Carpet cleaning: Daisy Fresh (thumbs down)

We needed two area rugs and a large room's wall-to-wall cleaned. Our usual carpet-cleaning service, PF's, with whom we've been very happy, would've been a little expensive for this much work, so we went with someone cheaper (mistake): Daisy Fresh. They're awful. They sprayed something on the carpets, scrubbed at them a bit, and were done. No vacuuming, no other equipment, no special attention to stains. The first guy who came had to borrow our vacuum cleaner because he had left his on an earlier job. When he left and the carpets dried, they looked exactly the same as they had before cleaning. We called and complained, and spoke to the owner, who was extremely curt and resistant to doing anything further. Eventually we convinced him to send someone else, who agreed that the first guy had done a lousy job, and did the work again. He did a much better job, the carpet looked fairly clean overall, but many of the stains are still there. They tried to claim that these stains cannot be removed, but our SpotBot removes them with no trouble. I unequivocally recommend against using Daisy Fresh.

Tree removal: Reston Tree Experts (thumbs up)

Our sixty-foot weeping willow was dying, and before it fell on someone or our house, we decided to have it removed. You may have seen flyers for 1-800-CUT-TREE stuck on telephone poles around the area; well, that company is Reston Tree Experts. Their estimate was a full third lower than the next-lowest, and they did a fantastic job. Highly recommended.