Axlp

I've found,increasingly,that the majority of people living in newly created suburbs care very little about the exterior of houses. A well-conceived,attractive exterior fell victim to people's desire for more square footage. As a result,you have your cookie cutter,4000 sq.ft. house, with tan plastic siding, vinyl windows,and a rectangular, plastic, tan deck.And don't even suggest a material for a deck that might actually require some maintenance. Heaven forbid you might have to take care of the outside of your house. That's going too far. Decks, in developments, are surfaces for people to put their George Foreman grills.

I can see solid surface making a comback (even though it's not exactly cheap either) but I think you will always have a hard time getting laminate into high end kitchens. Laminate's only possible chance of making it back is if kitchens go the way of bold colors and mixes of laminates and other materials,but you can almost see that being just a flash in the pan. I hope granite goes away so I don't have to budget thousands of dollars just for a kitchen counter,but I can't see what the future holds.

Enough! Stop the forecasts for yet another grim construction year. With the overabundance of media outlets(such as this) people are being beaten over the head with negetivity and fear. We're all aware by now that it's hard out there, but having our potential clients constantly being told that now is a bad time to improve their house and their quality of living is not helping. How about a little optimism fellas,not fuel for the fire."Wounded animal crawling along?"Please,we're American construction workers,we don't crawl.

I wanted to look at the article on estimating home repairs,
but I couldn't get passed the scary photo. Please,for the sake of all of us who've taken a co-worker to the hospital with a nail in his body,don't show photos of a guy standing on his toes,on a roof, shooting a nail down toward his face.

Norm Abram certainly deserves credit for bringing carpentry to mainstream television and allowing all of us to be proud
of what we do. But for Norm's final episodes I would love to see a "humble" Norm show the clips of his work that never made it to the air. Show the clips where Norm's truck won't start and he's 45 minutes late for a meeting. How about where he cuts an expensive piece of crown molding an inch short and can't find another piece anywhere. Where is the show where Norm has to tell a homeowner their project budget just went out the window due to unforeseen circumstances and the homeowner goes ballistic? Norm would have helped us all out a little by showing some of the difficulties of our trade rather than painting a rosie picture for every situation. Norm, you're the best, but for the sake of the rest of us, keep it real.