Shopping makes everything all better
Not much has changed with the contractors, I'm afraid. I faxed L a two-page letter Thursday night informing him of my displeasure with him but advising that yes, I still want him to do the work as I don't want to wait any longer, but now I'm stuck with waiting on HIM to dictate the schedule. And I've not heard from him since I faxed that letter.
This is something that I'm going to have to accept and live with.
At least the guys working on the house are nice. M, the drywaller and the guy that will be doing the majority of the work, showed up right on time yesterday at 8:15 to finish the drywall repair to what used to be the pantry and as promised, he was gone in fifteen minutes. He was very nice about it, gave me some tips for demo if P decides to rip out the kitchen himself (which he's seriously considering doing this afternoon), and told me that if L gives him direction to come back on Monday, he'll try to call me Sunday night or first thing Monday morning at the least. So at least that's something...I really would have no qualms leaving the house while he's here doing the work next week so at least that's one ray of sunshine.
The flooring people called yesterday morning and I had to explain to them the whole situation. They were ready to come bring the laminate yesterday to start acclimating for Pete's sake...that irritates me in itself. How is it that laminate flooring arrives within days but cabinets take a month? I want someone to explain that to me. Anyway, I pushed back the delivery to Monday and they understand that the installation may not take place till the end of next week, if even then. At this point, I just don't know anything and I told them that. They are being wonderful and super-flexible about it.
So, bottom line, my house looks like total CRAP in every room except the bathrooms because every room is being used to store something.
Best solution for cheering me up when I'm in a bad mood? Shopping!
Yesterday I went to the Movie Trading Company, Half Price Books, and the Allen outlet center with my dad and stepmom and just had a blast. P and I decided that we are committed now to replacing our whole video collection with DVDs, so I took in what remained of our VHS collection (about 130 tapes) to the Movie Trading Company, got store credit for it, and bought a bunch of DVDs with it, which was fun, and then took what they wouldn't take to Half-Price Books and bought more books for my daughter, which was fun as well! But the BEST fun was going to the outlets and baby shopping. Between what I bought and what my stepmom brought for me from New Hampshire, my daughter now has sixteen new baby outfits ranging from sleepwear to onesies to a Christmas dress to spring dresses to shorts/shirts outfits. Everything was on sale and I just couldn't stop myself! It was GREAT fun. Shopping for her was more fun than shopping for me by a long shot.
I also saw some beautiful entry tables on sale at Bombay that I wanted to get but since P doesn't trust me to make that big of a purchase on my own, we're going back today to check it out.
So, by the end of the day yesterday I was in a much better mood, but now it's Saturday morning at 8 am and I'm wide awake thinking about all that we have to accomplish this weekend. We have quite a to-do list:
-go to Lowe's to exchange our sink, our Howe casings that we bought for baseboards for the main areas, and buy our paint, moldings and outlet covers for the kitchen
-go to Bombay for the table
-take my wedding veil to the dry cleaners (I took my dress and petticoat yesterday to be heirloomed but didn't even think to take my veil to go with it like a dummy)
-finish painting the living room and the trims
-move everything out of the dining room so the laminate can be delivered on Monday
-remove the laminate flooring
-remove whatever we are going to remove in the kitchen (P is saying he thinks he's just going to take down the upper cabinets)
-paint the kitchen and utility room
-empty and defrost the freezer
-move the furniture back into position somewhat in the living room and hang our pictures back on the walls (they are taking up way too much room in our bedroom)
So, I'm going to see if I can't prod my husband into waking up so we can start our day. We have a lot to do.
I do like the image of chasing my contractor with the nail gun though...that's a GREAT picture. Thanks for the laughs, and more importantly, thanks for the empathy. Anyone that has dealt with contractors says that this is normal and that unfortunately, contractors work on "contractor time" and no one else's. Even the lady I'm working with on the flooring said that this happens on about 95% of the jobs that she sells that have other work going on at the same time. So that's giving me a little comfort, but if I end up just sitting around the house on my days off next week, I'm going to be pretty pissed.
This is something that I'm going to have to accept and live with.
At least the guys working on the house are nice. M, the drywaller and the guy that will be doing the majority of the work, showed up right on time yesterday at 8:15 to finish the drywall repair to what used to be the pantry and as promised, he was gone in fifteen minutes. He was very nice about it, gave me some tips for demo if P decides to rip out the kitchen himself (which he's seriously considering doing this afternoon), and told me that if L gives him direction to come back on Monday, he'll try to call me Sunday night or first thing Monday morning at the least. So at least that's something...I really would have no qualms leaving the house while he's here doing the work next week so at least that's one ray of sunshine.
The flooring people called yesterday morning and I had to explain to them the whole situation. They were ready to come bring the laminate yesterday to start acclimating for Pete's sake...that irritates me in itself. How is it that laminate flooring arrives within days but cabinets take a month? I want someone to explain that to me. Anyway, I pushed back the delivery to Monday and they understand that the installation may not take place till the end of next week, if even then. At this point, I just don't know anything and I told them that. They are being wonderful and super-flexible about it.
So, bottom line, my house looks like total CRAP in every room except the bathrooms because every room is being used to store something.
Best solution for cheering me up when I'm in a bad mood? Shopping!
Yesterday I went to the Movie Trading Company, Half Price Books, and the Allen outlet center with my dad and stepmom and just had a blast. P and I decided that we are committed now to replacing our whole video collection with DVDs, so I took in what remained of our VHS collection (about 130 tapes) to the Movie Trading Company, got store credit for it, and bought a bunch of DVDs with it, which was fun, and then took what they wouldn't take to Half-Price Books and bought more books for my daughter, which was fun as well! But the BEST fun was going to the outlets and baby shopping. Between what I bought and what my stepmom brought for me from New Hampshire, my daughter now has sixteen new baby outfits ranging from sleepwear to onesies to a Christmas dress to spring dresses to shorts/shirts outfits. Everything was on sale and I just couldn't stop myself! It was GREAT fun. Shopping for her was more fun than shopping for me by a long shot.
I also saw some beautiful entry tables on sale at Bombay that I wanted to get but since P doesn't trust me to make that big of a purchase on my own, we're going back today to check it out.
So, by the end of the day yesterday I was in a much better mood, but now it's Saturday morning at 8 am and I'm wide awake thinking about all that we have to accomplish this weekend. We have quite a to-do list:
-go to Lowe's to exchange our sink, our Howe casings that we bought for baseboards for the main areas, and buy our paint, moldings and outlet covers for the kitchen
-go to Bombay for the table
-take my wedding veil to the dry cleaners (I took my dress and petticoat yesterday to be heirloomed but didn't even think to take my veil to go with it like a dummy)
-finish painting the living room and the trims
-move everything out of the dining room so the laminate can be delivered on Monday
-remove the laminate flooring
-remove whatever we are going to remove in the kitchen (P is saying he thinks he's just going to take down the upper cabinets)
-paint the kitchen and utility room
-empty and defrost the freezer
-move the furniture back into position somewhat in the living room and hang our pictures back on the walls (they are taking up way too much room in our bedroom)
So, I'm going to see if I can't prod my husband into waking up so we can start our day. We have a lot to do.
I do like the image of chasing my contractor with the nail gun though...that's a GREAT picture. Thanks for the laughs, and more importantly, thanks for the empathy. Anyone that has dealt with contractors says that this is normal and that unfortunately, contractors work on "contractor time" and no one else's. Even the lady I'm working with on the flooring said that this happens on about 95% of the jobs that she sells that have other work going on at the same time. So that's giving me a little comfort, but if I end up just sitting around the house on my days off next week, I'm going to be pretty pissed.
posted by Erica at 6:22 AM
MoiraKatydid
emgonz
emgonz@msn.com
2 Comments:
Hugs. We sue contractors for breach all the time and a lot of time what starts the suit is them not completing what they're supposed to be doing by the deadline they set themselves. It ticks people off to have to wait to get on with their lives. You are not alone ;)
We're 8 months behind and counting on our house. A good rule of thumb is double the time and double the budget of what they tell you. Welcome to contractor hell :) So nice to know I'm not alone.
Post a Comment
<< Home