What a great post, thank you! And I hope (and am sure you will) you tell your team how much you appreciated them. I know they would want to know even more than we do. ;)

I am gearing up for a reno and am also looking at little guys to consider. Your post gives me hope that they too might work out for me as well as yours did for you. So nice to hear a happy post. Plz show us pics when you can!

Thank you for such a helpful post. Look forward to your reveal hopefully soon! :-)

This is a great post, thanks for sharing! I am using a small contractor too for some projects, and he does very impeccable work, but definitely there is the slow factor. My bathroom was supposed to take a month and it's at a halt now 2 1/2 mth later. :( But you just run into crazy things remodeling, uneven floors, strange electrical. I hear you.

Kinda scaring me as I haven't even gotten to my kitchen yet, and we are still hung up on other projects. I found myself raking (yes, with a rake) my living room tonight from drywall torn out from skylight removal that they forgot to clean. I felt like I was living in an alternate world. Pretty gross. I can't wait to see your kitchen though! :) Keep sharing your wisdom.

Welcome to the club! I echo everything you said, especially the part about plaster :)

A good contractor is worth his weight in gold. I've learned patience. He's determined to do a good job even though the remodel seems never ending to both of us. I'd rather have slow than sloppy any day.

Loveswindows, your post is beautifully written. I thoroughly enjoyed reading it.

Gosh, I would love to find good contractors who are reliable. So far, the good contractors find that my job is too small for them so they pass. I've already got the flooring, painting, and possibly cabs committed. Everything is already bought. Frankly, the second that I said I already had flooring and maybe cabs committed, they immediately tune me out.

They ignore the fact that I still have a balcony buildout, and 3 bathroom remodels that I planned for later in the year.

The rest have either come in with insane bids like $60K for my cabinets and $50K for replacing my powder room vanity and overseeing the rest of the kitchen remodel.

Then there's the contractors, small and large, with great reviews on Yelp and elsewhere. They show up, get excited and then I never hear from them again with any bids or get a call 2 months later with a "sorry, are you still interested?"

I'm at 6 mos later and still have a demolished kitchen waiting on insurance payout and city demands on things like adjusting the repiping.

Our remodel was difficult but I'll never forget the thoughtfulness, professionalism and dilligence of some of the contractors who did work for us. We've joked that we should consider putting our flooring guy in our Will after all he did to accommodate us. Our painter had a big job going in another town by the time things were done here so he could come in. He set up lights and worked evenings and weekends to complete our job before our son's family from overseas arrived for the holidays. These were both in-demand contractors who didn't need our relatively small job. But they had worked on our previous build and they went out of their way to help us out.

Thanks to the OP for this post. It should give heart to folks who are slogging through delays. And it's a nice reminder to appreciate the folks who do well by us.

I used a small contractor for my kitchen remodel 4 years ago and I wish two things. I wish he hadn't retired shortly after he finished my kitchen and I wish he could have cloned himself and his crew. Our remodel was also a gut to the studs job which included moving and resizing a doorway. I had no delays, no mistakes, no issues what so ever. My remodel was done in less than 3 months and only took that long because my Amish made cabinets took 5 weeks to get the cabinets made. (The cabinet maker wouldn't start making the cabinets until after the new walls were all in place so they could measure in real life and not just rely on blueprints).

The contractor always let me know ahead of time when his subs would be there. They subs always showed up on time and cleaned up after themselves before they left each day. On an occasion or two I offered to clean up so they could get going after a long day but they always said no because "the boss wouldn't approve of that."

There were no extra charges over the contractors original bid. We had used the contractor previously for siding and window work so we knew him and he knew us but we still were were surprised that he didn't take any deposit from us prior to starting our kitchen remodel. We were more that 100% satisfied with our experience. I wish everyone could have such a positive experience.

Even though the contractor has retired and closed his business, when we called him to get some recommendations for some small projects like fencing, rotten outside trim and fixing our storage shed, he offered to do the work for us. He was a master carpenter by trade and said he doesn't want to lose his skills. Oh, if there were only more of his type in the world.

" Oh, if there were only more of his type in the world."

You can say that again. And again...

We too had a wonderful crew on the job from the Site foreman and his crew to all the subs. After living in our motor home onsite for six months and move back in day being delayed a couple of times due to unforeseen issues we were more than ready.

With Friday being the big day the last week was busy with last minute details and cleaning crews. On Wednesday my husband landed in the hospital with gall bladder surgery and heart problems.

Despite it being Thanksgiving weekend crew not only finished by Friday but spent most of their weekend moving us in so we wouldn't have to deal with that after my husband got home, appliances, furniture and many boxes from storage units. They even found time to visit him at the hospital! These people were lifesavers and no extra charges ever showed up.

i will forever be grateful to these guys during a difficult time!

^ Wow!