From: clamboat@gmail.com
Newsgroups: misc.consumers.house
Subject: helping on a home-improvement project
Date: 27 Oct 2005 16:28:31 -0700
   posting-account=lByYLg0AAABODkEzhmZ7kvjYwcGoZpG_

I would like to replace steel windows in my California home.  The house
was built 65 years ago and the steel windows are rusting out of their
frames.  The exterior is stucco so the frame will need to be chipped
out and the stucco repaired after the new windows are installed.  The
exterior wood sills will have to be replaced.  The interior sill tiles
will have to be replaced and the interior plaster surrouding the frame
will have to be patched.

I am not interested is doing the stucco or interior plaster repair
myself, but I would like to be more involved than just writing the
checks. I am reasonably competent with tools and I am anxious to learn
how to renovate, but I don't have enough experience to dive in and do
the job myself without guidance.  I am not working right now so I have
lots of time to spend on the project.

How likely is it that I can convince a contractor (probably a
sole-proprieter) to  let me help install new windows in my own house?
Has anyone done something like this before, and if so, how did you find
your project advisor?  One contractor that I have talked to was very
cool to this idea, saying that it hadn't worked out when doing it in
the past.

-csw