I recently heard it said that, in another 20 years, we will see a vast number of Hispanic General Contractors due to the fact that they will have a natural connection with the vast majority of subcontractors, who will increasingly be Hispanic.  One weakness of this prediction is that it’s unclear whether there will be many Hispanic GCs who can make a genuine connection with the typical homeowner.

Time will tell.

But here is my prediction:  We will see a much greater number of female GCs in 20 years.  Here’s why: (more…)

Great insight from Jeff Opdyke:

So I see this experience as a lesson learned: When it comes to remodeling — and our kitchen is next — never equate your spouse’s silence with acceptance. Your passion about a project may overwhelm your partner into submission.

Another really huge point brought out by Amy Opdyke is that nearly all of the “enforcement” fell on her shoulders.

Not only did she have to deal with workers in the house each day, deal with the short-notice questions of preference that came up, take innumerable trips out for small parts and whatnots, but worst of all she had to… (more…)

How do you handle this situation:

You tell the kitchen designer what you want and s/he gives you a bid. The price is great! You do your best to check over everything on the bid, but you’re not familiar with all the terminology and how to interpret the drawings, so you end up assuming the best and writing the down payment check.

Then you get that sick feeling in your stomach when (more…)

Friday I started a kitchen installation in an industrial building that was being turned into a residence. Very cool. I’ll try to put up a case study video of the project before long.

Anyway, the mastermind of the project showed up mid-morning. He was in his 60’s and had the bearing of someone who had been around construction for many years. (more…)

Okay, so it’s been a month since your project was complete.

They finished the checklist, and you cut them the last check. The General Contractor (GC) drove away and you breathed a big sigh of relief and exhaustion.

But about two weeks later you noticed a problem.

(more…)

Today I was installing a kitchen in a lovely new custom home across town.

At some point I became aware of cigarette smoke coming from the painters. Sure enough, some of them were smoking.

Now, I don’t know the homeowners very well, but I feel that I know them well enough to know that they don’t smoke. Yet I noticed that, when they visited the house today to check on progress, they didn’t say anything about the smoking. Why not? Isn’t it a well-established fact that smoke lingers in the porous materials of a house, meaning that the house will have a hint of smoke residual from the month-or-two of construction crew smoking? (more…)