Have had Verizon for about 8 years and did ok for quite a while. The last contract was up in November and we have not renewed it. The last year the cost went up and service when calling for help or billing went down. Still looking but thinking we might bundle with ATT since we have land line and internet through them, not that they have been much better when we call them. We also have cable tv through time warner and hate them but att uverse is not available for our neighbor hood. That leaves us the choice of dish or direct. We just have basic without boxes and the have dumped a dozen of the 80 stations in the last year but no break on the price. Only 12 other than local broadcast are worth watching. The ones they dumped were good ones and they cut the stations worth watching in half. Big business strikes again.

Yesterday I was getting lunch for myself and glancing out the kitchen window at the Red-winged Blackbirds having their lunch, when a Sharp-shinned Hawk pounced on one of the red-wings. I guess it was lunchtime for everyone. I felt very sorry for the red-wing, but you can see from the hawk's posture that this catch was very important for it. It seemed to be looking around to see if another predator would take the bird away. The hawk soon flew off with the red-wing. I was glad not to have to see the meal. I took twelve photos out my windows before the hawk flew away (I was kind of hoping the red-wing would escape but it didn't). Here are some of the photos, the rest are in my Flickr account - I have a Hawks set now. Claire

I told you at the beginning that you hired a hack. Nothing has changed my mind about that. It’s just reinforced it. You lied to yourself about the job on the front end. You jumped all over a TANSTAAFL “deal” that was too good to be true. You didn’t even bother to do your due diligence, or you’d have found the lapsed license. And probably a whole lot more. Even if your kitchen is smaller than the average 12x14 space that costs 63K to redo for a mid range project, $6700 is about 20K short of where you should be for labor. That’s another warning sign that you ignored. When something is way to cheap to be real, you’re not getting real. You’re getting the fake Rolex from the guy in the trench coat in the alley. You ignored all the warnings. It’s why you are where you are at now. If the complaint is eligible for small claims court, good. You won’t need to hire a lawyer beyond a couple of hours of a basic consult. But you have zero documentation for anything to consult about. That’s not good. You probably need to chalk this up to a semester of college tuition in What NOT to Do When Hiring a Contractor. If you learn something from it, the tuition wasn’t wasted. If you didn’t learn, and keep trying to find something for nothing, then you’ll just get scammed over and over.

Disclaimer - We are the contractors in this story who saved the day, testified in court, and established a great relationship with the homeowner. An educated consumer is our best customer. On GC's and subs- 1- Give me a good price on this job and I'll shovel you tons of work. This is an old tactic used by GC's to drive the cost down / raise profits. After the first job the sub is fired and quickly replaced. Subs who haven't been burned by this before, or are hungry, are young, or didn't know this happened to them are easy prey to this scam. If the sub stays on and wants to get paid his full amount, he is quickly replaced. 2- My subs have been with me a long time. What is a long time? Months or years? Did you speak to the sub himself? 3- Most GC's have bare general knowledge about what their subs do. They don't have the specific knowledge of the trades. If you have specific concerns about waterproofing, it's best to ask the sub directly before the job starts. Having done your homework on John Bridge, or Fine Homebuilding will help you immensely. 4- GC's are salesmen who add 25% to 35% to what the sub is charging to make their living. IMHO most GC's view subs as commodities not skilled craftsmen and are not willing to pay a skilled craftsman the rates they deserve. The best craftspeople I know around the world are all self employed and don't work for GC's. Most work aside the GC, directly for the HO. On the rare chance I do work under a GC, the HO is actively involved in the process and has usually brought us in specifically. 5- GC's prefer to price items by the square foot or some easy (brainless) method. I find this a great disservice to the HO. If I am tiling the floor of a car dealership (wide open space) the price per sf will be lower than a dentist's office (tiny rooms and hallways) IN these instances a per sf price would be useless. Then we get into prep work, access to the jobsite, working conditions, and a myriad of variables unique to each jobsite. Is there a gate that needs to be kept closed all the time? Limited hours we can be on the site? Is the building heated and cooled? There is no way a flat rate of $/sf is useful when it comes to certain trades. 6- GC's are not inclined to pay for prepwork. They pay for finished product. While we all want the finished product to be gorgeous, prep work is critical. Certainly in a shower, waterproofing is what you are really buying. Tile is just the pretty surface. This is why so many showers fail. I've actually had a GC say to me - "I don't pay you for prep work, I pay you to install tile" Prep work usually drives up the cost of a job considerably. Customers sometimes don't want to hear this or think we are adding to the scope of work unnecessarily. We don't work for such folks. 7- Why don't contractors just tell HO's they are busy and will have to wait? When a potential customer calls, asking when they want the work completed is my first or second question. This comes with a lot of risk, mainly losing the job all together. My 40 years experience has taught me that most HO's call contractors when the HO is ready to start the project and is eager to get things rolling. Telling a HO they will have to wait a few months in the first phone call is usually the kiss of death. My thought is - Would you want to hire a contractor who isn't busy? Granted there are job delays and cancellations, but a good businessman knows how to keep his schedule full and workers busy. It takes some sales skill (and empathy) to save that first phone call from going down in flames and losing the opportunity to educate a customer on the process of hiring a qualified contractor. 8- Not so news flash - Not all great contractors are great businessmen. Makes sense once you think about it though. The manufacturers have reps to show us their products, there are trade schools and unions, but teaching a contractor how to run his business is woefully lacking. Being a craftsman in any trade doesn't make you a good businessperson or a good salesperson. Some good contractors become subs as to have the business side of their job taken care of by the GC who feeds them a steady stream of work and a reliable paycheck. Pounding the pavement, making sales, maintaining a website, and giving estimates all take effort, skill, and time not everyone has. 9- Not so news flash #2 - Not all great salesmen are great contractors. This is the hard part for the average HO to sort out. A slick talking young man in a pressed shirt can have all the right sounding answers. So what's a HO to do? Start by asking; Who will be coming into my home? Will they have seen the jobsite in person or pictures before they knock on my door? Or are they just given my address that morning? Ask what products will be used and why. Talk to the manufacturer's reps for those products. It's a good sign when the rep knows your contractor. It's a good sign when the rep backs up what your contractor claims. Ask the Rep about any installation tricks/hazards to watch for. Every manufacturer has YouTube videos giving detailed instructions which MUST be followed. An educated consumer is our best customer. 10- Not so news flash #3 - There are good people on YouTube and then..... there is the rest of the crowd. As mentioned above, the John Bridge Forum and Sal Diblasi's videos are spot on. So are the videos made by the product manufacturer or a trade association. A HO will have a hard time discerning the good from the bad YouTube videos without trade knowledge or a trained ear which is why I recommend the manufacturer's videos and talking with their reps. The reps get paid for this, its their job. When you find a good contractor who provides excellent service the best compliment is to recommend them, give a good Google / Angie's List / Yelp review. This will also help other HO's in their search. I could go on for pages, but y'all are probably bored by now. If you have specific questions, I'd be happy to answer.