We did a gut on our home including 5 full baths and 1 half bath. I ordered all our faucets and toilets, several sinks and even a vanity and mirrors from Studio 41. They were cheaper on everything, including online sources, and free delivery too. Since it was such a large job, it took me several months to make all my decisions. And then there were several things I needed at the last minute. Studio 41 was great and sent the items Next Day Delivery and again no charge. I had to return a faucet as it just was not working out and no problem with the return. Andrea is the plumbing designer and she was wonderful. I live in Barrington Hills and both Insignia and Bath of Barrington are too darn expensive and...well the sales people were not very cooperative either. Michelle

I worked as one of the admin staff for a local, very well respected CFP. He is 'semi-retired', and has a client base of about 130 clients, many of whom have been with him for two and three generations now. The CFP firm we now use for my MIL's assets, was founded 20 yrs ago by a CFP he trained. With the crackdown by the SEC on the brokerages shading into 'Financial Planning' - which technically can only be done by four categories of Registered Investment Advisors (CFPs, CFAs, CPAs with PFS certification, CLU for insurance purposes only), more of them are encouraging their brokers to obtain CFP certification. It is not, as Donhoff points out, a cure-all for 100% reliability/honesty/knowledge. It is, however, at least a first step in winnowing out those who can't be bothered to study for an RIA designation and aren't willing to expend the additional requirement of annual classes to maintain that RIA status. Once you pass the CFP exam - pass rates fluctuate every year but are usually in the 40-60% pass ratio - you do a 3-yr internship before you are actually allowed to use the CFP title. If you have been working in financial services you can apply to have your past work experience counted towards your internship requirement. It took my boss 25 yrs in business before he could 'fire' the 80% of his clients that weren't worth working with. It is very true, when you are in this type of business, that when you factor in your time, 80% of your profits come from just 20% of your clients. The remaining 80% are more trouble than their accounts are worth. When he did take this drastic step, there were about half a dozen clients who were put on 'probation'. They were told they had to treat his office staff with courtesy from now on, or they too would have to leave. He made sure that anyone he 'cut' was given a referral to at least two other CFPs who were willing to accept new clients. The morale of the office staff rose considerably after this drastic purge, and although his business revenues declined by about 15% that year, the time saved by not dealing with recalcitant clients freed him to go after clients who proved more profitable and a better psychological 'match,' which is always an optimal goal in a service business like financial services. He never did 'hard' advertising; almost all his new clients came from personal referrals. The other independent CFPs envied him for being able to limit his client base. Most of them could not afford to do this, and had a much lower asset minimum for accepting new clients. IOW, it's like any other job where you can work for a large company (e.g., brokerage or other FS firm) and be a cog, or you can try to break out on your own, where you struggle with the difficulties of being a small business owner and wearing 'all the hats' as you try to market your business. It's a hard road, no doubt about it. Brokers who work towards earning their CFP designations are usually day-to-day doing portfolio allocations and stock/fund research. A lot of people think they want to do financial planning, but when they are forced to do the constant ROI number-crunching and endless market analyses, quarter after quarter (those YE deadlines for summary reports are REALLY stressful), find they don't enjoy it all that much, after all. The biggest difficulty in this business is not only are there many niches to the FS industry, but also, the people who need it the most are the least able to afford it. It's like being an independent mechanic: it takes you the same amount of time to service a $20K Chevy Malibu as it does to service a $150K Mercedes. But you can charge a lot more for the Mercedes than for the Chevy, so your return on time expended is more profitable. This means you not only need to be good at crunching numbers, you need good people skills to help grow your asset management portfolio. Being good at two very different skills is not easy for most people.

Since your family is from a different culture, I suspect you will be given wide lattitute and not be expected to behave as if you were Japanese. I would suggest reading up on Japanese customs and wedding traditions so you know what they are -- but not necessarily trying to follow all of them. Ask your DIL-to-be and her mother for advice, and defer to as much of it as you comfortably can, diplomatically explaining your reasons for those customs you can not embrace. For example, the offer to rent kimono is generous and kind, but there are many traditions that go along with wearing kimono, and you may inadvertently do something offensive or foolish that would not stand out or offend if you were dressed in Western dress. Obscure (to Americans) things like wrapping right over left or the proper number of layers of undergarments. Also, you both would probably need to be 'professionally dressed' for the event, which may be uncomfortable for you. Giving money as a wedding gift is a widespread tradition among Asian (and many other) cultures, and one you should probably not try to erradicate. You don't need to participate, as presumably, your cultural traditions will be given similar respect. You might also ask to include a select few American traditions -- perhaps throwing rice, stomping a wine glass or tossing a bouquet? Maybe mention the possibility to the bride, explain the reasons for the tradition -- but be prepared to acquiesse graciously if they're not particularly important to you. As for your expected financial contribution, if you can't find the information online, perhaps the Japanese Studies department at a university could help you. Or a library? Or a friend of Japanese descent? Or ask your son to ask the bride to be. Some direct questions can be embarassing, but surely far less so than doing the wrong thing. Your FDIL will want you to make a good impression on her parents, and should be willing to be "uncomfortably frank" to make this happen. Gift-giving is a very important ritual in Japan, and the gifts to and from the wedding couple would be, I imagine, rather MORE important than most other types of gifts. If there's one area where I'd be especially reluctant to break with Japanese tradition, this would probably be it. Get the 'low down' from your FDIL and her parents and explain to the American guests how it works so they will know what to expect and also not feel/appear foolish and ill-bred.

This was 2010 - Our initial fee was $3500 and in total we would probably be closer to $25k during the job when I think about the actual number of hours she probably put into the job. I had one interim charge of $2k because she spent one long day shopping with me. It is an option that the firm offers and I took advantage of it. From start to finish the actual construction time was 6 months when we were out of` the house where she was also hands on but a lot of her work of course, was done prior to beginning of construction. That would not have included the interior decorators time. That is all separate. There were also three things that I did take charge of and that was -choosing our hardware which took a number of hours. (I have early on-set arthritis in my hands which required me to go out and actually touch and try to use all the hardware and find one that was most comfortable. It doesn't really go with our post-and-beam home but....) -I chose our design for our wrought iron railings which took I don't know how many hours of research on the internet. It got frustrating for both of us in my trying to describe what I wanted and her not being able to find it. They were more than glad to have what I wanted made once I figured that out. They weren't chosen or installed until several months after the job was finished. -I designed our front door after discounting her choices and again the firm was more than glad to have the front door custom made once that was done. We were incredibly lucky to have found the firm that we did. One who listened to us and one that we trusted to take care of us and our home.