The Russians are coming!

Perhaps. They were supposed to be here two days ago. For the last several months, our house has not been very safe. We put laminate flooring in our kitchen/dining room which is such an improvement over the vinyl/carpet that predated it. The railing overlooking the living room was severely scratched from the previous owners so we decided with the new floors to put in a new railing as well. It was easier to do the floors at the diagonal by taking out the railing but it's been slower than we anticipated getting the railing put back in. Jay has been too busy to do it and with Henry being as mobile as he is now, I decided to just hire it out. Unfortunately, this is a crazy-busy time for contractors as many, many people seem to have remodel projects. In other words, the wait list for getting a contractor to do my stairs was a couple of months.

Without much hope, I was lamenting to my neighbor when she suggested using a parent of one of her 4th grade students. He was a licenced contractor, but Russian, so he was a bit hard to understand. I called and he planned to come and look at our project the next day. His son came instead who was much easier to understand, although he still had a very thick accent and quirky business skills. We explained what needed to be done, how we had intended to do it and he immediately said, "no, no, no...that is very ugly and out of style." Obviously, his business plan was not to stroke our ego. Our original plan was to put in the exact same railing that we have now, just newer...without the scratches. Instead, he suggested cutting 4 inches out of the floor, putting in a base and putting the rails into it. It will look a lot better, in theory, and I just sincerely hope that I am not being a fool for hiring someone who I'm not 100% certain understands me. Fortunately, Jay was home when he came to do his "bid" because we had to give him a number. He said it just like that..."give me a number" (be sure to add the accent when you imagine this conversation) and I looked at Jay and got a case of the giggles. What country am I in? We protested and said that isn't how we feel comfortable doing it but he insisted and said, "you must give me a number." I was thinking $1000 so when Jay said $300 I sort of blushed but he narrowed his eyes and said, "close." With parts and tax it's going to be $500. I really hope they have a similar creed as physicians with "first, do no harm." But, seriously, if they are not here today, a new type of cold war may begin.

Hopefully, in a few short days, we will be defying death no longer.