Yesterday was Keith's birthday but because I had to work last night (untill 11:00 no less!) we are celebrating tonight. Merriment will ensue. Anyway...there are a lot of things I should be doing to get ready for that. And, as always, there is laundry, my thesis, paperwork, grading, etc. all calling for my attention.
And because I am too lazy to put this in a separate post...Contractors Suck. Yes, I know...that is a sweeping generalization. And the guys we hired were not technically even contractors (maybe that is where we went wrong). But, to make a long story short, we hired these guys to remove and refinish the popcorn ceilings that adorn our 1950's era home. As a result of some great foresight on the part of my mom, we put together a contract that explicitly spelled out exactly what they were supposed to do, how they were going to do it and when they were going to do it by and exactly how much they would be paid. The contract also stated that the guys had inspected the ceilings before going to work.
And because I am blogging about this...you can probably guess that all did not end well. On the first day of work, actually in the first hour of work, the main guy came to us and said the popcorn was much harder to get off than he realized (wait, didn't you sign a contract that said you had inspected the ceilings before you went to work, oooohhh, that's right- you did!) and he would not be able to complete the job for the contractually agreed upon price. WHAT?
He then proceeded to offer up what he could do for the price. Ummm, remove 1/6th of the popcorn or just paint the ceilings or how about paining the walls. He also offered to do the job at more than double the original price. Little did he know that I rarely pay full price for anything so...paying double just was not going to happen. All the while he was trying to convince us that popcorn ceilings are great and he didn't really see why we wanted them removed anyway.
After about an hour of contentious discussion which included me pointing out that he made the mistake of certifying he could do the job at the price point we agreed upon and him claiming we should have told him it was sealed with oil based paint (I'm sorry, isn't that we hired you for?) he agreed to leave if we paid him $235. For what?!? The privilege of us moving all our belongings into the kitchen only to have no work done at all on anything? Yes, please, where do I sign up??
Additionally, I am pretty sure I saw a case on People's Court (one of my many TV related guilty pleasures) where a guy underestimated the work, signed a contract, tried to get out of it and then was held to the original deal. So, if I wanted to be really strict, he would be here right now, scraping away and cursing me, I'm sure, every step along the way.
After I made it clear he was not going to get anything but $50 for gas, because, after all, it was his mistake in assessment that led us here, he started actually yelling and tearing plastic off the walls like a madman saying he had never felt so screwed in his life. Good thing my dad was there or I would have been freaked out! Such an A-hole.
So, my dear friends and family, please be sure to always, always, always have contracts with people you hire to do work for you. You can get a lot of great suggestions for how to word them and what to include online. Going with the lowest bid might not always work out well and beware of finding workers on Craigslist. Just sayin'
Have you ever had a nightmare when it came to getting work done on the house? I have heard that these kinds of issues are all too common so I would not be surprised. What is up with this industry, yo?
