Wow, what a whirlwind weekend I had! I knew it was going to fly by but it literally felt like a stepped off the plane and before I knew it I was getting back on one! I am happy to say that now that I have more flying under my belt, I am not nervous at all about flying. Nice!
The first day I got there it was just me and my Mom and Aunt. We basically just needed to do some last minute things before the family reunion Saturday – go to the grocery store, prepare our dishes, finish cleaning the house, putting all the chairs out from the shed out onto the patio, hosing off some of the bag chairs so they could dry before Saturday. We did find time to get our nails done – 2 generations of feet! I am pretty sure long time readers will recognize which feet are mine!
We ended up snacking a bit before going out to dinner – the damn pimento cheese was there but I managed to limit myself to a few crackers – that stuff is literally like crack – especially this brand.
Here’s Mom with her favorite child, she probably told me at least a dozen times over the weekend that I was her favorite. Ha!
The part of the world is so pretty – I could look out over the river all day long.
As I was prepping veggies for our vegetable tray, I poured out a whole bag of radishes on a tray to rinse and cut up – when I got to the last two, they formed the shape of a heart – I’ve seen random hearts around since Tony died – I like to think that was a hug from above.
I took 446 pictures guys! I didn’t get home until about 9:15 last night and spent the evening catching up with the kids. I’ll be sharing pictures of my vacation during the remainder of this week.
The kids were productive while I was gone. They bought a power washer and power washed my back patio – it was nearly black over the years, you know how you don’t notice something because you see it every day? It looks amazing!
And they refinished our back table by sanding it and staining it.
So. . . here’s the deal about the contractor I hired. I am firing him today. Here are the top 6 reasons why:
- Friday when I was traveling he got dropped off at the house. Since he didn’t have a car, he asked Jacob to run to McDonald’s for him. When Jacob came back, the contractor was coming up from the basement and when Jacob asked why, he said he needed a drill and he didn’t have one and wondered if we had one. Huh.
- He texted me Friday afternoon asking for a $200 labor advance because he realized his brother never returned his saw to him because he broke it and needed to buy another one.
- He texted me Saturday afternoon asking for a $300 labor advance because his cell phone was about to get shut off.
- Every day he was here he asked Jacob if he would be helping him. Um, no – I hired YOU to do the work.
- While talking to Jacob he said that he texted his girlfriend to see if she’d put out that day so he could have sex – it had been a couple days because his girlfriend was mad at him. When he got the text back that it was thumbs up, he told Jacob he was going to get lucky that night.
- Another conversation with Jacob – he once dated a woman in town who was a hoarder and he said when he cleaned out a portion of her bedroom, he thought for sure that a blow job was a good reward.
- Turns out we did have active carpenter ants, not termites, and I guess when the Orkin guy and Chris were removing the last panels of insulation and pulled that down, it was raining ants on them – so glad I wasn’t here to see that! Hannah felt bad for him and said that she would buy him lunch. He wanted a philly cheese steak sandwich at Subway and asked if we had any A-1 sauce. Hannah said no and he said “could you stop by the store and pick some up? Who can have a steak sandwich without A-1 sauce?”
When I hired him I could tell he was desperate for work so I pushed away my red flags and thought I was helping out someone who needed work, and I needed work done – win/win. So I am having him come over tonight to pick up what tools he does have and bring me receipts so I can match up what was advanced to him and what materials I actually have in the house. Since Jacob worked at Home Depot he has a pretty good idea of what the materials I do have total, and it doesn’t come close to the amount I advanced him. Should be an interesting night!
While I was gone Jacob was calling a bunch of other contractors that he works with at his job now at Sherwin Williams, and one of them asked if I had contacted my insurance company to see if the work would be covered under my homeowners insurance. Guys – I never even thought of that! So fingers crossed when I call my State Farm agent they say that the work is covered – that would be amazeballs!
Alright, I have to get my stuff together. Jacob really missed my cooking! I think Hannah made dinner once while I was gone and the rest of the time they ate out at fast food places. Not even sure what’s in the fridge for me to put together for food today – it should be interesting!
Make it a great day!
GRRR on the contractor. Just LOVE the random radish heart!!!!!
All that is CRAZEBALLS!
All the right reasons to fire him, he’s a weirdo.
Happy to read you had such a great weekend and look forward to seeing the photo’s of the trip.
I have always wanted to try that cheese but I know it would be like chocolate for me. don’t let contractors take advantage. Eat the loss and send him on his way. So glad you have help from the kids and that you had a great vacay.
What a nightmare!!! Contractors like this guy give them all a bad name. Too bad you got stuck with such a loser. Lesson learned, right? On the bright side, it makes me so happy to see Hannah and Jacob stepping up and being so helpful and cool and loving. What an awesome relationship you all have.
WTH? That’s totally insane……I’m just appalled Biz! geesh!
Yay! for mini-vacay/family reunion; BOO! for that crazy a$S contractor. I hope you get your money back, good luck with that! Btw…pimento cheese…LOVE – I just finished off some I made last week. So good!
OMG are you freaking serious?! If it wasn’t an 8+ hour drive I’d be at your house steaming mad and giving that contractor a new asshole for you. How unprofessional and rude!
PS – how dare you tempt me with that pimento cheese?! It’s not really “a thing” in Nebraska but I’ve had it before and now I’ll be dreaming about it all day. 😉
Hi Biz….gosh that table is beautiful…they did a great job.
I have State Farm Ins. also, hopefully they will help you. When I called to see if we could get help on our leaky roof and ceiling, I was told no….that it had to be something that happened “Suddenly” not something that happened over the years. Maybe State Farm works differently in Illinois then WI though.
Gosh sorry to hear about the contactor problem. That is exactly what caused our roof problems in the first place…..a bad contractor and his work ethics.
Have a good day!!
How frustrating and stressful! So instead of taking advantage of the opportunity he was given, he took advantage of your family’s kindness instead! 🙁 I’m glad you’re showing him the door!
Oh wow. My mouth dropped open when I was reading all the personal/unprofessional things he was saying to Jacob. I also have a feeling what you’ve advanced & the receipts won’t even be close.
On the brighter side – so glad you had a nice family reunion & came home to a prettied up patio area! The kids did good! 😀
I’m sorry you didn’t come home to a new to you room!! Luckily you work for attorneys, so perhaps that will be of assistance in using the right words and taking the right steps to get rid of the crappy contractor.
I’ve heard that pimento cheese is very good, but have yet to buy it myself because I know I would like it and eat it all in huge portions! Sounds like you had a great weekend and came home to a refreshed patio!
Oh Biz, that contractor sounds like the worst. In fact he doesn’t sound like a contractor at all, but someone who is passing himself off as one to get work. Is he bonded/licensed?
I hope the insurance covers it, or at least a portion of it. I agree with others that you probably won’t be able to get your money back from this guy. He sounds like a complete loser. Better to get rid of him now because I have a feeling the work he would do would be half-assed anyway and cause you more problems and money down the line.
I won’t even type the name that my husband would be calling that ‘contractor’ wannabe. YIKES. Seriously unprofessional and shady, shady, shady. Hope you come out ok with everything. Like Kym said, I’d be checking too for anything missing. I don’t know much about carpenter ants but I know termites are rampant here and I’m always scared to death we have them. Your girl and fiance are seriously the best, sweetest, most thoughtful kids. So helpful! =)
It’s good you’re getting this guy out of your house – I suspect you won’t be getting any of your money back, even if the receipts don’t match up. Shady, shady guy. 🙁
I am very angry for you. One of the biggest red flags was the first advance payment question. That makes all kinds of bells and whistles go off. You are too kind. I hope you have some kind of contract in writing. Please be careful dealing with him. I am hoping you didn’t give him your lock code to work while you guys were gone and I’d be checking everything in the basement and house to see if anything is missing. I can’t wait to see all the photos of the reunion.
OMG, that contractor sounds like a total idiot! I was laughing my butt off just reading about him. I stopped laughing when I got to the ants–ewww! Hoping insurance covers it!