. Well, yes and no. Like newhomebuilder, if I did it again I'd go with stone on top. The sides of the bureau took the stain and poly very well--actually the top did too. I clean it with hot water and a microfiber cloth and dry it with a microfiber cloth. It looks fine but has dulled a bit. In the better picture you can see the edge where it's worn a bit--not as dramatic as in the photo. This happened in another place and it was certainly easy to fix with sanding and reapplication. The woodworking forum has lots of good advice. I'd suggest you troll through the posts before asking your own question. There are at least two members who are very generous with their professional advice but they end up answering the same questions over and over again. They display admirable patience! I'm pretty sure that what I did wouldn't be what the experts would recommend but I do have to say that it was rather simple and the results have been satisfactory.

I would never rely solely on a BBB rating, however if you check out a contractor (for example) it has their license number and status (which you can copy and paste into the state website to double check). It also shows how long they have been in business and of course the number of complaints and the resolutions. In selecting a company to deal with you should of course be sure that they are licensed, bonded etc. and you should check out references and past jobs, but that does not mean you can't check out their BBB rating on top of all that. You may prefer not to deal with a company that has gotten a lot of complaints, especially if they weren't resolved. However, in all fairness, there are psycho customers out there too. A single complaint, even an unresolved one should not put a company out of the running. I would be more leery if the complaint went unanswered. That shouldn't happen. The records complaints in the following categories: No. of Cmpl Type of Response 0 Making a full refund, as the consumer requested 0 Making a partial refund 0 Agreeing to perform according to their contract 0 Refusing to make an adjustment 0 Refuse to adjust, relying on terms of agreement 0 Unanswered 0 Unassigned I will admit it can be a little bit like blackmail to a business, but a good business protects its reputation and that is a cost of doing business. I don't think many people check the BBB anyway, or so it seems to me.