Dealing with Seattle Contractors for Home Improvement
We moved into our new house a few months ago (early December, mere days before getting married). Since then, we’ve had a regular stream of traffic coming in and out - contractors from far and wide. Some were recommended to us by existing (trusted) service providers, and others were suggested via sites like ServiceMagic. Results, thus far, have been both good and bad.
Our painting contractor has been amazing… absolutely amazing. Detail oriented, works without interruption, doesn’t complain, doesn’t ask a million questions, efficient, etc. I will have absolutely no problem in recommending him to anyone in the Seattle area (after he’s finished with what we’ve hired him for, of course). He came to us through “The Cleaning Zone,” a small outfit we’ve used to keep our home from turning into a barn. It was a personal recommendation that hasn’t failed us.
Our fence contractor has been amazing… at taking us for $1,000, not returning our phone calls, starting the job and not finishing it, etc. It’s been weeks since he was supposed to have started and finished, and all we have in our backyard are fence posts. Ponzi tried calling him (again) this morning and learned that his phone number had been disconnected. We’re scrambling to find someone to pick up where he left off (or start the project all over again). I’ll ask Ponzi for the name so that you might avoid him, too.
Our bathroom remodel contractor has been amazing… better than I ever would have expected. We’ll post the “before/after” photos when everything is complete (we’re just waiting for a special-order shower door to arrive). They really did an outstanding job. Moreover, they kept to themselves and only asked questions when necessary. I wasn’t really sure why Ponzi wanted to remodel the master bathroom, but now I see why it was worth doing.
Our home audio contractor has been amazing… in more ways than one. We’re happy with the work they did, but more impressed with how they were the only home theater outfit that kept telling us ways to SAVE money instead of spending more. Everything seems to be working fine, although I haven’t had much time to reprogram our Harmony remotes to control the new receivers. Plus, our media room was just painted and needs a bit more work before we’ll be able to show ‘er off.
All in all, we’re pretty happy - but I think that (moving forward) we’ll be dealing with a single source of contractors, because general contractor coordination has been an absolute nightmare to manage. Ponzi suggested a place called House Doctors? Now, some would argue that DIY is the way to go - but since we got such a good deal on the house, we had a little extra budget for small remodeling tasks.
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9 Comments
bobmorris
March 12th, 2007
at 8:01pm
We recently moved from Los Angeles to Connecticut and fixed up the L.A. house first. Yeah, it was two months of a steady stream of contractors. Ours were good, we originally found most of them through HandyMan.com, a good service that has a nationwide net of skilled craftsmen to draw on.
I in effect was the general contractor for everything - a kitchen and bath remodel, knocking down a wall, painting everything, redoing the yard, fixing plumbing, chimney, etc. Yes, it got really hectic, a zillion phone calls and trips to Home Despot, but with a general contractor, you’re one step removed, have to watch them anyway, and they’ll be adding on what 15-20%?
Next time, we’ll just do one job at a time, not multiple jobs at once. There were times we literally had 3 crews in the house at once doing different things.
Our house in L.A. sold in 4 days at full price in a market where 60-90 days is the average time on market, so it was worth it.
And they don’t know what traffic is in Connecticut…
Dave Schappell
March 12th, 2007
at 9:29pm
Hate to give up our personal favorite, but in Seattle, we’ve had great results with general contractor Tom Jacobs — 206 235 8459
He’d likely be able to get your fence taken care of, for a fair price, and always takes ownership of his own work, and that of subcontractors
Ryan
March 15th, 2007
at 10:02pm
Can you send me the name of the bathroom contractor. We’re in Kirkland and looking to remodel. Thanks in advance.
The Chris Pirillo Show
March 17th, 2007
at 8:59am
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beans
March 28th, 2007
at 3:28pm
yes– i also want to know who you had for bath remodel!! please!! thx
Cary Burns
May 11th, 2007
at 9:15am
Can you give me the name of your Audio Consultant and your bathroom contractor.
thanks,
Sarah Petersen
August 24th, 2007
at 3:37pm
I’m a big fan of the gorgeous bathroom remodeling projects displayed on your website, and I am interested in featuring them on my weblog: http://www.bathroomfaucets.org. My site is basically just pictures and stories about bathrooms, tubs, and showers that I find particularly interesting.
I get a lot of traffic on the site, so if I posted a picture of a few of your bathrooms, along with your contact information, it’d probably drive a lot of people to your business. Anyway, if you are interested, just let me know. I’ll take care of all of the graphic design and storywriting, all I ask for in exchange is a link pointing back to my site (after all, I need traffic too!)
Thanks,
Sarah Petersen
480-522-6315
sarah@savephoenix.org
Sarah
November 27th, 2007
at 12:25pm
Hi Chris,
I’m writing to see if you could delete my last name/email/phone # (sarah@savephoenix.org), Petersen, etc, from my post dated august 24, 2007. I hate having that info out there. Thanks!
Joshua Nicol
August 26th, 2008
at 1:45pm
I recently had my complete house updated including the kitchen and all bathrooms. I used a company name HDC Contractors. They did a very good job. If you want more information about them call me [removed phone number]. I don’t like to recomend just in case, but these guys did an awesome job helping me with design to the finished product!