Am taking action at last on some long outstanding jobs around the house.

My friend G is right. Getting a job done by a tradie requires massive amounts of persistence.

It's been one month from the time we contacted Hire A Hubby for a quote and the local franchisee came out to see our house. He had a really good attitude, was very professional and down to earth, and I liked him. But the time he took coming back with his email quote...! He actually said he'd had a week off, hence the delay.

Life must be really good for tradies. By the way, did you know plumbers earn $60/hr? That's more than an IT professional in the civil service makes (going by my hubby's terms of employment).

We're now at the stage of booking in the job. The tradie proposed 7 June to which I said yes and gave him my best times.

This was four days ago. Still waiting for his reply.

Some months back, I got Metro All Tree Services to come out and quote us for the removal of ten trees, including grinding of tree stumps into mulch. They quoted $550. Hubby balked and we KIVed the whole thing.

Today, I emailed Jim's Tree And Stump Removal (part of the Jim's group which also does cleaning, mowing, fencing, pools, dog wash...is there anything they don't do?) and got an instant SMS reply and email automated response to say Mr X is available for the service and would be contacting me within 2 hours.

While at it, I also booked a quote for bin cleaning. (Note to self: make it super easy for your client to order additional products/services!)

One of the useful things I learned from being a civil servant is "get 3 quotes".

So I've emailed Taylors for a quote.

Thank You.

Your enquiry has been received. We will respond shortly.

A rather blah sort of automated response after Jim's. Another note to self: Businesses that bother to invest in the details and aren't satisfied with 'good enough' are guaranteed to stand out and be noticed.