Angie’s List

April 9, 2013

If you’ve followed this blog you know I’ve had real trouble with contractors. Either they don’t show up or they leave a trail a damage in their wake or they think over pricing is common practice. It’s enough to make a homeowner give up.

OK – I did give up; for the winter but trying to get large trucks in an out of the driveway isn’t a good idea and I needed the break. Now it’s spring even though today’s offering is a blizzard warning and the temperature is 10 degrees, no, it’s still spring and time to get moving on projects.

My problem is I seem to pick the wrong contractor and referrals from friends haven’t always worked out the best so I decided to try Angie’s List. It’s a service that charges a small yearly fee to get access to contractors and service personnel that have signed up with the service and abide by their terms. You can search by specialty or by a contractor’s name. Each provider has feedback listed and you can see what others have to say about someone you may want to hire. That type of objective feedback, from people you don’t know helps to make selecting a contractor much easier.

Providers also list “specials” they are running which can save you big money. So far I’ve found one contractor to finish the painting I need: The vaulted ceilings in the living room, three walls in the living room, repairs to a bad drywall job on the front room and repair to the wall behind the wood stove. He also has someone that can do the finish work around the house such as finishing closets, hang two doors, remodel my bathroom and move the woodstove from it’s super-ugly pedestal to something less, well, old looking.

I’m hopeful that the end of construction is at hand and the light at the tunnel isn’t an oncoming train.