Those must have been platinum painted walls then. 
I know you would not fall for that ripoff. I was given a quote of $28k to replace 2 windows. I asked the guy if the frames were gold. 
Pella did 2 windows plus a very tricky wall of glass with a slider in it for much less!!!
Geezā¦what needs to be so special about fixing a wall? Whatās he going to do? Apply multiple layers of fancy Venetian Plaster?
Sand and paint. Thatās whatās outrageous. He had done a great job on a gutter (well, his subcontractor did ,) at much less than I expected. When it turned out flashing was needed, he offered to eat that cost (I paid, it was not much and fair to the sub.)
So, I thought weād found a great guy. Not.
Itās not like we have a Porsche in the driveway.
Mostly, we use a GC who was DHās college buddy, is underpriced, does most of his own work. But he just doesnāt do 'finish work," (the painting or spiffing.) I hope thatās the last of the ceramic pipes in this 100+ y.o. house.
Replacing our old ugly probably not safety glass slider in the living room with a white Milgard bifold patio door. We went with white because all the other windows and the other slider off the family room are white. Deciding between black or stainless handle and hinges. House is small and will be open concept, and since appliances, sink, faucet and hardware in kitchen is stainless I am leaning towards stainless. But floors are a dark hardwood, so black might work as well. Thoughts?
In the townhome we are purchasing, the bathrooms come with large mirrors that go from the top of the counter edge, to the wall edge. These are the standard glue down mirrors, and my husband and I think maybe we should put decorative mirrors in instead. I hate cleaning the wall of mirrors in our old house and temporary apartment, but donāt know if cleaning a framed mirror will be worst. The powder room I already have a mirror for that I brought from my old house, the guest bedrooms should be easy as they are not used as much, so mostly it will only require dusting. The master bath is where I most want decorative mirrors, one above each sink; I just worry with the products we use daily for our personal needs, will keeping the mirror and frame clean be difficult? I shed like crazy, it is amazing where my hair goes; add in hairspray, body powder, toothpaste, etcā¦, will I be cleaning the mirrors daily?
In the meantime, I am shopping online now in hopes of finding the perfect mirrors 
@tx5athome: Iād keep all the metals the same. Go with stainless.
@snowball: I bought two of these for our guest bathroom (there are two sinks). https://www.wayfair.com/House-of-Hampton-Finty-Rectangle-Burnished-Silver-Wall-Mirror-HOHN8544.html
They look great. IME, cleaning the mirror above the sink is no big deal. Every once in a while thereās a little schmutz, but itās no biggie.
Use e-cloth. It makes glass and mirror cleaning a breeze. Just dust the frame.
I posted in another thread, but here it is again for all who have ss appliances! I just bought the most amazing ss cleaner ever. It really works and does not have an unpleasant chemical/petroleum smell.
It is called Therapy:
@bunsenburner:
I didnāt say that contractors donāt rip people off, I am saying that comparing you doing the work to a contractor is an unfair comparison. First of all, not all contractors use illegal immigrants to do the job, there are still contractors where the people doing the work , work for them, and they actually have things like labor costs, workmenās comp insurance and liability insurance to pay. Also depends on the skill of the workers, when doing things like tile work and the like you pay for skilled guys, there is competition for them, and having seen what unskilled labor did when our house was expanded, it shows, I am still cleaning up what they left behind.
Yep, there are contractors out there who hire guys off the street, who donāt have insurance, and charge like they do,not arguing that. My house has chain link fence, and had two walking gates in it. I wanted to change one of the gates to be a driveway gate (basically a 10ā opening that has two 5 foot gates that open independently). The fence place wanted 1600 bucks for the job, which basically involved moving one past about 5 feet, cutting the top bar of the chain link to size, reconnecting it to the post, then putting the two gates in. I got the materials for about 30 bucks, and took me about 2 hours doing it myself. The fence place would have likely used to day laborers to do the work, it woould take them an hour, and for the cost of materials (less for them) and the labor (probably 20 or 30 bucks), they would have hosed me. It is why when I interview contractors I ask for their information, their insurance (and check), and I directly ask them if they have their own crews. There are a lot of scummy contractors out there, donāt get me wrong, but I also had contractors in the family I worked for so I know a bit about how the business works, and honest contractors have a margin of about 10% usually.
āhonest contractors have a margin of about 10% usually.ā
Yup. That is what I have heard independently from people in the biz.
I didnāt get the impression BB is using illegal day workers. Lol.
Anyway, the sweet guy at the restoration shop really gets my paint color dilemna, that the trim looks grey-ish with the paint shades I like. He kinda leaned into my challenge, more than the folks at BM.
Right now, I do think Iāll bring the trim in all the foyer and 2nd floor up a hair less grey.
LOL, @lookingforward! I know that my contractor is not an illegal. His passport is on the shelf next to mine.
I discovered that Behr makes a color identical to the one used in our House1! No scrambling to ask BM folks to make a matched batch. Off to HD for touch up paint!
We can all get behind less grey hair.
^^lol
Hey, Iām curious to know how people either (1) manage their home improvement projects (since thatās the thread Iām posting in) or (2) keep track of house maintenance and all the details around which vendors youāve used/liked/disliked, what color paint you have where, when you last resealed the granite, etc. Iāve tried evernote with only moderate success and an article I recently read recommended the Remember the Milk, brightnest and homezada (all apps). I find it all pretty overwhelming but i know Iād benefit from logging all my info in one place.
I use a paper folder for paper receipts. The email communications get stored in my Home Improvement folder. Paint - the cans sit in the shelf specially allocated to that purpose, each marked with permanent marker on the lid with what it was used to paint BM and SW will keep your special blends on file and will use those recipes.
Yup, paper folder, no more complicated than it needs to be. In the 20+ years, we havenāt actually used that many different vendors and there are only a handful of paint colors (ie, what we liked and used) to remember.
Do wish Iād saved what paints I mixed to get the kitchen color.
Big accordion file folder which we keep in a file cabinet. I just throw everything in. We keep paint can lids which have the code on it so if we need more itās easy to get. Those we keep in the basement.
Just an FYI - I came to BM with a can that had their paint code, but they said they would not be able to use the because the base paint got reformulated. Save an actual paint swatch as well. Just paint it on a sturdy piece of white paper if you donāt want to keep the can and jot down the code and description. I am glad that I had the can - BM folks used the dry paint on it it to mix me a match.
I was so smart! I had all my color codes for paint etc. And then didnāt realize the paint had faded over the years so you couldnāt just touch it up.
My H is having someone who has done work for us before coming over this afternoon. We are going to have him fix the broken drip lines and sprinklers. I have a list of some other things to do in the yard. Itās a start. We have over 2 acres that have suffered greatly during the drought. Once I get the sprinklers back up and working we will deal with some small areas and the gophers. Iām not expecting miracles but I would like at least the area right around the house to look decent.
H has a printout of all our paint colors. He also has the cans marked.