By A.J. Llewellyn
I hired a friend to restore a fallen-down closet two weeks ago and the results have been a close disaster. I am nowhere near getting this thing finished and I am in despair it will ever get done. My friends and loved ones keep asking, "Is it done?" and I am trying my best not to have a meltdown.
The problem is I've never spent so much money before and I know how many books I had to sell to save the money to do this project. Not that I had a choice, since the closet fell apart. The top shelf came down, the clothes pole fell...I just wanted those things fixed, then the closet doors came of their rungs. Mind you, they are forty years old (as old as me!) so they were bound to start falling apart (like me!).
I got a couple of estimates and I try not to think how much better those contractors might have been..especially the guy who came up with the idea of creating extra shelf space. I gave the work instead to a dear friend who needed the work.
Yep, my contractor is a close friend...or, at least I thought so. Now I feel taken advantage of. I feel like Murphy Brown with Eldin, the house painter who wouldn't go away. Except I suspect Eldin smelled a little better.
I think this has been a good lesson in something...not sure what. I know it's interfered with my productivity and probably ruined a 20-year friendship. Yeah, yeah, friends and money don't mix they say, but I happen to have great working relationships with friends who are my co-writers, etc.
They don't however, hang out in my bedroom taking ten years to add a few shelves and a pole to a closet. Nor do they spend mysterious amounts of time doing God-knows-what in the bathroom.
Actually, my dad reminded me on the phone last night of an old Australian movie called, The Plumber. Ivar Kants, a wonderful, underused Aussie actor plays a malevolent plumber who arrives to work on a woman's bathroom, then ruins her home. And her life.
"Be nice," my father warned.
I will...but my faith in this experience has started to be restored. I'm coming up with my own ideas for revenge. On paper that is. I can kill the guy and not get arrested for it. I can kill him...in a closet!!
How about you? Any of you had experiences bad enough you get revenge via fiction?
Aloha oe,
A.J.
4 comments:
AJ my heart goes out to you - it's tough enough having such personal space in chaos and under construction, and then the friendship problems! One of our kids is a contractor so we're familiar with how they juggle jobs and keep everyone waiting... hope it turns out well in the end!
AJ,
Never ever have a friend or relative do any contracted work for you.
We learned the hard way. A relative put a new garage door in for us and also the automatic garage door opener.
Now, our door has to be opened manually. That totally sucks. No amount of persuasion on our part will get the relative back to correct the job. He's already paid, so why should he come back? He usually screens his calls and doesn't take ours. We were burned on this one, but if we let it happen again, shame on us.
Thank you Adriana and Mary Suzanne, you are both right and so far he is actually getting it finished after I tried to fire him. I am just waiting for the doors to come - Mary Suzanne...I feel for you and the automatic opener....sigh.
OMG, brother agreed to redo bathroom. He is an electrician and his brother in law is a plumber. No problem right?
What started as a two weekend project turned into over six months and never getting finished. I had to get someone else to do the lighting and the shelves in the closet.
Live and learn. I hope that closet is done now!
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