I used to post a bit on Roses and Antique Roses - haven't been around much in the past few years though. I love the Name that Plant Forum, I think it's the best one on GW besides the FN.

Morning Gene. Oh yes you are right there were a few members who were treated as the golden child. How about those who thought they had seniority rights and would let you know about it? I've been here since 1999. My page says 2001 and I can't explain that. Maybe the Disney Penal Colony took off time for bad behavior. :) When I was banished I did make a cursory attempt to return under a different alias. My closest friends here knew who I was and some members guessed as I received some e-mails asking. Quess what? Someone ratted me out to Spike as I got banished again and my whole ISP got blocked. So now I got mad. I reregistered a third alias from work. You wouldn't guess what happened next? Someone tattled again, but this time I knew who as he shared the information with one or two others. (He is no longer here by the way) My whole work ISP got blocked. A sort time later ivillage bought the site and I received Pooh Bear's kind assistance. DA

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.

What everyone [above] said! :) I do reviews when I can and answer questions on the forums. I try to be as honest as possible, but it is MY opinion. I may be happiest eating at diners and you want 4* food. I myself read multiple reviews when planning and get a composite picture. If the person who complained is dead wrong, I will come back and write "I never saw any mice in my room and I kept cheese there!" If there are 38 recent reviews I don't add one. If there are no recent ones, or only a few comprised of little info, I will try to flesh out the picture, so to speak. Some write how much fun they had but no details. I try to include "many steps", or "good access for mobility impaired". With the forums, I don't bother if the person has had 10 different suggestions already what-to-do-with-one-free-day etc. (sort of like on here...LOL!) The thing that bothers me most is too many self-proclaimed experts that try to steer people in the same directions. It's like they are waiting there to pounce! I will chime in to offer a different option no one mentioned. I really do TRY to help people, but take it all with a grain of salt just the same. :) Oh, and I use a different name on there. ;)