The 350.00 bid was way low. I did one tub about 3 weeks ago. A remodeling contractor called me and asked me for a price to do a tub for this woman. He wanted me to give HER the price directly, so she could save as much as possible. Apparently she'd recently separated from her husband, and was getting the house ready for sale, and it was recommended to her by her realtor to change out the tub, being that the one she had was stained and pretty ugly. Well, when they went to pull the first course of tile so they could pull the tub, the walls literally fell apart. In addition, she'd just found out she had cancer and was starting chemo and radiation (this all being told to me by the contractor who I'd worked with before and trusted, especially being he wasn't making anything off of it), and so was out of work because of feeling so sick from the treatment of the cancer, so I felt sorry for her and gave her a break. My normal price for a tub enclosure is 800.00, and that's about normal for up here. When I told her 350.00 (coincidentally), the contractor's head whipped around so fast I was afraid he'd given himself a good whiplash. I got downstairs and he kept asking me if I was sure. I finally told him this was my good deed for 2009-- don't question it. :-)

Hi Dearests! :) This is SO EMBARRASSING that EVERY DARNED TIME I get time to get on here and read, there's no time or I'm about to fall asleep (as is the case now - and I have to get up early)! I'm SURE I look like an opportunist just totally taking advantage of your advise, expertise and patience but please believe me that I simply have less time than I'm used to. Thank you so much for continuing this dialogue. I've gone into the worst depression over this! I just want to turn this over to someone else to represent me who's capable/competent enough but there's no one (or I don't dare ask) and I can't afford a lawyer nor do I want to get that legal. My contractor came back into town last Wednesday, Jan. 19th, if he meant what he said about his schedule, and every day I hope I don't hear from him. I just can't deal with this and barely know how. I mean Rohl said I could have a new sink but if I order it, I'd have to have the old sink out first in order to know which sink will be close enough in measurement to fit into the spot. I don't want to go pick up a new sink and leave it sitting on the side lines for weeks or months and then find out too late in the game that it won't fit in the old spot! So that means I need to get the old sink out, which brings me back to square one. I need to find new contractors or carpenters to get quotes from and feel so low I can't imagine figuring out where to turn, who to ask...who to trust. And who will be willing, after that last guy said he basically won't touch it with a 10-foot pole. My contractor's going to probably show up any day now to "finish the work" and then I'm also told by friends that I should no way let him finish the work but should deduct that which needs to be deducted and then pay someone else with the money. But he could file a lien on my house or whatever the terminology is. On the other hand I may never see him again since I paid him a partial payment that he may figure is close enough... Just to be clear: 1. My contractor bought the sink, not me. I mean I paid him sometime after that but he bought it using his own card. Not the dishwasher or counter or tile honing, cutting and installing which I bought, but the sink, faucet, disposal, flange and tile itself, yes. Now it's always possible he paid in cash and kept the whole order in my name since I had the items on hold in my name in which case there's no evidence he paid for it but who knows... 2. I truly believe that the sweet, young-sounding Rohl guy that I spoke to didn't really care and just called it defective for a couple of the reasons listed above by you guys but I do think if he has any experience at all (and he may not), that he suspects it was over-tightened and doesn't care - he just wants me to be a satisfied customer. My instincts and my own experience tell me so. And I don't think less of him or the company for it. 3. I have no proof that my contractor tightened the flange. I think it's possible that he didn't. But I don't think it's probable that he didn't. The timing of the cracks and the fact that no one else touched the area below it besides him and the way the hairline cracks splay out around the drain all tell me there's a better chance he cracked it than that he didn't. But it doesn't matter much if it can't be proven or that no forensic scientist - haha - will be coming around to pay more than the sink's worth to determine that. As for the issue of lying, I think there's a lot of context here to be considered. I believe he cracked it, and that Rohl is giving me a new sink but knows that he cracked it. My contractor bought the sink and installed it and messed around with it cause he didn't want me to bother his precious plumber when the leak needed to be stopped (don't get me started on how he thinks so highly of this totally flaky and rude plumber) and then it cracked. I think that covering my ARSE after everything else that's gone down is let's just say a fairly reasonable choice at this point, even if some think of that as lying. I get it, but I think that when you believe what I believe about what's really happened, it's not quite the same thing. And even then, I'm still willing to compromise at least a little - just because I'm not a one-dimensional human being and I believe my contractor isn't either. In my favor, sure, I guess, though yes I'm still really super uncomfortable about this whole thing and am as curious as the rest of you to know how strong I'll be and how well or disastrously this whole thing will turn out before it's truly over!! Ok that's it for now - it's 1:35 a.m. and I've gotta be up at 7:00. Yaaaay! ;) More soon. Thank you everyone - I am SO GRATEFUL that you're here. In fact you've been here "for me" more than just about anyone else, I swear!! That includes friends and family members and certainly contractors! How crazy is that!?

Midland, Texas. My suggestion is to get as many bids as possible on all aspects of your job. The variations from one contractor to another was HUGE. Also, I splurged on important things and went middle of the road on other things. But for this area it is a nice remodel... I live in a nice neighborhood... my house is the smallest on the cul de sac... my neighbors house is well over 4,000 sf on a half acre or more lot. Obviously my house is no million dollar home ;) (there's a few of those neighborhoods here) but I am a perfectionist and it is good. Not perfect... the cabinets are from a local cabinet maker and painted on site with a reputable painter- but it's not perfect but "good" and definitely better than acceptable. I could have easily spent $20k more on the kitchen with little to no additional ROI. We also did some work ourselves... i.e. All the demo, and any other non skilled labor we could do before the pros took over. We are also doing the trim work ourselves (baseboards and door casings). We bargained shopped for the appliances (all new Bosh except for range and bev fridge); new vinyl windows and not wood clad (no one has wood in this neighborhood); buying anso nylon carpet buy using one of the in stock colors; splurged on bath tile; got a good price on wood look tile $3.75sf for Marazzi American Estates for the other flooring; splurged on a few light fixtures but most are pottery barn level. Found a great deal on mosaic tile that's going behind master bath vanities; re-using the master bath mirrors and having them repurposed with bevel edge. We made and have been keeping a detailed spreadsheet of all expenses and making other cuts when necessary to stay on budget (for example, we didn't get the pot filler because we need to shave a little off and we didn't want to spend on the faucet but we have a second sink 2 ft away that can fill pots... tons of little $1000 decisions like that add up! Honestly, I have lost money on being indecisive. We had a general contractor for the kitchen, master bath, plumbing and electrical, but we subbed out all the other work ourselves. Also, we didn't use the highest end contractor, but we also didn't use the cheapest. Just middle of the road people honest people we felt good with and that would work hard and wanted to do good work. They all came with recommendations from friends, our designer, or flooring store sales person.

That wavy bed looks sloppy being immediately adjacent to the straight walkway and the angularity of the house - in the cartoon provided it looks like the house fell out of the sky onto a pizza. And if it is already intended to have mostly lawn beyond the existing bed and walk then both aesthetically and practically it would be better not to cut the lawn off from the house and walk with a second bed along the outside edge of the walk. Instead of integrating the house with the surrounding acreage the wavy bed isolates it, like a stockade. As far as softening the house is concerned that would be accomplished primarily by plantings in the bed between the walk and the house. Except where trees of sufficient eventual size would be planted in particular other places near the house. Trees that would serve visually enhancing functions not provided by low shrubs placed within an incongruously informal bed. As for there being no conventions or traditions behind what I am talking about look at films, videos and photos of countless large country houses just in Britain and Northern Europe alone that have paving or turf coming almost right up to them. Often with climbers on the facade and foundation plantings (if present at all) being the extent of greenery immediately in front of the building (except for any large trees that may be reaching over from the corners etc.) This includes properties that may have acres and acres of fully appointed grounds containing plant collections and other features of international significance out away from the house, where these do not distract from it visually.