The Horrors of Home Repair

Nothing quite says "dignity" or "poise" like breaking down in front of a Russian in your bathroom while talking about drywall.

Curious?

This getting-ready-to-put-house-on-the-market business is gruelling. A few weeks ago, the topic at our financial peace class was on buying and selling a home. Jay and I both realized that we really needed to go ahead and do some simple fixes to our home that would make it more attractive to potential buyers. Namely, replace the carpet in our family room that had a perfectly shaped iron melted out of it (hazards of matching t-shirts for family reunions), and replace the bathtub in our master bath because the jets were broken and we discovered that when the water level was above the jets, the bathtub leaked and was damaging the two-by-fours and drywall on both sides of the tub.

In a previous blog, I mentioned how I got a bid for the drywall repair and finish work from some Russians. That was before we decided to replace the tub. A guy in our ward is a plumber and when the Russians came to look at the drywall and found moisture, they suggested I call a plumber to discover the source of water. The plumber is the one who educated me about my bathtub leak and Jay and I, in good faith, decided to replace it.

Well, you can't have a burgundy toilet when you don't have a burgundy bathtub so we got a new toilet too. And when they took out the bathtub, they had to rip out all the sheet rock behind the tub as well. Now, I was looking at hiring a sheet rock guy to get the bathroom to the point where I could call the Russians again to come and paint the bathroom and do the finish work in the living room.

Still with me?

Now, no project in my house ever manages to be on time and on budget and the bathtub and toilet were no exception. The plumber needed to go rent a jackhammer at one point (something about the pipe sticking out of the drain) along with several other parts and by the time he had finished had spent several extra hours on the job and extra money for parts so I ended up paying about $150 more than the original bid.

Then, out of the blue, the dad of the plumber (who had helped his son with the installation) calls me and tells me he wants to do my sheet rock for free! He gave me his reasons and it seemed genuine and nice, not to mention a huge blessling for us, so I gratefully accepted and he told me what he needed. I wrote it all down and sent Jay to Lowe's for the supplies.

Of course, when he showed up he needed some more stuff. I don't know why these people think that I know what they are talking about. I wanted to cover my ears and start singing "la-la-la-la-la-la" but instead wrote it all down and went to Lowe's myself for the extras.

Free or not, it's annoying having somebody in your house all day. I felt awkward and it took a long time and I knew I should be grateful but it was dusty and dirty and ruined my routine. It also took THREE different days for it to be complete with sanding and reapplying mud. But finally, I thought it was done and called the Russians.

I think I have their business figured out. The older, skilled laborers come to America but find work difficult because of the language barrier. The second generation, who undoubtedly find learning English easier, become the "business"men and do the bids and talk the talk but leave the work for the non-English-speaking laborers. That is what happened with the carpenters last October and it is certainly what has happened with the painting.

Bojan (the Russian bidder) came over on Friday and redid his original bid now that the drywall repair no longer needed to be done and I decided to add on all the finish work, including putting up all the new white baseboards. The bid went from $550 to $700 ($150 dollar difference - it seems to be the magic number) which I thought was fair, so I agreed and he told me his guys would be ready to go on Tuesday.

That day, I decided to just get all of our projects done (it IS crunch time) so I went to a couple of carpet places and found some inexpensive berber carpet. Carpet Barn was the cheapest so I bought it from them and they promised a Monday installation. I thought everything was falling into place so I scheduled my realtor to come on Wednesday for a walk through so that we would know what else she thought we should do before listing and we could have it on the market in early April.

Sunday night, Jay and I moved all of the furniture from the family room into our bedroom. We have the heaviest entertainment center in the world. There is no way we are taking it with us. It's one of those "put together" units and once together...with all of the particle board...it is simply too heavy to lift. So, we "walked" it back to our bedroom after all the other furniture was stuffed in and slept upstairs in our guest bed.

Monday, the carpet guys don't come until 4:00 pm! That's a long time to be without a computer or T.V. on a day when it's cold and gloomy outside. As I didn't know when they were coming, I couldn't really go anywhere either. Long, long day. Of course, it was also more expensive than the original bid. Patty, the saleswoman who sold me on this great deal, forgot to add in the cost of disposal or stair installation. When the guys showed up, they asked if we wanted them to rip up the carpet or if we wanted to do it ourselves. Um......(that'll be $1.00/yard) and when the room was finished and only the stairs remained asked us if we wanted them to do our stairs. That was another $40 dollars. Altogether, another unlucky $150 above budget.

Tuesday, the painters were supposed to come at 8:30. I took Sammy to preschool at 9:00 and rushed back home, not wanting to miss them. At 10:00, I left the first message to Bojan saying that the painters had not arrived but I had an appointment to take my van in. But, I absolutely did not want the painters to show up and leave if I was not there. At 11:00, I returned home to find the painters still missing and no reply to my message. At 12:00, I realized I had forgotten Sammy at preschool (it gets out at 11:30) and left in haste once more to go pick him up as well as my "worst mother of the year" award. It's bright and shiny! Another call and message and more waiting. Three more times I called, each time more irate. Finally, at 5:00, Bojan returns my call and apologizes for my wasted day. He was out of town (or so he says) and the painters got stuck at a previous job. I received a promise for an 8:30 start time on Wednesday.

This morning, I rushed around trying to clean up what I could before the painters came and I became either a prisoner in my home locked to certain rooms or an expatriate exiled to McDonald's playland. But at 10:00, the painters still weren't at my house and I called and told Bojan to shove it. Actually, I said if they weren't at my home in a half hour then the deal was off. Of course, they showed up fifteen minutes later in their non-English-speaking blissful ignorance.

In that broken English way, one of the painters charaded to me that my bathroom drywall was a disaster. Almost everything about it was wrong. Cracks, wrong product, non-level surfaces...you name it and they felt they had to redo it to paint it. We both realized, however, that we needed a translator before any decisions were made so they went to work on the living room and left the bathroom alone. At around noon, Bojan the business man comes and the grimness of my bathroom situation becomes apparent. Either they can paint it as is and it will look awful or they can redo it for $300! They even made me feel better about having it done for free by telling me ( and I don't know how he knew this phrase in English....curious), "vell, you git vat you pay for." Thank you so much.

And now, we reach the scene in the bathroom. Me, sitting on top of the vanity, Bojan waiting for an answer from me if I want the painters to fix it or not, and the accumulation of all things overdue and overpriced crashing in a horrific pile-up. Bojan immediately started saying, "uh...don't cry!" but the tears were already coming down my face. This is when I hate being a woman. It's like I had no control! I was just so frustrated and tired of the position I feel like I am constantly in...making decisions about things I really don't know about or even care to know about.

So I did the only thing I could do in this situation. I ate A LOT of Easter candy.