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I love everything about this new paint job. The yellow exterior and fancy corbels are bright and cheery. Wouldn’t it be nice if all paint stayed looking as fresh as when it was new? Dreaming.

Then, the white in-between the slats of siding sets them off nicely. The red/rust shutters and door screens pop nicely. And of course, we must have a blue porch ceiling. This is a nice house to come home to.

Exterior side and corbels: Buttery yellow
Trim: White
Shutters and screen door frames and other details: Red/rust
Porch ceiling: Periwinkle blue

One lucky organization will win a $25,000 kitchen remodel, sponsored by IKEA and Family Handyman, depending on which gets the most votes. The contenders are:

Little Ferry Hose Company #1 – Little Ferry, NJ

Simpson Shelter – Minneapolis, MN

IHS Development – Newark, NJ

Franklin Fire Station One – Franklin, WI

Moonachie Fire Department – Moonachie, NJ

Oddly enough, the three organizations in the path of Hurricane Sandy have the least votes.

Click here to find out more and cast your vote.

Voting ends March 31, 2013.

1. Here’s what’s cooking on HGTV for early 2013:

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Clare got full bids from two contractors. Contractor Artisan’s bid was more expensive by 10s of thousands of dollars, but he has a reputation for being an artist and a perfectionist.

Contractor Cheapo’s bid, on the other hand, was 10s of thousands of dollars cheaper, and he has a reputation for being less than exacting in his work, and does work of lesser quality.

So, Clare had to decide: Do I pay extra for the craftsman, or save money and get less quality?

You may one day be in this situation and you may wonder how to make the decision.

I’m pretty sure you don’t want to do what Clare did, which is to hire the cheaper guy and then spend months complaining about the schlocky work he does. “Sins” so far include framing that looks like a 10-year-old did it (safe and legal but ugly), crooked trim work, and mistreatment of expensive fixtures.

So how do  you decide what to do? Ask yourself a few questions:

1. Is saving money the most important thing in life without exception?

If yes, choose Contractor Cheapo
If no, keep asking questions

2. Is having a high-quality project the most important thing in life without exception?

If yes, choose Contractor Artisan
If no, keep asking questions

3.  Is complaining about the faults of contractors a favorite pastime?

If yes, choose Contractor Cheapo
If no, keep asking questions

4. Is having a warm feeling from having the most considerate, thoughtful contractor important?

If yes, choose Contractor Artisan
If no, keep asking question

Bottom line: There is of course a great desire to have the best quality job for the cheapest price. Good luck with that. I guess it’s theoretically possible. But in reality, from my observations over several decades, you get what  you pay for. That’s just the facts, folks.

As this house project goes on and Clare has more indignities to deal with each day from Contractor Cheapo, it’s all I can do to keep my mouth shut. What I really want to say, though it would not be helpful in the least, is this: “You consciously and knowingly chose Contractor Cheapo in order to save a few bucks. This is the result of that decision. Stop complaining.”

Of course, I won’t say that to Clare. I care about her and don’t want to add to her misery. But I’ll say it to you. If you choose to save money by hiring the guy with no experience, or the guy with no license, or the guy who’s moving around so fast from job to overbooked job, you deserve what you get. If you don’t want to put yourself in that position, make a different choice.

However, if saving money is the most important thing in your life without exception — and is more important than a high quality job, or peace of mind, or anything else — then by all means, hire the cheapest guy you can dig up.

But please don’t complain about the pain you are bringing into your life. At least not to me.

As you can see in this article I wrote for Remodeling Magazine, a bathroom can be both standard and then accessible for wheelchair users when they visit.

When architect Emory Baldwin designed a Seattle house for his family, he thought of all this. Though his family is young and able-bodied, he also has visiting inlaws — who may one day move in — who need an accessible environment. Imagine using a wheelchair and not being able to roll up to the sink? What a hassle.

In fact, Emory designed the entire ground floor for wheelchair accessibility.

So when the wheelchair-using relative visits, the vanity cabinet rolls out of the way on its lockable casters. The house won an AARP/NAHB Livable Communities Award for its intergenerational focus.

Well played, Mr. Baldwin!

See more baths
See more accessible ideas 

Everyone likes a deal. A steal. A feeling that you just saved more money on your remodel than anyone in the history of the world.

But sometimes that quest can bring regrets. That’s what happened to Charles Chang, who did a complete remodel on a very trashed property for about $40,000. See the whole story

While most of the project turned out great, Charles later told me he regretted the cheap kitchen cabinets. He was so intent on spending the least amount of money possible that he opted for presswood cabinets, which I think would be more appropriate for a garage than a kitchen.

Other products in this category are called particle board, chipboard, flakeboard, etc.

They look good in this lovely photo. But they are, after all, made of sawdust, wood chips and binders. And in your day-to-day life, do you really want a nice wood floor and cabinets made of wood chips? And if these get too wet, they will wick up water become irreversibly distorted.

The lesson for us: don’t get so wrapped up in saving money that you end up with garbage. The few hundred dollars you save will be long forgotten, while the junk in your house will be with you, in your face, for years to come.

Hungry for more?

See more on cabinets
See more kitchens

He was featured recently in the New York Times.

Lewendal, who has an economics degree, told The Times: “I think we could solve this recession if everyone shifted just 5 percent of their purchases to U.S.-made products.” See more on the house here.

I’m all for this. And today begins a new feature on Kathy’s Remodeling Blog called Made in America.

Today we feature Alabama marble, which you see here being quarried in 1935.

There may come a time when it’s considered foolish to admit you bought Italian marble or granite counters from India for your remodel. There may one day be a great source of pride and patriotism in saying my marble counters are from Alabama.

Marble has been quarried in Alabama since the 1830s and stone from those quarries was used for the Lincoln Memorial, Washington Monument and U.S. Supreme Court building. Alabama marble occurs in shades of white, pink, gray, red and black, but the white is most popular.

How amazing would it be to have marble floors or countertops quarried from Alabama? See more at Alabama Marble Quarry and Tennessee Marble Company.

Images: Garden Web, Encyclopedia of Alabama

This is what I’m talkin’ ’bout!

This agricultural barn is being cooled with Big Ass Fans powered by solar panels. What a concept!

This is so obvious! When the sun is beating down hot, the buildings and people and animals need cooling off. Rather than sucking black gunk out of the ground and burning it to create energy, why not just use the energy from that very sun to do the job?

Whoever created this universe was pretty kind to include a great big smoking hot battery out in the sky for us to use. Let’s use it, folks.

In case you’re more interested in the Big Ass Fans for your remodel because they are so handsome, that’s OK. These are so magnificently designed that they do more work with less energy.

I love this blue double shotgun Victorian. But what really makes it shine is the bright lime green of the chairs and table and the big burgundy pot on top. Who knew that was magic? Here are the colors that make the whole thing happen:

See more House Paint Colors

In my mind, trying to get the lowest bid for a remodeling project is just as foolish. And a lot of contractors agree with me.

Gayler Construction explains very clearly how buying remodeling services is not even remotely like buying a new car.

And check out how Baywood Building explains the problems with competitive bidding.

So why not?

First off, you won’t have complete plans for each of the contractors to look at in order to get an “apples to apples” bid. Complete plans are too expensive for an architect to create.

So the honorable contractor will include all the elements (like moldings and light sockets and so on) that are not on the plans, but should be. The shady contractor will not include those things, and will therefore give you a lower bid. That’s called low-balling.

Later on, you’ll be made aware of those extras, and will pay for them. By then, it’s too late to turn back.

Also, some people get bids in order to see how much the project their architect designed will cost. That’s an enormous waste of time for the contractor, and many self-respecting contractors will no longer do competitive bidding.

So, what to do? I suggest you find an excellent contractor (whom you judge by face-to-face meetings, talking to staff, talking to references, visiting prior jobs, searching the Internet, considering awards and professional certifications), and an excellent architect or designer (judged by the same criteria), and put these two stellar individuals together to design your remodel. Find the great people first, then move forward as a team.

This should eliminate the finger-pointing architects and contractors are famous for. Or, hire a design-build company where the designer and builders are in the same firm. This way, when the designer comes up with an idea that would blow your budget out of the water, the contractor will make that known immediately.

As one construction loan agent told me, the country is littered with architectural plans that were put out to bid and then abandoned after the bidding process revealed the project would cost two to three times what the clients could afford. That’s sad.

So how about you? Have you found competitive bidding to be a satisfying way to achieve a remodel?

(Image: Solution Crafters Group)