They’re out there, furiously keyboarding from places like Croatia or Ukraine or maybe Nigeria.  I’m talking to you, crazy comment spammers.  Your poor written English skills and meaningless, repetitive comments give you away immediately.

Here are some examples of the phony stuff I look at:  “For a nice and reading and reviewing your article for only a few minutes to ponder several of your sound points.” Does it make any sense to you?  No, not to me either.

Here’s another one: “We need copy writers desperately. After reviewing this site, we want you on our crew. We offer $35 TO $50 per hour. Our top writers are pulling in over $90K a YEAR, writing part time.” Oooh, I’m so excited.  I must be writing masterpieces to attract such an offer.  I’ll just go to their website, handily included in the comment, and discover that there’s no contact information whatsoever, only come-on links for suckers who dream of earning $90,000 per annum with their fabulous writing skills.

Lately I’ve been inundated with idiotic, generic comments by someone calling him/herself “uggs”.  There are uggs boots and uggs women and uggs everything.  Sample comment from uggs: :”Good day it had been dropped at my attention there exists a trouble with your feed I do hope you wash it soon.” Got this inanity this morning and spammed it immediately.  Do the folks behind uggs realize how bad their sentences are?

There are “plug-in” programs that I can purchase to filter out these spammy creatures.  I must ask myself at this juncture, are the spammers and the plug-in profiteers one and the same? Maybe.  Therefore, I will continue to read and spam, read and spam.  In the meantime, all you real and sincere human beings out there, I invite you to make some intelligible (don’t even need to be intelligent!) comments.  Thank you and good day.

We got a call from a lady who wanted to replace a leaking window, and Steve was happy to provide her with a quote to install a brand new Tilt-Pac Marvin Window (our faves).  She was unhappy with the cost and went elsewhere.   She went to a company that builds and repairs windows; in fact, that’s their specialty.  They gave her a much lower price to replace the sash at the bottom as a repair solution to the rain leakage.  We heard from her a few months later:  The lower-cost repair solution hadn’t worked at all!

Ask yourself this:  Do you want it done right the first time, or done for the ‘cheap’ price that leads often to costly do-overs?  Many times Steve has gone to a home to look at work and observes the brand new windows that were installed by others at a ‘great’ price.  He sees the shortcut, shoddy carpentry and the poor installation job that the unprofessional eye of the homeowner misses.  Those windows will not hold up the way windows will last that are properly installed by licensed, insured and seasoned experts like Steve.

Captivating windows let in the view and sunlight.

People ask us, “What distinguishes your company from other construction firms?” We know that we’re up there with the best of the best in quality design and building, but the little touches really distinguish us the most.

For example, at the end of every job there is always a pile of warranties, installation instruction manuals, owners manuals, miscellaneous product information and paperwork from the city, such as the inspector-signed Job Card. We take all of those items and organize them into a Client Binder. The manuals are sorted into basic categories such as “faucets”, “Lighting”, “refrigerator”, “smoke detectors”, etc. Then we alphabetize, 3-hole-punch, and place them neatly into tabbed sections of the binder. We place drawings folded carefully and photos into the front and back pockets of the binder. We label the binder according to address, not client name, as it will always pertain directly to what is built into the house.

Next step: We present the Client Binder, along with an end-of-job gift, to the homeowner. These little touches reflect care and consideration for you, and appreciation for your business.

Client Warranty and Owners Manual Binder

I discovered a wonderful website with tantalizing photos that you can actually lift and send to your own private “Idea Book”.  It’s called houzz.com, and I’ve been getting weekly e-mails from them for a few months now.  Once you have registered for free, you have access to your own account and you can upload photos of your own into albums, then bundle various ones into these Idea Books.

You will also receive a weekly Houzz email with ten to twelve or so Idea Books created by designers, architects, remodelers or just plain creative people.  The Idea Books have titles indicating their particular theme, and if one interests you, click on it and behold all the photos stored therein.  As an example, I clicked on an Idea Book entitled “Garden Paths”; there was a perfect one for our project in Grass Valley called “Outdoor Showers”; and I really enjoyed an Idea Book with photos of “kitchen islands.”  As an added bonus, you can read other people’s comments about the Idea Book and add your own.

As you study the photos, you can imagine something working in your own home, a style, color, material, appliance, piece of furniture, and so on, that sends you.  Then you can send it…..directly to your own Idea Book, which perhaps you can call “Dream House” or “Decor that I love”.  Give it a whirl.

Sapphire Sharks warm up on the field.

Every year On The Beam Remodeling sponsors an ABGSL team.  ABGSL stands for Albany-Berkeley Girls Softball League.  As a family, we observed how positive after-school softball was for our daughter Rebecca (she’s now 23!).  Steve volunteered as assistant coach for her team and I did my share of snack prep and driving.  Then Steve became the coach, and the girls loved him.   We no longer have a child in the ABGSL, but we still donate money every year to keep a team going; otherwise it wouldn’t happen.  We believe in community spirit and contribution, and we love the East Bay!  Go teams!

Our booth at Sunset Magazine Celebration Weekend

Today Steve is constructing an Entry Arbor to display at the Sunset Magazine Celebration Weekend in San Jose the weekend of June 4-5.  It was designed by Architect Steve Hinderberger.  We worked with Steve Hinderberger on a delightful kitchen remodel in Oakland and got along so well, we decided to stay in touch and help each other promote our associated services.

Steve H. will be “manning the booth” this weekend, and will have a display rack of literature for On The Beam Remodeling.   Business cards, photo postcards and magazines featuring our company will be available.  If you’re down in San Jose, don’t miss it.

Here are details of the event:  It’s called “Celebration Weekend”, takes place at Sunset Mag Headquarters, 80 Willow Road, Menlo Park, and tickets cost $16.  There are sections to the event, and our display will be at the Home And Garden Exhibit.  You can find more information at www.sunset.com; click on “Events”.  It looks like it’ll be a lot of fun.

I have been teaching as well as running On The Beam Remodeling with Steve for the past year.  Here are my students with me (center) from the spring class 2011 of VESL for GETS:  Vocational English as a Second Language for the Green Energy Training Service.  As an experienced ESL teacher and remodeling expert, I am in the privileged position of preparing this group for certification as Building Performance Professionals in our community.  As a group we are working to provide employment, improve our fellow citizens’ English skills, and make the world more energy efficient.

The organizations involved include Richmond Build through the City of Richmond, Rising Sun Corporation, a private building performance business, and English Center of Oakland.