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Remodeling Leap of Faith

It's a leap of faith to hire unknown workers to do jobs inside your home and then leave your home with those workers inside it. I took such a leap today when three young men in their twenties arrived to tile our bathroom. They were polite and friendly and had been hired by our contractor—why worry? All seemed in order, and I left for work. When I stopped back home for a quick lunch, I reflected upon the wisdom of that decision.
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Managing Expectations in a Kitchen Remodel

Whether you’re ordering cabinets, countertops, or wood flooring many times you’re required to complete and sign a disclaimer prior to having the order processed. Really, what are you talking about Doug?
 
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Lower-Cost Kitchen Remodeling

Lately the kitchens have taken a dramatic downturn in what people are willing to invest, but they still want them done. This forces us to be creative.
 
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The Best Material for Trimwork

I’ve used MDF (medium-density fiberboard) trims and moldings for many different applications and learned from them. The small wood particles used to make MDF are pressed and glued together much like particle board, only denser and stronger.
 
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Roofing Tear-off or Rip-off?

It is tempting to start a blog on the topic of roofing rip-offs with, “Have you heard the one about? . . .”  The Better Business Bureau ranks the volume of complaints about roofers twentieth among 3,900 categories for which it collects data. There are a number of classics.

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Yes, It Should Be All About You!

The other week the home theater sub on a home I am remodeling wanted to install the speakers above the big screen TV off-center because there was some framing where the recessed speakers should be located.  This would’ve looked horrible. But altering the framing was out of the question in the installer’s mind. “Not my job,” he was thinking,

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The Hamlet of Replacement Windows

My friend Tony lives in a 70-year-old house with single-glazed, double-hung wood windows supplemented with aluminum storm windows of unknown vintage. The window sash on the top floor don’t work so well, and the house is drafty, so he thinks he needs replacement windows.
 
He’s thought so for the last three or four years. But this fiftysomething, Harvard-trained healthcare analyst is a self-described “wimp” about paying people he doesn’t know for home-improvements that he doesn’t know much about.
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How Not to Pay a Contractor Before the Work is Complete

Even the best of us will get taken and in times of a down economy it happens even more often than in a thriving economy. Before times got as hard as they are now in residential remodeling and construction I had always stressed the importance of always paying for construction work after it was completed and paying invoices to your contractor in percentages of the actual work being completed.

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I'm Back

I've gone back to school to prepare for a new phase of my life. The workload has kept me from attending to a lot of things that I need to do, like to do. But now finals are over. FINALS ARE OVER! And just when I think I can take a break, I lie back on my couch looking up at the white ceiling. There it is, a hairline crack, running about 4 feet long. Which brings me to plaster; the good, the bad and the ugly.

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Don’t Pre-Pay a Contractor with a Large Deposit

Why are people with common sense today still giving contractors large deposits before the contractor even sets foot onto the homeowner’s property? Do we feel somewhat compelled to do such out of our deep concern to help others, or are we just trying to follow the requests or requirements of a specific contractor? You probably know where I am going with this: It’s to your detriment, folks, when you give large deposits to anyone before the work is started or materials are even ordered.

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