Address is 118 State Street, by the way:

Posted by: nohazmats at August 16, 2007 1:39 PM in response to Carriage House on State Street

Not working with an agent right now... I've never had good experiences with brokers, especially since I can count on sites like this one :-)

Posted by: nohazmats at August 16, 2007 3:30 PM in response to Carriage House on State Street

Montague Street is great... if you need to go to the bank or a real estate office.

Otherwise, I'd rather walk into Cobble Hill if actually want to do anything.

Posted by: nohazmats at September 8, 2007 12:04 PM in response to Will Trendy Stores Give Montague a Shot in the Arm?

Interesting... I never would have guessed that. The last thing I want to do is offend. I simply didn't want to short-change any of these folks that are working very hard right now. I'm assuming it's inappropriate to tip the folks on their teams too then.

Posted by: nohazmats at December 16, 2007 8:18 PM in response to How much do I tip people working on my house?

So, if my painted is charging me $3k to paint my house, it's rude to offer a tip to him or his team of guys?

Posted by: nohazmats at December 17, 2007 2:38 PM in response to How much do I tip people working on my house?

Or a blowjob. Everyone loves a blowjob.

Posted by: vanburenproud at December 17, 2007 8:08 AM in response to How much do I tip people working on my house?

I don't see what skilled vs. unskilled has to do with the tipping situation. A hairdresser is a skill and I tip her. A massage therapist is also a skilled job and I tip her as well.

Generally, I think a tip is an appropriate thank you to any one performing a service for you. Owners and highly paid specials can sometimes be excluded (but not always). Most people appreciate the gesture and take it for its meant to be.

Ive worked at jobs where tips were common and I can tell you that Ive never felt belittled when someone was gracious enough to hand me their hard earned money. Few people are.

Posted by: MrsLimestone at December 17, 2007 8:31 AM in response to How much do I tip people working on my house?

A curious thread. What is un-skilled labor - where is that line drawn?
A guy cutting my lawn has skills appropriate to the job at hand. I am accessing his knowledge base.
Some so-called professionals in the construction business (or any other) have one primary skill - the ability to con you out of your money, so I guess a tip would be unjustified.
Most practitioners of trade-work, excepting some unions do not apprentice to trades anymore in any formal sense, technology and lax standards have eliminated the need for much of it to the detriment of consumers.
It is unlikely the person that tiled your bathroom wall spent 4 years acquiring that trade (tiling is a trade) as was done in the old days. A waitress in a restaurant might well have spent much longer acquiring her set of skills and when her shift ends might go home and tile her bathroom wall.
Not to mention, it smacks of elitism to suggest that Joe over there digging that trench could be tipped but "Please do not insult me, I am a professional I just changed your light fixture"
When it comes to a tipee a little humility goes a long way.
As for the tipper the only important thing to remember is that size matters.

'Tip o the mornin to ya'

Posted by: guest at December 17, 2007 9:03 AM in response to How much do I tip people working on my house?

Next thing I'll have to start tipping my attorney and my dentist

Posted by: guest at December 17, 2007 9:04 AM in response to How much do I tip people working on my house?

I think I am being misunderstood.

I am speaking from the position of someone who has taken a lot of tips--I worked as a waiter and bartender for twelve years.

For that matter, I give a lot of tips. I think they are an important gesture. What I am saying is that I think it's important to understand what exactly the gesture is when you give a tip, because they can become rude.

Perhaps I should put this another way. When I tip a waiter or a demo guy, I am saying, "thank you for being humble enough to put yourself in this position for me. Thanks for extending your body and your time to serve my needs in this direct, potentially self-reducing way. Thanks for taking my direct orders. Thanks for allowing me to tell you what to do." As a waiter, I totally appreciated tips, because knowledgable subservience is what waiting tables is about. There's nothing wrong with that. I could go back to waiting tables tomorrow, and would be happy to accept a tip, because that's the deal.

As a skilled tradesperson, I have much more control over how much I charge and what I do for you. If you want me to take out your kitchen garbage because you are wearing something nice, or clean up some other subcontractor's mess (both examples taken from real life experiences I have had in other people's houses), I can, tactfully, say no.

To tip a skilled tradesperson who has already set their price is to assert a power relationship that is not there, and that I have, in my professional experience, found it best to avoid. I decline tips because I have, out of a misplaced sense of humility, received a tip from a client, only to find myself in the weird position of being asked by the (otherwise nice and respectful) client to take her dog out for a walk while I was in the middle of installing her cabinets, because she was "busy doing other things," and not quite being able to say no because, after all, I did take a twenty from her a month ago.

That's because a tip communicates that you have been bought, and sometimes this is respectful and appropriate and sometimes it is not. It's all about context. I am all about humility--it's a very useful business tool. But there is no good reason for an independent contractor who is in your house on specific business to have the *type* of humility that accepting a tip communicates.

FWIW, I am not the only one who thinks this way. Waiters talk about tips in this level of detail all the time, and I have never been at a party with woodworkers or metalworkers without hearing outrageous tip stories, generally followed by loud, clinky-glassed avowals not to ever accept a tip again.

Posted by: vanburenproud at December 17, 2007 9:56 AM in response to How much do I tip people working on my house?

Vanburenproud, nobody has misunderstood you. We all understand that you have a serious chip on your shoulder. Get over yourself and your skills. Your assumption that someone offers you a tip so they have power over you belies your own insecurity. If it makes you feel better, go to work in a tie. Your clients are just trying to be respectful. They don't know what's customary or expected.

If some woman once asked you to walk her dog, it had nothing to do with the fact that she tipped you. It was because you had been in and out of her house for over a month which is a strange invasion of privacy that in fact puts you in a position of power over her. You had established a friendly interaction and she asked you for a favor. She didn't offer you $50 to do it, did she? She asked you to help her out of bind in that moment.

Posted by: guest at December 17, 2007 1:07 PM in response to How much do I tip people working on my house?

So, if my painted is charging me $3k to paint my house, it's rude to offer a tip to him or his team of guys?

Posted by: nohazmats at December 17, 2007 2:38 PM in response to How much do I tip people working on my house?

I'm a professional woodworker. I submit a price to my clients, and that's all that I expect in compensation. The best tip that my clients can give me is their trust, and kindness. I love it when a client says that there are cold drinks in the fridge, and I can help myself. Some even ask what kind of beer I like.
On the other hand, I have an assistant, to whom I pay a decent wage. He has skills, but not top notch. I appreciate it when he gets a tip from my clients...and he does.

Posted by: guest at December 17, 2007 4:28 PM in response to How much do I tip people working on my house?

I forgot to mention (guest @ 4:28)...when I have a good client, I always make them something out of wood...so I do the tipping, as a way of thanking them for picking me, and being nice.

Posted by: guest at December 17, 2007 4:32 PM in response to How much do I tip people working on my house?

I've been hanging out (often in pubs) with independent contractors and tradesmen un-skilled and skilled all my life.
I have never heard such unadulterated shite.
I have never once heard anyone speak of refusing a tip
- except for Mary the waitress at the diner but that guy eats for two, tries to chat her up and always leaves a quaeter -
rather of the client's largesse or more often great lack thereof.
Get a grip of yourself Vanburen et al. I hope you and your party of woodworkers tipped the barmaid - if for no other reason than to establish your notion of power over her.

Posted by: guest at December 17, 2007 4:48 PM in response to How much do I tip people working on my house?