Saturday, December 31, 2016

The art of sales

We have been in a fair number of showrooms lately looking for and purchasing a variety of items for our remodel. We have noticed that some sales folk are very good at their jobs and then there are some others. Yeah, the not-so-welcoming ones. On several occasions, we have been in a showroom discussing sizable purchases with someone who either answers questions mechanistically (Just the facts, ma'am) with no desire or awareness that going just one level deeper in the conversation just might yield a productive conversation and a big sale. Or, there's an occasional type that aims to denigrate our prior decisions and make us feel like we are very small people with no importance or relevance in that moment or any other. What those less effective salespeople may not realize is that we simply won't buy from them. We are deeply loyal to someone who goes the extra mile to explain something or offer a solution to a dilemma. If we explain our unique situation and you offer amazing ideas and flexibility to make the dilemma disappear, we will buy from you and remember you always, especially when someone asks for a referral. But, if you don't listen at all ("We're looking for something with much less gray in it." "Here's our gray selection..."), well, then. Let me repeat myself.

We are deeply grateful to be able to make these purchasing decisions and just as grateful for several sales folk who have helped us immensely recently. You are superstars.

Wednesday, December 28, 2016

How I spent my Christmas vacation

I took a few days off between Christmas and New Year's and have been very busy helping to make decisions so that the remodel can continue progressing. For a lower-key day tomorrow, I will help take two-year-old triplets and a cutie-patootie five-year-old to Happy Hollow Park and Zoo. A day off from decision-making, except which carousel animal to ride!

I watched the pile of tile scraps amass, indicating tremendous progress on our bathrooms.

I stopped to appreciate the beauty of a tile saw awash in afternoon sunlight after a busy day.
I helped choose a wall paint color. Bold feature walls to follow.

I watched paint dry. Not really. Mostly, I saw brief moments of others painting while I expressed happiness. :-)



Saturday, December 17, 2016

It's all agrout the expert installation

There are quite a few steps to proper tile installation, and the thing to do is to hire expert installers. We had thought that we would tackle it ourselves, but decided to find a crew with many years of experience, and it has been a good decision. Delegate, delegate.

Laying out the warm floors
 
Mixing the mud

Laying down the mud on top of the warm floors
 
The second upstairs bathroom
 
Tools of the trade
 
Just one of our piles of tiles

We're not too chicken to lay out the wire

More tools of the tile-setting trade

Tiles for the master bathroom floor

An expert getting his job done

Choosing a pile of tile

We recently had a marathon session at Emser Tile in San Jose to choose tile for our three full baths. Our Emser helper was amazing and led us through the process with patience and confidence. Highly recommended showroom!

We are incorporating a few tiles from Fireclay in San Jose with others in our guest bathroom.
Our second upstairs bath. 

The wide variety of grout colors.

A good match for grout color!


The selections of metal trim.