How did you come to the Kitchen Forum?
breezygirl
11 years ago
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11 years agocardamon
11 years agoRelated Discussions
did any of you know.. she is cheating on us in other forums????
Comments (2)Oh, I think she'll come clean...with that shower and all... tj...See MoreHow did you find your GC? Cross posting in Kitchen Forum
Comments (5)I knew of one guy who had done work before for me. He was not interested in the job. I did not know anyone who had used a GC before, so I started looking at cabinets at cab shops (have their own crews), big box stores, and hardware/lumberyard stores. I was at a lumberyard that sold Merillat Cabinets and they really were cheaply made cabs with those drawers with short little sides on them. I have a problem with blatant honesty. Can't help but say what comes to mind. So I said something about why do real estate ads put "Merillat Cabinets" as a bragging point? The salesman explained about the different grades of their cabinetry and we got into a conversation. I asked him if he had anybody he could recommend for installing cabinets and remodeling and he showed me pictures of a beautiful deck he had made by one carpenter. He said the guy did general carpentry and remodeling. When I met with him, Jim showed me his book of photos and gave me some phone numbers of customers to call. He also had his GC license displayed in the book, along with insurance certificates. Best of all, he was INTERESTED in my job. He asked questions, got out his measuring tape and checked to see if what I was thinking was possible to do. He made suggestions to do it better or easier than I had been thinking of. We meshed and it was clear we would make a good working team. Guy #2 I got in a similar way, he was someone who one of the cabinet sellers sometimes used to install. He came out to look, showed little interest, and never gave a bid on the work. Guy #3 was from another recommendation from a lumber yard. He came out and listened to my ideas without getting very engaged, gave me a bid on doing the work and talked about how to cut back to save money. He did not understand from my conversation with him that I was after a good-looking area first, within a reasonable cost, but that I was willing to pay what was needed to get what I wanted. It was a complicated job. The kitchen was like a 16 ft long galley kitchen. A room off of the back half of the kitchen used to be a porch and was now sort of a sun room. There were only three steps for the 31" drop down from the kitchen, and that was what got us needing the remodel. But adding more steps took away floorspace in the 10 x 10 room, making it unusable as a dining room. (Because of stupid remodeling done to the other end of the kitchen before I bought the house, this stairway was the only entrance to the kitchen and basement for any large items like new fridges and furnaces, so the staircase could not be less than about three and a half feet to four feet wide.) The back door being smack dab in the center of the wall opposite the kitchen did not help. Because of the shed-style roof and the placement of the other back door, we could not move that back door left or right along that wall, either! We had dogs going in and out of that room, so a dining set was an impediment to herd movement! On top of that, our small back yard had a black walnut tree. Tree + 3 dogs + squirrels taunting dogs = mud. We needed a paw-washing station at the back door. We had tried damp towels, buckets of water, a coiled hose that attached to the kitchen sink and stretched to the back door and we could use to spray muddy feet in a basin. Nothing worked. You should have seen what happened when you lost your grip on that coiled hose when the spray was on and it slammed its way back against the kitchen cabinets! Jim was the only one who was enthusiastic about my assertion that the plumbing in the basement was not that far away and could possibly be used. He was willing to figure out if we had enough slope for a return plumbing run for waste water. He was willing to go into the auxiliary basement under the back half of the kitchen and insulate it properly, then do the plumbing to get the water and waste pipes to the old back porch. He was a real joy to work with. Jim took the drawings the cabinet guy and I had made and planned out the kitchen remodel. He faced each new challenge with a few choice words, a swipe at his brow, and a, "Nancy, can you come here, I need to show you something," followed by options for remediation and cost estimates (no support post on the right side of the "header" a previous owner had made going between kitchen and old back porch, three live electrical wires found with wirenuts on them left hanging in the walls, moldy drywall and rotted out rafters in that shed roof...) Pretty soon, Jim was checking EVERYTHING before closing up a wall, given that doodlehead's idiocy. I am sure Jim saved us a lot of trouble and heartache, if not our lives. He has done every job on both of my houses ever since, too....See MoreQofYear 12/31/09 How did the Quilt Forum Enrich your Life?
Comments (25)This has been a wonderful place to share thoughts and concerns, mostly about quilting. I seldom interact with other women locally, let alone quilters, so this gave me a connection via computer at all hours of the day to women with like minds. I'd drop in just to see what was going on and hear what was accomplished. It makes a wonderful, trusting connection. I'm grateful for the lessons and support and consider you all friends, some even more so as I've met them in person. Cindy, the retreat is open to any or all of you on this forum and is in October at a YMCA camp in North Carolina. It is a way for any who can come to meet up face to face with people they read messages from all year long. Room and board is cheap and you bring your own projects. We help each other, eat, talk about quilting and share experiences. This year it will be Oct. 7-10 and you can google Camp Cheerio in NC to see the venue. You'll hear more about it toward summer and we'd love to see you. Jennifer in VA is unofficial chairperson and she'll send out a notice....See MoreYou know you are a GW kitchen forum addict when . . . .
Comments (7)I have several forums I check everyday since we will build a house in two years, and i have been researching here for a couple of years. Well my three year old was asking herself whether she should build her playhouse with ICF or SIPS and where to place the kitchen to get the most natural light. Yikes....See Moreshanghaimom
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