Preach!

The carpet post was ridiculous! I am not an expert in carpet laying and shouldn’t be expected to make decisions without being asked.

Now I need to go find the carpet thread. I stopped going on a regular basis, but peak when bored.

I should have thought to link it. It's gotten worse. She should go to bed and get some sleep. https://www.houzz.com/discussions/6375553/should-w2w-carpet-in-separate-rooms-all-be-laid-in-the-same-direction#28509966

@Sueb20, I shouldn't go either, because am obviously not invited. There is something wickedly delicious about crashing tho. Until I get so irritated that it's probably unwise to keep going over there.

Of course I had to look. This is the kind of bs that keeps me on this side. After this homeowner has installed carpet in multiple room….THIS is not helpful.

It's one of my pet peeves. If someone posts a lot of detailed questions before or during a job, they are a potentially annoying customer who should let the pros do their work. If problems arise after the job the customer is at fault because they didn't anticipate the issue.

JM is the worst. I suspect she might not have a very happy "real" life.

I think we need to start more posts like my bathroom decor post about a year ago, designed to raise the blood pressure of the royalty over there. (Remember, with pockets in the shower curtains?) I loved how everyone here played along. Of course it got taken down, but it was very satisfying while it lasted.

I feel sorry for the OP when the vultures come in and destroy with criticism and never offer a suggestion.

JM said "made you." WTH? No wonder she has so much time to post on the forums.

Yes, I have noticed that. There is only one "PRO" that is nice and her name is Beth. I may not agree with her, but she has good ideas and is polite. She deserves the name Pro. There are tow others that do not.

They are 13 year old girls in a click that bully and make fun of everyone else.

That is awful. I'm sad that they were abused. Doesn't Houss moderate those threads?

Have not visited that part of town in a long time. Ill have to have a look at the bloodletting.

They're bad.

I have the impression that PC has actually gotten better after getting called out, while the one mentioned here has gotten much worse. Makes me think one of them is capable of a degree of self-awareness and the other is just too perfectly better than the rest of us.

The amazing thing is that occasionally one of them posts a pic of her own home, and it's……not great. At all.

I am absolutely appalled by the behavior of several of the "pros" including this one. Almost every time they blame the customer for not knowing better when a professional makes a mistake or produces work that makes the customer unhappy. It is not a customer's job to have the same level of knowledge as the professional they've hired to do the job. A true professional knows how to do good work and how to communicate with the customer to make certain everyone is on the same page as to the expected outcome.

I also completely agree that at least one of the pros is continually becoming more of a bully. There is one that is pretty nice and helpful at least. But all of them try to make it clear that they are the only ones with the right answer and everyone else is wrong. I have a hard time going over to the other side because of this and I almost never post there because of them. Isn't that sad? I've been on this site and it's predecessors for a very long time and I'm not comfortable using the platform because of these pros that are allowed to run roughshod over everyone.

I must admit that few of the rooms shown on the decorating/DD boards appeal to me, especially after the "pros" paint out the nice bits.

Mostly stripped down colorless hellscapes...and the pros "advising" seem to be sticking to that theme.

To simply say it is not great is an understatement........

I kinda sorta added my 2 cents worth. What bull is what I really wanted to say. She got no likes, you did. :)

I'm beginning to think she's a narcisssist. That's what they do, purposely disagree with everyone.

I can't understand why this bullying/abusive behavior is allowed to continue. Yet threads are pulled from this group for no reason whatsoever.

My post is gone. I didn’t name names, just described seeing a couple of OPs on different days delete their threads and accounts after all the obnoxious O/T hectoring and badgering they got — mainly dissecting their parenting and marriages. It went on for hours and was very ugly. They both thanked the posters who genuinely tried to help their design dilemmas, then rode off to more peaceful lands. Lands where people can discuss decorating without others popping a forehead vein, yelling themselves hoarse, and demanding *couples get divorced because they differ on what color pillows for the bedroom.

It goes way over the line to harangue people about their parenting and/or partnerships, when the topic is about normal and innocent design issues, such as, ”My SO and I don’t agree on this room and are trying to compromise” or ”Excuse all the toys, we’re looking for storage”.

*Lest anyone thinks I’m exaggerating, the word “[spousal] abuse” was thrown out by more than one person on one of the threads. Over bedding. I screenshot it to show my DH, but deleted it the other day because I have 6,890 pillow ideas on my iPad and needed the space.

I remember reading some like that. One 'pro' loves pontificating about life as if she is the paragon of wisdom. I can't believe how many posters disappear because of the unprofessional behavior (and unkind, arrogant and victim blaming responses that are given).

I wonder why yours would have been flagged for deletion? Maybe used the wrong initials? One of the 'just telling it like it is' proponents who can dish it out but can't take it?

Heh. I was wrong about PC. Someone was asking why their new house's bathroom required 4.5 minutes to get hot water. The answer? copypaste cuz it's so precious:

Sorry poorly designed home from the start IMO .

Yep, always the homeowner's fault, even though I don't know if it's the current or former (builder) homeowner being blamed.

Often it's because they didn't hire a designer (an architect isn't good enough because "what does an architect know about kitchen or bathroom design?"). But if told there was a designer, then the homeowner didn't screen for a good designer.

Long ago I sent a private message to a pro about bullying people who post, received a less than thankful response; however, their tone of responses changed dramatically to the positive and helpful direction.

One thing I will say that homeowners can do and often do not, is ask questions about how something is going to be done, or if you have something you expect will be done a certain way, talk to whoever is doing it about doing it that way.

I think a lot of times things get done the "wrong" way because the workperson has a default way of doing it if there is no other way of doing it discussed. I don't think you have to have a lot of technical knowledge to ask a question about how something is going to be done ahead of time. And they may be able to do it the way you want, or they may not, and there may be a good reason.

For example, if you have a lot of plumbing and electrical coming into a sink base cabinet, the default in many cases is to just cut a big hole in the back and or floor of the cabinet. I don't like that, so for my vanities I had all the plumbing lines amputated and the electrical line freed up so they could figure out Exactly where a small hole could be made for each individual pipe or wire to come through. And even though it is going to be the same guys doing it for the third and forth time in my latest project, I specifically said that I wanted it again, and did I need to bring in a plumber ahead of time?

Not all decisions should be left completely up to the professional because they are the professional. If you have expectations that something will be done a certain way, talk about that, and understand that "We can't/shouldn't do it that way" might be an answer, and their might be a good reason for it.

And I would not recommend just letting someone in the house in the morning and disappearing and having something done completely while you are gone. The vast majority of people can take a day off of work, and I think that most people don't want to do it when they are getting a project done, because it's not a Fun day off of work and they don't want to Waste a day off. I have a really hard time taking off from work. So yes, I have scheduled someone to come and do something Three Months from now because that's when they could come And I could be there at the same time.

Lots of people want everything done yesterday. People don't like inconveniencing themselves, they don't like disruption, they don't want to be around when there is noise going on and so forth. Getting things done right requires your participation and your inconvenience. If your criteria is that you want minimum disruption and someone says "I can do your bathroom in 4 days", and you go away for those 4 days...It's probably going to Look like a bathroom done in 4 days while you were absent.

With regards to the particular thread in question, I would have no particular expectation that carpet with a subtle pattern that was in three different rooms that were separated by a different flooring in a hallway would be run in the same direction. My expectation would be that the carpet would be run to minimize seams and to optimize seam placement. And if it needed a seam, I would want to know where that seam was going to be. It doesn't take an expert to know that a room that is larger than the width of the carpet is going to need a seam in one direction if the carpet is laid in a particular orientation.

Thank you for trying mdln. I have tried in the past and the lack of caring hurt my soul. I don't understand why people have to be so mean to strangers. If someone is giving as good as they get, then it's not my concern. But the unprompted/unprovoked meanness bothers me.

A couple of the pros (and a couple of non-pros) also comment over on Building. Often, they are right. Just as often, they offend and pontificate so bombastically that the ”rightness” gets buried. It’s too bad.

We did discuss what we wanted when the contractor redid our kitchen. However, when we signed the contract, we did not understand how to read all the twists and fine print. What they SAID and what they did was no where close.

We had never used a contractor before and they were "good" company. They were not.

There is a non-pro who styles themself as an expert and, worse, leaves no option for their taste and choices being anything other than infallible. I have seen their home and dislike almost all of it, both interior and exterior choices, architecture and decorating.

One choice one could make (which I just did) is to say something.