You would think with all the men in Alaska there would be tons of good contractors. What about the hunks from "Men In Trees"? I HATE men who want to deal with the husband. Most women are the decision makers anyway. Do you have any friends who have had remodeling done? What about getting referrals from some of the various stores. Take your time because a bad contractor is worse than no contractor.
Donna

I've had the bad ones :) So I know better than to hire blind and hope! One of these I saw at the recent home show, reviewed his portfolio, called his referrals and toured a house he just finished. I really wanted him, but he's starting to annoy me.

The other two were referrals. The old guy with the husband complex isn't going to work out. If he starts out this way he'll only get worse and my husband is too busy running his company to deal with this stuff. Besides, he's a terrible DIY kind of guy :) Gad knows what he'd do on his own!

I guess I'll start making caqlls again. Grrrrr what a pain!

I HATE men who want to deal with the husband. Most women are the decision makers anyway.

That's the first sign that the guy hasn't been in business very long. I'm the other way around-- I hate talking to the HUSBAND!! I always get the same answer-- "I need to talk to my wife!"

You're so right, Bill! My husband doesn't give a rat's patootey if the husband's there or not. HE knows it's the wife who has to be happy.

Sometimes I make my husband deal with them though, because when he points stuff out or complains, it is a man-to-man, guy thing. When I do, it's just me being nit-picky again......

I've only been doing smaller type jobs lately but for every job I do, I have the COUPLE both sign the "Boss" form. It states: "On this job, Mary (or John) is the boss and will be the sole provider of direction to the contractor.".

Both agree and sign before the first nail is pounded or cabinet ripped out. I carry it with me in the truck and am willing to wave it under the emasculated party's nose in no time.

90% of the time, Mary is the boss.

p.s. - My wife carries our boss form around with her. :-)

There's a saying up here-- when momma happy, everybody happy. when momma NOT happy, ain't NOBODY happy!!

This guy was actually a long time contractor...very old...maybe even close to alztimers...(ok now I'm just peeved at him so I'm being mean).

My husband and I are equally opinionated, and each have a very defined design style, which is why we take forever to make decisions, but once WE do, we stick to it because it's not worth the time to renegotiate again :)

I've been a commercial banker (I've been many types of banker but that was the longest) for years and I'm used to dealing with dorky men who wanted to talk to a male banker. I won every one of them over, either blustering them down or calling them on their BS. I may look like a little push over, but if you can say no to a company desperate for $10million that "wants to talk to your boss" when you say no, you can talk to anyone. :) So DH is quite comfortable turning that over to me. This was my idea anyhoo (what the heck was I thinking!)

I'm going to go ahead and take a break from contractor hell and pack for vacation. I'm heading down to look at a new stove the dh feels we can't live without :) I personally only want it for the claw feet :) Anyhoo, I guess I'll deal with contractors when we get back. If all keeps going on this schedule....we'll be done with this remodel in ummm 2010 or so!

I hate talking to the HUSBAND!! I always get the same answer-- "I need to talk to my wife!"

At Gleason's, the great, great paint store in my neck of the woods, there's a sign:

"No unaccompanied man may buy a custom paint color without a note from his wife."

sue, that's very funny, got to love the owners of that store !

LOL Tally_Sue! That's it in a nutshell.

My husband bought some paint once. The only place he got to use it was on the inside of his closet in his office -- it's THAT bad! Somewhere between baby-poop brown and cardboard. The funny thing is, once we changed out the floor tile, the color actually worked.

The same sign is up in my favorite tile store, except it relates to grout color :)

I love Gleason's! a guy from my church works there. and one time DH went haring off to buy paint--I don't remember why he was in such a hurry, but he was. I guess I hadn't thought about paint color soon enough, and he wanted to paint, so he was just going to go buy white. i thought about it after he left, and got a backbone.

So i called the store, and got ahold of the guy from my church, and told him to tell Bill, when he got there, not to buy white, but we'd pick a color, and to send home some chips in light tan or something.

DH walks in the door, and the guy yells out, really loud, "Don't let that man buy any paint!" They all, the guys in the store and DH, got a big kick out of it. (fortunately, DH wasn't mad!)

Hey guys,
Thaks for a good laugh!
Doc - you really cracked me up :) I don't know if dh would want it in writing, but when it comes to the reno, it is my baby. I am the one sweating the details and doing all the heavy thinking and shopping. He gets to look at some final contenders and usually likes what I like (I try not to telegraph which is my fave to know for sure if he is yessing me or really agreeing).
We have been together 12 years and in all that time, he only disliked one of my choices once (and that he had seen in advance, but hadn't paid close enough attention).
He is very quick with an opinion, so if he had one, he'd let me know. OTOH, many times he just does not care enough to sweat out "which exact shade of X" or any of the little details. He is content to let me do all the research and give him a cliff notes version (or a cliff notes back cover version, lol).
I save a ton of money through careful shopping, so he has full trust in my not sending us to the poorhouse. In fact, when I buy something, he usually can't guess how low I got it for. Especially when it has tags on it saying much higher (but was sitting under a take an additional X% off sign).
If a contractor or salesperson dares to give me the "wait for the husband" speech, he would be wearing my shoe in his rear end, lol. I am polite and friendly, but do not take to being condescended to lightly. Dh lets me play bad cop because I am scarier than he is (and he is much taller and bigger than I am). I just stay calm but have a look in my eye that can usually stop someone cold. It's a gift, lol. I never scream nor use foul language, but people listen. I have rarely been talked to like the little woman because I don't think I come across as needing permission to buy or choose anything. Most people can read that a mile off.
So this mamma has earned the right to be happy because I am doing most of the work towards our remodel/extension. Dh will love the finished product and will love even more that I am happy as well ;) Dh is smart enough to know when to get involved and when to get out of the way. I am smart enough to know when to involve him and when he doesn't really care.
If only all our decisions were as easy as the choices for the remodel .....
If only he'd sign the boss form for everything, lol. That has no chance of happening anytime soon!

"Dh lets me play bad cop because I am scarier than he is (and he is much taller and bigger than I am)."

Sounds like us. DH is a big guy (6'3", 270), and before he shaved his gottee he looked like an Irish hitman. But he won't ask a price EVER and he can't negotiate. The subs were afraid of him at first, but then learned there was no bark or bite. I bark and bite! I hated being the bad cop all the time, but there was really no choice. If someone came by the house to look at a job and said, "I can do it now", DH would say "great", never asking for a price or anything. He did this on a few things on the house.

The plumber, who was already charging us 40k, told DH he could put in the vertical stack for the radon vent "while he was at it". DH said "sure", and next thing I know I'm getting charged $60 per hour for someone to glue some pipe together. DH, BIL or my father could have done it with their eyes closed. DH figured it would be $200 max. I think it came to $900 (he also charged us the ridiculous plumbing supplier list prices for the pipe).

Sue, can I talk to your husband when it comes time to do your backsplash? :-)

(Did I ever tell you I come from french royalty? My royal name is Count De Monet!)