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Shane's Domain Auction Picks for Wednesday November 12th

Shane's Domain Auction Picks for Wednesday November 12th

Shane Cultra
November 12, 2025

We recently had our bathroom remodeled. While I’m not capable of doing it all myself, I’ve been part of four or five remodels over the years, and we’ve done plenty of projects on the farm. I have a good idea of the process and what a nice finish should look like.

We hired someone who was a good customer at the nursery and also did remodeling. I had people who did our whole house remodel before, but they were busy with a year-long project. We received a few bids, but this person agreed to let us buy all the materials. That’s a big savings, and we gave some of it back by paying him a little more per hour than others. Win win, or so I thought.

It became obvious right away that he was subcontracting everything except the grunt work. The union guys showed up around 3 p.m. to do the electrical and plumbing. The electrician asked the right questions, but the plumbers asked none. We had problems from the start. The crew worked a few hours and left. The removal went fine, but the tile work and floor grouting were bad. Painting was even worse.

He used an experience foreman but his crews were Mexican guys from his other labor crews, which had nothing to do with the work quality. People from Mexico can be incredible finishers. They can tape, cut tile, finish edges and borders, and grout with the best of them. Or they can make it look like a rushed remodel at a Mexican restaurant. You’ve been in those motels that look okay until you sit on the toilet and notice caulk everywhere, edges that don’t line up, and paint over every flaw. This wasn’t that bad, but it wasn’t the high-end bathroom we paid for.

We called someone else in to fix everything. They were perfectionists and literally stripped all the paint, retaped the drywall, sanded the walls and ceilings, and redid tile edges to make clean lines. The only thing they couldn’t fix was the grout inconsistencies, so the original crew had to come back and redo it.

Of course, I made the original crew pay for the redo, and they weren’t happy. That didn’t matter because I was ready to take it to court or Facebook. If I had posted about it, it would have been over for them. But I wanted to give them a chance to get better. We all get better with experience, by learning which crew members aren’t skilled enough and either replacing them or training them to improve. In this case, I don’t think they’ll get better. They had nothing but excuses, admitted nothing, and just did what I told them. Not once did they say, “This isn’t up to our standard, and we’ll make it right.” Those words go a long way. Instead, I heard, “You didn’t pay for that, it’s not in the contract.” My response was simple: quality work might not be written in the contract, but anyone looking at these pictures would call it bad.

It was also the little things they didn’t do, the kind of stuff that forces someone less handy to call for help. For example, in showers there’s usually a setting in the handle that controls how much hot water comes through. It’s there to prevent scalding, but it has to be adjusted. Ours was set so low the water barely got hot. It’s easy to take off the handle and turn it up, but I should have been asked how hot I wanted it.

The grout and tile would have looked fine to most people, but we had another bathroom done a few years ago that was perfect. When you step from that one into ours, you notice the difference. There was no toilet paper holder, towel hooks, or racks. They never asked. We were so ready for them to leave that we just did it ourselves. The transitions from tile to wood and carpet were terrible, so we fixed them too. They missed 10 to 15 nail holes in the trim, never filled or painted them. Some trim pieces didn’t sit flush, so we sanded and painted them ourselves.

In short, being informed about reconstruction saves time, money, and stress. It helps you ask the right questions. I let a relationship get in the way of that. The funny thing is, we told them we didn’t want them to start. I didn’t like their communication or answers early on, but they convinced me to move forward. We should have trusted our first instinct. Good communication is the foundation of all great things, even construction.

Quote of the Day: “The bitterness of poor quality remains long after the sweetness of low price is forgotten.” — Benjamin Franklin

Domain of the Day:

Please Note: The list below contains affiliate links and/or names that have been posted for a fee. It is how we pay for our time since it is a free site. More details at bottom of page. Can go to any of the auctions by adding the names at the end like this one

Shane's Domain Auction Picks for Wednesday November 12th

Godaddy Domains with Bids

Godaddy Names Value Names (Low or No Bids)

Other GoDaddy Names With More Than One Bid