I confess, I will wait in a longer line at the store to check out with a checker who actually looks at me instead of gabbing with the checker in the next lane. And especially I avoid the ones who throw my food or squash my produce/ bread. The best service is from the manager or assistant manager. I always try to say hi when I see them and tell them how great the store looks. You should see their faces - like an instant stress relief. One time I was in a market dressed in a pressed white shirt and black trousers. Somebody came up and started complaining loudly to me about really petty small things. Then I said I didn't work there and gave some positive comments about the store. Turns out this person just was having a bad day and wanted to vent. I worked retail for years....people know they can be horrible to you and you can't do anything about it. A kind person to wait on makes your whole day.

Dont be discouraged if you have time before your planned second build to learn. Research as much as you possibly can as well as take with you what you learned on your first build if you were involved with it. A good place to start would be with financial institutions to see what is possible. Check in with your local building dept. concerning everything from site planning/prep requirements, permitting, plans, engineering, inspections and the order that they take place. Find suppliers who are willing to give estimates off of materials take offs and compare, not necessarily taking the lower bid. Concerning lumber packages, often times it's better to pay a higher bid price if the wood is better quality. Seeking out quality subs will allow you to get references from them where quality products are sold and who they deal with, but you will also want to shop around for yourself on certain items, especially finish items. You can take from your first build things that you are pleased with and dissappointed with concerning the work of the various subs. seeking out reputable ones by looking at their work on other projects as well as checking references will help. Learn the steps of the build and the order in which you will need that particular sub scheduled and you dont want subs tripping over one another if it can be helped. Otoh, you will want to get the timing of scheduling down to the most efficient manner as possible which sometimes involves several trades in at the same time. You dont want your project not worked on as much as possible. There will be inevitable delays concerning weather, supplier/delivery hold ups, sub scheduling conflicts, etc, but you will need to know how to deal with that as best as possible. Even the most experienced builder is faced with dillemas, but with experience comes wisdom. One avenue would be to seek out a retired reputable builder who might be willing to give you consultation at a reasonable rate and be on hand for any problems that always occur where you might not have the confidence to solve. A retired builder would be invaluable concerning quality control as well. It's either that or an onsite supervisor but being full time, might get a little costly. A retired builder that would be able to consult as needed might be a better way to go. Bottom line though is that you need to understand as much as possible about the process and have the confidence to move forward so it's really down to you!

If you are sending resumes to any kind of design firm, make sure it is graphically pleasing. I have gotten every job I've ever applied for and the first thing they tell me in the interview when they pull out the resume to refresh themselves on who I am is "oh yeah, your resume is beautiful, it went right to the top" or something similar. Architects are all about every stupid little piece of whatever being graphically pleasing. The other thing I have done (and remember, this is for the design business specifically) is that I outline selected projects for each of my last 3 jobs - with the most detail on the most recent job and less detail and shorter sentences entries as you go on. Right now your resume reads a bit like a job description. It's sort of understood that you need to be able to do those things. Pick a few of your better projects and talk a little bit about what you really did. Pick the sexier projects and don't be afraid to name-drop clients (this is for paper resumes, I would NOT do that on CL - too many crazies out there). For example two jobs ago I spent a lot of time designing a major renovation of a rooftop addition on a landmark hotel. I talked about what I specifically did (in a brief way) on that project... not just "schematic design" but "developed 5 different schemes and presented to the owner in hong kong". You didn't do detailing, you "detailed both steel and wood frame buildings" or you "detailed high end custom casework" (a surprising number of people do NOT know how to properly detail casework). You want to make your experience sound exciting and thorough so they want to have you on their team, and if you had good clients (commercial I mean) it is something great to talk about in an interview. For the CL ad, I would do two separate ads - one targeting design firms and one targeting private ID clients. I would keep it short and sweet and direct people to a real resume. CL scares me though. Good luck!

My experience was as follows: I called Ann Sacks and asked for some samples for my backsplash. Six weeks passed and I had not received the samples. I called back several times and on the third call, he finally sent my samples, overnight. I said I was ready to place my order about a month after I received the samples and the sales person never called me back, didn't ask the right questions. I spoke to the Manager of the store in Georgetown and he was apologetic, but even his follow up was awful. I placed my order, yet needed more items--follow up was awful. I left several messages for the Manager and he never even bothered to call me back. When I received my order for 6 bullnose pieces, there were only 4 pieces in there. Again, in this economy, I'm ASTOUNDED by poor customer service. My $800 order may not have meant enough to them to provide outstanding customer service. I loved the tiles, and wanted to give an American made product my business, but you cannot excuse poor customer service. Even the manager's voice mail says he'll call you back at "his earliest convenience". Apparently, his earliest convenience is never, because I had to call their corporate office this morning in order to get him on the phone--four days after I left him a message. I don't ask for a lot, but follow through and good customer service are essential! So, yes, their customer service is the worst ever. And I wanted to spread the word.