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I
am Diane Dennis...
When my husband and I started our suspended ceiling T-Bar construction
business in 1995 (C and D Acoustics), we were very fortunate
that our supplier, Cal-Ply of Redlands,
totally
supported
us 100%. The people there "took us under their wings"
and taught us so much.
Although my husband had many, many years of in-the-field construction experience,
I didn't know a darn thing about it and he didn't have any experience with the office and paperwork side of the industry.
The paperwork was overwhelming
to say the least. Many thanks
to Bob Baxter,
Cathy Northcutt
and Barbara Walker (all three of Cal-Ply Redlands), for showing us the processes involved
with generating preliminary notices, which release to use
when, how to process progress invoices, etc.
In 2000 I (Diane) started this website because there was
so little out there at the time to help contractors to succeed.
I started out with posting information based on our and
other contractors' experiences and gradually I added downloadable
construction forms.
I was amazed at the response I received, it showed that
there really was a need for the information and forms that
I was posting here.
From 2000 through 2004 I ran the office portion of our construction business and did everything I could
to keep up with the ever increasing demand for the website.
Finally in 2004 (due to his and our son's health) my husband made the difficult decision to close the construction
business
and
allow me
to focus
on
the website
100%.
My husband has Epilepsy with active grand-mal
seizures which makes working on a scaffold that much more
dangerous
and that, combined with our
son's deteriorating health (read
more here) and my Fibromyalgia, dictated that
we both needed to be home as much as we could. This website
and the
incredible
amount
of support
we've received has allowed us to do that. :)
I used to publish a monthly newsletter but
our son's health and increasing needs have caused me to have
to cut back severely on that (currently I publish no more
than
once
per
quarter).
Although I've had to cut back I still
plan on keeping on
"forever" (76,000+ orders and still going), until
I'm no longer of this world. It's the only thing that has
allowed
us to
work
with
our
son and
bring
him along as far as we have. With all the time we have to
spend on him and his needs, there's no way we could hold
full-time jobs out of the house.
In December of 2006 we moved our family from California
to Washington, sight unseen, with the goal of getting help
for our son. While I miss California (I was born and raised
there)
I
absolutely love the island we "landed" on. I really don't like the house we bought (we bought it online), it's old and rickety, and needs SO much work, but as they say, as long as your family is together and healthy (in our case as healthy as can be) ;-) it doesn't matter what or where home is.
We are on beautiful
Whidbey Island and the support we are now receiving
for our son is absolutely tremendous. Our days and nights
are still
extremely difficult but we can finally see a light at the
end of the tunnel, and for once it doesn't look like an
on-coming train! :) We sincerely hope that you find
this website useful. We are always open
to
suggestions,
comments,
questions,
complaints,
etc. so please feel
free to email us!
Have a great day! :)
Diane Dennis
P.S. We also have a beautiful, smart, talented, loving, giving
daughter and we are so fortunate to have her. :)
She
maintained straight A's in both California and Washington, she scored incredibly high on her PSAT and SAT, finished in the top 10% of all Washington state students, and is now out exploring her opportunities. We are so very proud
of her. =)
Diane Dennis Enterprises
(aka
TheContractorsGroup.com)
555 NW Fairhaven Drive Oak Harbor WA 98277
- Why
I don't have a voice number any longer -
Fax Number: (866) 480-7105
- Contact Us through email - |