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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