Imagine hiring a painter who moonlights as a magician. You’d wonder which version you’d get come painting day: Da Vinci with a brush or just smoke and mirrors. Enter the hacking contractor. They are not your typical Joes, with their blueprints and toolboxes. They come with a different set of plans entirely. Read more now on hackstage builders

It’s like reading a mystery. Sometimes you turn to the next page hoping for a clue, and sometimes, well… you end up with missing chapters. Bob, my neighbor, once hired someone to remodel his bathroom. By the end of the project, it appeared that the man had turned the room into an art studio. Choose your help carefully. Choose someone who can make your dreams a reality, not just paint them on.

Ever heard the saying “every penny counts”? Penny-pinching can lead to a scene where your contractor vanishes quicker than Houdini, midway through a job. Quality doesn’t have to be akin to discovering the Holy Grail. It’s about making informed choices, reading between the contractor’s lines, and sometimes, seeing through the fog of jargon.

Speaking of jargon, ever sat through a contractor’s pitch? The words are so confusing that they could fill a dictionary. Why does laying tiles sound the same as landing a spacecraft? It’s hard to find honesty, just like a unicorn in a cowboy rodeo. If they stumble over the basics when wearing hard hats, that’s a big red flag.

Communication remains the lynchpin. This is a lesson that I learned while repairing my backyard. I assumed the contractor knew what I wanted–dreaming of a landscaped oasis with a fountain–but got what looked more like a desert scene from a spaghetti Western instead. It’s a humbling reminder that expectations need clear words, not assumptions.