On Home Ownership and Finding a Good Contractor
Living in a house for the past 25 years that is now approaching its sesquicentennial (in 2022), my wife and I have had experiences with dozens of contractors over the years--more than I bargained for as a naïve first-time home buyer in 1994. As a city rat who grew up in a 3rd floor rental apartment, I didn't have the hands-on training in house care and maintenance some house-raised kids are exposed to. I've relied heavily on the skills, knowledge, and experience of numerous contractors over the last quarter century to keep our Old Gray Mare going.
Some of those contractors were a great pleasure to work with and it was sad when they moved on to bigger and more lucrative clients, on to retirement, or sadly, on to adjusting the unbalanced swing of the pearly gates of Heaven. With some of the other contractors, well, let's just say the last day of the project couldn't come fast enough for both sides of the contract relationship. I've always wondered why all contractors can't be like the "great pleasure to work with" group. It has to be the contractor. It can't be me, right?Well, I recently ran across this article, which randomly popped up as I was Googling for certified arborists in my area. The author provides a different perspective on the contractor-homeowner relationship. I quickly realized that I've danced most of the homeowner missteps described within. This knowledge would have come in handy a couple of roofs, water heaters, or foundations ago in my home-owning journey. I hope you find some insight in it and that you are forever a phone call away from your own "great pleasure to work with" group of contractors.