We're nearing the completion of our kitchen/dining room
conversion/extension and our builder has been just great! (No,
really) What should we get him as a thankyou gift? We know the
following about him:

1) He's a builder
2) He has a wife
3) He has a toddler
4) He hates painting

We're thinking £50 max. So far all we can come up with is champagne
and maybe a toy for the little one.

"jb" wrote in message
om...
We're nearing the completion of our kitchen/dining room
conversion/extension and our builder has been just great! (No,
really) What should we get him as a thankyou gift? We know the
following about him:

1) He's a builder
2) He has a wife
3) He has a toddler
4) He hates painting

We're thinking £50 max. So far all we can come up with is champagne
and maybe a toy for the little one.

He might be teetotal.

His wife might be.

Don't you make anything yourself he'd like? We always find that my beeswax
candles are very well received.

Mary

On 4 Feb 2004 12:21:51 -0800, (jb) wrote:

We're nearing the completion of our kitchen/dining room
conversion/extension and our builder has been just great! (No,
really) What should we get him as a thankyou gift? We know the
following about him:

1) He's a builder
2) He has a wife
3) He has a toddler
4) He hates painting

We're thinking £50 max. So far all we can come up with is champagne
and maybe a toy for the little one.

Offer to babysit for an evening and pay for their meal. Parents with young
kids often never get out.

--
We die only once, and for such a long time.

Mail john rather than nospam...

On 4 Feb 2004 12:21:51 -0800, (jb) wrote:

We're nearing the completion of our kitchen/dining room
conversion/extension and our builder has been just great! (No,
really) What should we get him as a thankyou gift?

In these situations I find that vouchers can solve the problem. And
perhaps especially if he has a young family where you don't know
specifically what he's already got in terms of playthings for the
youngster.

Obviously they can be a bit naff in terms of personal appeal, but to
be honest if someone wanted to get me something but didn't know what I
had/wanted I would be delighted to receive a voucher, thus allowing me
to get something I really wanted rather than put a brave face on
saying thank you - knowing that I already had another of those items
at home.

Possibly another thing to consider - did he do this job on his own or
did he have some helpers? If helpers are involved he might want to
share the rewards with them - a bit difficult if you've got one item!

Perhaps do a half-and-half? Bottle of nice wine + voucher?

PoP

Sending email to my published email address isn't
guaranteed to reach me.

On 4 Feb 2004 12:21:51 -0800, (jb) wrote:

We're nearing the completion of our kitchen/dining room
conversion/extension and our builder has been just great! (No,
really) What should we get him as a thankyou gift? We know the
following about him:

1) He's a builder
2) He has a wife
3) He has a toddler
4) He hates painting

We're thinking £50 max. So far all we can come up with is champagne
and maybe a toy for the little one.

So often we hear horror stories about builders here, that it's a
pleasure to hear that you are so pleased with the results.

I like the ideas of a personal something or an offer to babysit as
they are creative. More boring ones might be John Lewis or Marks
and Spencers vouchers.

Does he have a photo portfolio of his work? If the work he's done
for you is in any way unusual, then how about getting a photographer
in and starting a portfolio for him. This could be a real help for
him to get future work; plus of course the good reference that you
will give to future customers. To a small builder, this is worth a
great deal.

He won't be expecting anything so almost anything should be
appreciated.

..andy

To email, substitute .nospam with .gl

Andy Hall wrote:
On 4 Feb 2004 12:21:51 -0800, (jb) wrote:

We're nearing the completion of our kitchen/dining room
conversion/extension and our builder has been just great! (No,
really) What should we get him as a thankyou gift? We know the
following about him:

1) He's a builder
2) He has a wife
3) He has a toddler
4) He hates painting

We're thinking £50 max. So far all we can come up with is champagne
and maybe a toy for the little one.

So often we hear horror stories about builders here, that it's a
pleasure to hear that you are so pleased with the results.

I like the ideas of a personal something or an offer to babysit as
they are creative. More boring ones might be John Lewis or Marks
and Spencers vouchers.

Does he have a photo portfolio of his work? If the work he's done
for you is in any way unusual, then how about getting a photographer
in and starting a portfolio for him. This could be a real help for
him to get future work; plus of course the good reference that you
will give to future customers. To a small builder, this is worth a
great deal.

He won't be expecting anything so almost anything should be
appreciated.

I went skiing in a group of 10 people a couple of weeks back, a few of which
would fit in the small builder/tradesman category. One of them took a few
photos one day and that night we sat looking through them on his camera,
after all the snowy ones there were half a dozen he'd took of a new summer
room he'd built and every one of us agreed that he ought to keep a copy of
them and use them as an example of his work. Up til that point he'd always
thought of that idea as having no merit as no one would be interested but
after all the feedback he's now going to take his camera with him on a job
and document most of the build to give a good record of work to use as part
of a presentation for future jobs.
It's one of those ideas like catalogueing the house contents that we all
should do but never get round to I suppose.

--
James...
www.jameshart.co.uk

"Andy Hall" wrote in message
...
On 4 Feb 2004 12:21:51 -0800, (jb) wrote:

So often we hear horror stories about builders here, that it's a
pleasure to hear that you are so pleased with the results.

Hear hear!

I like the ideas of a personal something or an offer to babysit as
they are creative. More boring ones might be John Lewis or Marks
and Spencers vouchers.

Careful - John Lewis isn't available everywhere :-(((((((((((

Does he have a photo portfolio of his work? If the work he's done
for you is in any way unusual, then how about getting a photographer
in and starting a portfolio for him. This could be a real help for
him to get future work; plus of course the good reference that you
will give to future customers. To a small builder, this is worth a
great deal.

That's a smashing idea! Original, unusual, useful ... congratulations!

Mary

"PoP" wrote in message
...
On 4 Feb 2004 12:21:51 -0800, (jb) wrote:

We're nearing the completion of our kitchen/dining room
conversion/extension and our builder has been just great! (No,
really) What should we get him as a thankyou gift?

In these situations I find that vouchers can solve the problem. And
perhaps especially if he has a young family where you don't know
specifically what he's already got in terms of playthings for the
youngster.

Obviously they can be a bit naff in terms of personal appeal, but to
be honest if someone wanted to get me something but didn't know what I
had/wanted I would be delighted to receive a voucher, thus allowing me
to get something I really wanted rather than put a brave face on
saying thank you - knowing that I already had another of those items
at home.

Possibly another thing to consider - did he do this job on his own or
did he have some helpers? If helpers are involved he might want to
share the rewards with them - a bit difficult if you've got one item!

Perhaps do a half-and-half? Bottle of nice wine + voucher?

PoP

Just got my joiner a £50 Screwfix voucher for doing a super job. He was over
the moon as he claimed that he wouldn't have to justify to his missus the
purchase of a new toy for his collection...

On Wed, 4 Feb 2004 22:00:22 -0000, "James Hart"
wrote:



I went skiing in a group of 10 people a couple of weeks back, a few of which
would fit in the small builder/tradesman category. One of them took a few
photos one day and that night we sat looking through them on his camera,
after all the snowy ones there were half a dozen he'd took of a new summer
room he'd built and every one of us agreed that he ought to keep a copy of
them and use them as an example of his work. Up til that point he'd always
thought of that idea as having no merit as no one would be interested but
after all the feedback he's now going to take his camera with him on a job
and document most of the build to give a good record of work to use as part
of a presentation for future jobs.
It's one of those ideas like catalogueing the house contents that we all
should do but never get round to I suppose.

Exactly. I selected a guy to do some tiling that way. He had a
portfolio of work done complete with references, some of which I
checked.

To me it represents an understanding of his business and likely
customer base and also that he does things in an organised way.

I'm not so much interested in the detail and colour choice of other
customers but the quality of work.



..andy

To email, substitute .nospam with .gl

In message , Mary
Fisher writes

"jb" wrote in message
. com...
We're nearing the completion of our kitchen/dining room
conversion/extension and our builder has been just great! (No,
really) What should we get him as a thankyou gift? We know the
following about him:

1) He's a builder
2) He has a wife
3) He has a toddler
4) He hates painting

We're thinking £50 max. So far all we can come up with is champagne
and maybe a toy for the little one.

He might be teetotal.

His wife might be.

Don't you make anything yourself he'd like? We always find that my beeswax
candles are very well received.

There's an answer there

.... but I'm not going to say what it is
--
geoff

Subject: what to buy a builder???
From: "Mary Fisher"
Date: 04/02/04 20:32 GMT Standard Time
Message-id:


"jb" wrote in message
. com...
We're nearing the completion of our kitchen/dining room
conversion/extension and our builder has been just great! (No,
really) What should we get him as a thankyou gift? We know the
following about him:

1) He's a builder
2) He has a wife
3) He has a toddler
4) He hates painting

We're thinking £50 max. So far all we can come up with is champagne
and maybe a toy for the little one.

He might be teetotal.

His wife might be.

Don't you make anything yourself he'd like? We always find that my beeswax
candles are very well received.

Ummm - we're talking about a present for a builder not your girlfriends

Dave Baker - Puma Race Engines (www.pumaracing.co.uk)
I'm not at all sure why women like men. We're argumentative, childish,
unsociable and extremely unappealing naked. I'm quite grateful they do though.

On Wed, 4 Feb 2004 20:32:37 -0000, "Mary Fisher" wrote:

"jb" wrote in message
om...
We're nearing the completion of our kitchen/dining room
conversion/extension and our builder has been just great! (No,
really) What should we get him as a thankyou gift? We know the
following about him:

1) He's a builder
2) He has a wife
3) He has a toddler
4) He hates painting

We're thinking £50 max. So far all we can come up with is champagne
and maybe a toy for the little one.

He might be teetotal.

His wife might be.

Don't you make anything yourself he'd like? We always find that my beeswax
candles are very well received.

Mary


I have two "gifts",
Cash, goes down well if the guy on site is a worker, and his boss is keeping the profit
Beer, a couple of crates of stella / boddies. I have found the boss gives his share to the lads he has

If its a single one man band type guy, then I would choose a good brand of spirits, if he does not drink himself, he can give to visitors.

Rick

On 04/02/2004 at 20:21:51, jb typed:

We're nearing the completion of our kitchen/dining room
conversion/extension and our builder has been just great! (No,
really) What should we get him as a thankyou gift?

No substitute for a present, but you could post his contact details and
locality here as an extra thanks, there must be lots of people here who
could use a good builder for those jobs that are too much of a stretch
for a diy-er.

--
Abso [at] ukrm [dot] net - Ignore header email address

The uk.people.consumers.ebay FAQ is at upce.org.uk

In order to maintain secrecy, this posting will self-destruct
in five seconds. Memorize it, then eat your computer.