I know you posted this a while ago but I had the same problem and I just figured out how to fix it a few days ago and thought i'd share it.... We recently moved into a beautiful new home with laminate floors in the dining room, entry way, living room, kitchen and breakfast room and last but not least the bedroom. Long story short we have about 900 sq ft of laminate flooring. The floors looked fine when we looked at the house, during the inspection and when we moved in. When it came time to mop the first time I wasn't sure what to use on laminate floors so I thought I’d play it safe and use water only. When the floors dried it looked like there was a dull haze on them and after a few hours you where able to see every foot and paw print (we have 2 big dogs) I was confused as to what I did wrong and started to research online. Come to find out I am not the only person with this problem. There a so many forums and blogs with this subject I didn't know where to start. A lot of people suggest putting a water/vinegar/dish soap solution in a spray bottle and mop the floors with a slightly moist microfiber mop. That is a great way to MAINTAIN your laminate floors but in my case it did not fix the dull haze. By the way, I figured out that the dull haze is most likely residue left from products that the previous owners used. Damn you previous owners! I was desperate, annoyed and ready to rip out my laminate floors! I tried said water/vinegar/ dish soap solution, I tried bona for laminate floors, I even read somewhere that the magic eraser mop is supposed to take the residue off (it didn’t) I then tried bona laminate floor polish in the bedroom only and it looked great until it was time to mop again. The floor polish came right off and the nightmare started all over again. Then one day I was pinning around on Pinterest and saw a pin that lead to a cleaning blog and the girl was talking about cleaning soap scum in the shower with a 1:1 vinegar and dawn dish soap solution. She warmed up ½ cup of the vinegar mixed it with ½ cup of blue dawn dish soap (for some reason she insisted that it has to be the blue kind) sprayed it on her shower glass and scrubbed away and apparently it works wonders. So I thought to myself, since I basically have soap scum on my laminate floors and I don’t have anything better to do I will give it a try. I mixed up the miracle spray, sprayed it on a small area and scrubbed the hell out of it with one of those dish sponges that has a rough surface. My husband was freaking out and said I might scratch the floors but I didn’t care, I was in a scrubbing frenzy! I then wiped the solution off with water and vinegar, let it dry and walked over the cleaned area, jumped on it, made my dogs walk over it and lay on it and guess what? No dull haze and no foot prints! (And no scratches from the sponge) So far I have cleaned my dining room with this routine and I’m not gonna lie it’s the most annoying tedious thing I have ever done but it is worth it. I will try to finish my whole downstairs this week and then I will never ever use anything other than water and vinegar with a splash of dish soap to clean my floors. Some people even put a splash of alcohol in it to keep the floors from streaking.

I worked as an Interior Designer in a past life - BC, 'before children' :)... So I know where you are coming from. In your initial post you posed your question in a very general and broad way which: 1. makes it difficult to answer and 2. indicated to some that you might be ill prepared to take on this challenge. Perhaps you were just trying to find out the different ways owner/builders were working on their projects? If you are seriously considering being your own GC then there are resources available to you on the internet and at the library. As dixiedoodle mentioned, The Owner Builder Book is one, it is great. There is a website as well. www.ownerbuilderbook.com I took a class at a community college and the website for the teacher is www.ownerbuilder.com. Tons of good information -that is how I found this site. :) We have decided to hire a builder but I think all of my research will still be an asset in our build. To answer your question about whether you can choose some of your own subs - it will depend on the Builder and your contract. If that is important to you then you should stipulate that and find someone willing to work with you on that basis. An option that might work for you is to find a GC/Builder that will get you through drywall and then you can GC the finish work yourself since you have contacts in the industry. Hope that helps.

I don't believe you can leave random feedback on a seller (or buyer), you have to have purchased (or sold) something. Now I suppose I could sell stuff to my friends or create fictitious accounts and write the feedback myself. Of course, you'd be paying eBay a fee for everyone one of those transactions and I have to believe that their security folks might watch for that kind of stuff. I haven't bought or sold much on eBay but what I have has been a positive experience. A few years back I was doing some Internet work for a used car dealer. A customer had mentioned that they had seen the vehicle on eBay. News to us since we didn't use eBay at the time but sure enough someone had "borrowed" the pictures and description of the vehicle from the dealership's website and actually SOLD the vehicle on eBay. I frantically tried to find a customer service phone number for eBay so that they could contact the buyer before he sent any money. Unfortunately, eBay doesn't seem to have a phone number. I sent off an email and then tried to inquire what had happened but eBay would only tell me that the matter was under investigation. The interesting part is that the vehicle was reasonably worth about $16,000 but it had sold on eBay for $9,000. When something seems to good to be true...

And did you tell her HECK YES!?!?!? That would cover lowering your housing expenses AND carpooling to work. You may have to be the better person and suck up some bragging if you want to save your home. Make sure you request for rent is reasonable and not a reaction to her bragging. Make sure that you get a lease that spells everything out. (esp things like overnight guests, and quiet hours) Perhaps some kind of trial period...... Just an obvious side note.... Make sure that whatever household bills she pays, she pays YOU and you pay the bills (other than any that belong and affect only her), or you may be sitting in the dark, since she does not seem to have a good handle on her finances. You have an opportunity to become a very good friend and save yourself at the same time. You may find that her attitude changes at home, when she doesn't have to put a "brave face" on for the world. And now you know.... All her bragging was covering up a not nice home life and a lot of fear. Can you see it in a different light now?