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Stone Creek Coffee gets Customer Service

So I’m enough of a regular at the Stone Creek Coffee in Whitefish Bay that I’m the mayor there on Foursquare. The manager there, Kendra (@stonecreekkb), is truly one of the best baristas I’ve seen anywhere. Before going to vote today, I made a quick stop there with Milwaukee’s best children’s photographer (@annamayerphoto). Today, Anna was jonesin’ for a Pumpkin Spice Latte, which at Stone Creek includes a bit of Oregon Chai. Now Kendra, knowing that Anna prefers the Rishi Chai over the Oregon Chai (because she is the best), offered to make it with Rishi instead. It sounded interesting, so in an uncharacteristically adventurous move, Anna went for it. Of course it was hot, so she couldn’t taste it immeditately to offer any feedback.

About 2 minutes into our drive to the polling place, she tried it only discover that it was awful! I believe the reaction was something like, “Aw, phlaw, yuck! That tastes like soap!” I could be wrong as it was very fast and slurred, but I believe I’ve got the gist of it. She tried a couple more sips to see if it was just he shock of the different chai, but with every sip, it was just as bad. In an effort to save the day, I took a sip. Uh….no. Tired a couple more sips, and … no. This drink was not working with this chai. As awful as, it was I don’t fault Kendra, but rather applaud her for offering the drink. I have no doubt that if this scenario would have occurred in the store, she would have remade the drink in a heartbeat. But, alas, we weren’t in the store; we were 2 miles away. That’s where Stone Creek gets it, and what makes this story bloggable.

After voting, we went to the Glendale Stone Creek to get a replacement since it was right by our polling place.  As we were at a different store where we are not regulars, we fully intended to buy a new drink.  On the off chance they might offer a replacement we brought in the still-somewhat-relatively-warm, aforementioned beverage. We were warmly greeted by both baristas. I wish I would have gotten their names.  Maybe we could just give them good Wisconsin names.  Let’s call them Mark and Amber.  🙂  After just a very brief explanation, Mark began remaking the drink.  No hesitation. No questions. No-brainer.  Just good service.  The conversation that ensued among the four of us during the remake was one that cemented in my mind that Stone Creek Coffee GETS customer service.

Oh, and new Pumpkin Spice Latte? It was everything it was supposed to be 🙂

Stone Creek, you’ve been spied: Thumbs up.

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Misadventures with a Drywall Contractor, Part 1: Getting Started

Ok, so I’ve been in the process of building out my basement for a little over a year. Ok more like a year and a half. I’ve done 95% of it myself, but when it came down to doing the mudding and taping, I thought it best to leave that up to someone who knows what they’re doing. Much in construction can be forgiven in the later stages, but the mud/tape job will be visible forever. Furthermore, we had initially decided to forgo drywalling the ceiling, but a last minute change prompted us to add this to the drywall contracting bid. I had in mind to spend about $1000 for the mud/tape, and figured (based on previous estimates of doing the entire drywall job) that the ceiling drywall would about double that. At this point, it was worth it to me to have the project finished and done right.

I went through the drill of calling contractors from Angie’s List to come out and bid on the job. I started with the guys that previously bid on the entire drywall job. I liked one guy in particular, Rick of New Life Home Improvements in Bayside, because not only did he compliment my work (always feels nice), but he seemed competent and completed the estimate on the spot. I liked that. I hate the waiting game. I had one other guy quote as well, but his quote came in at over $4000. Guy #3 never called back, and I wanted to get going. Guy #1, Rick, bid the job at $1800 and gave a timeline of 4-5 days. On Thursday, 10/7 we said, “go.” I gave him the deposit of $600 and we agreed on a start date of 10/20. He was finishing up another job, and I had a bit of construction to do to prepare (furring the ceiling and framing a soffit), so the two week lead time was good.

There was much cheering and excitement.

To my pleasant surprise I received a call the following Monday morning. A supplier had sent the wrong showerpan for his other job, so if I wanted, he could start the following day. I just went with my gut and said, sure, I can get all my construction done in a day (ha ha). The race was on. (Anna would later inform me that this was a bad decision). I busted my butt all day and well into the night building, and clearing rooms to get the space ready.  I didn’t get everything done that I needed to, but I figured I’d just stay one step ahead.

I was excited! It was time to finish this basement ….

… to be continued

Edit: Now on to Part 2