excellent point about the unseen cost of cheap labor, ms. peasy. everything has a price, even the things we don't pay for. no idea why our sheetrock guy came so cheap, and other than quality, don't know else wasn't getting paid for. can't remember if we mentioned that he called us once to thank us for the referrals and good references (we took calls from at least two people asking our opinion of him -- had all good things to say about him, and don't be afraid to tell him the jobs not yet done), then offered us a job for free. what? we didn't have any work for him at the time, but it still makes me wonder if we didn't dodge a bullet.
there's another anything you pay for: a sense of well-being as you let uncounted strangers in and out of your home for unsupervised hours. how much does trust cost? can it be bought? is it like paying for quality? we assume the more expensive product, whether person, place or thing, is better. this guy costs so little there must be something wrong. somehow damaged. perhaps he's desperate. reformed ex-con? recovered addict? bad businessman?
what are we charging ourselves by not investing in each other?
is there some blogger protocol against breaking the comment thread? i figure most of you aren't reading the comments -- i skip them on most blogs -- and i liked molly's so much i wanted to weave it back into the web. and i got another post out of it.
Posted by: Michael | 2007.09.28 at 20:31
glad you were not stung by my comment. i do not wish to take pot shots at your faith in mankind. and i know that your recommendations take into account, as much as possible, how each of your contractors treats his/her employees. it's just that a job done properly in nyc is often a very expensive thing. when you do the work yourself, you find out why. maybe--a big maybe--if more revovators were willing to admit this, even the under-the-radar guys could ask slightly higher prices, ones high enough to cover the safety measures. maybe?
Posted by: peasy | 2007.09.30 at 06:57