Norm or Tommy?

[cgallery]

Your 100-year old house needs a substantial renovation. You can use either Norm or Tommy (from "This Old House"). Whom would you pick?

[Handy Al]

I would use Tom. He would cost me a lot less.

[Ed62]

I'll just do it myself.

Ed

[eccentrictinkerer]

I would use Tom. He would cost me a lot less.

I'm so sure about that. My neighbor, Gary, vacations at his daughter's sea-side home in Cape Cod. Gary says that Tommy's boat is bigger by double than any other boat in the marina!

[crokett]

Tommy. He is a general contractor. I am not sure Norm is a contractor at all.

[gsmittle]

Nahm, because I like the way he says, "drawring."

g.

[TB Roye]

Tommy is a contractor, Normmy is a woodworking guy. For my money I would get Mike Holmes from Holmes on Homes.

Tom

[cgallery]

Tonight I watched TOH (I think it is the Newton house) and Tommy had raised the height of the foundation of the garage by about eighteen inches to handle the height of the two slabs that had been poured on top of the original slab (the moisture from all the concrete had taken its toll on the bottom of the garage's framing and had caused lots of rot).

I'm not saying it was the right move (at some point you just build a new garage). But where budgets are stretched and time is short, Tommy came through with a solution where I think Norm would have called for a new garage.

[maxparot]

I also would have to go with the logic of Tom being a general contractor vs Norm being a woodworker/carpenter and hire the general contractor. You may still end up with Norm doing the woodworking if Tom thinks Norm is the right guy for the job.
I would have to agree that if Mike Holmes were added to the list he makes it right!

[Pappy]

His Norminess, only to see the mistakes made that never make it past the final edit!

[LarryG]

Good answer, Pappy.

I voted "Wouldn't matter" as I think that is probably the case. I think either of these guys would be interesting to sit and talk with.

Incidentally, Norm used to be a contractor, running his own firm, before he was tapped for the TOH gig.

[mater]

I would probably go with either one as I think it wouldn't matter.

[dwitzke]

Using the Silva brothers as the general contractors you can get the entire Silva family to help. They all appear to do great jobs. Of course, let's get the TOH to do the entire job and get all the donated materials.

[cabinetman]

There should be another voting option, like "other". I'm another one that does the work myself. I like the challenge. Some remodeling requires a licensed individual because of permitting or code requirements. In that situation I doubt I would pick someone that is a TV personality.
.

[mschrank]

If I had the money, I suppose I'd hire them both: Tommy as the GC in charge of demolition and rough carpentry, and Norm for the finish carpentry.