When an ordinarily calm contractor and homeowner disagree during a project, either one or both may find himself shaking with anger and frustration. In my experience, homeowners and contractors routinely talk past one another, with neither one giving the other the understanding they feel they are due. We could call it “the invisible nail pop syndrome,” an otherwise humorless situation where values are seriously out of skew. When problems on the project don’t rise to the level of major breach by the contractor, but are still short of the owner’s expectations, I may advise the homeowner to hire an owner’s representative to oversee continued construction.