I am not new to dealing with contractors. Back in 2003 I purchased my first home, a brand new build. They broke ground in October 2002, and I moved in in March of that next year. Since the house was just a few blocks away from my job, I visited the site almost every damn day. Things went wrong almost immediately. The foundation was dug and poured, and when I went to look, it made no sense to me at all. I cocked my head from side to side and walked around the entire property several times before I realized that they had flipped the entire plan. When you sit and look at house plans for hours and hours, trying to picture the layout, the views from windows and the light that will come in and so forth, you get used to the way you have looked at it. To have the entire thing flipped meant that all of a sudden I had to add windows where there weren't windows before because now I had a serious lack of natural lighting issue and so forth. It went downhill from there, for the miscommunication was rampant. I remember those times, and so now, as we are getting the house fixed up from the storm in June, it is coming back to haunt me.
First of all, let me say that State Farm is the best insurance company ever. Ever. EVER. After much squabbling back and forth about replacing several windows, they sent out another adjuster a week and a half ago to look over the place again. Our claim estimate jumped from $13K to $24K to account for more paint, a new garage door and some other things. The adjuster was very courteous and absolutely thorough, and has a fully operational bullshit meter. It appears that the windows subcontractor was pushing up numbers a bit, but on the other hand, the gouges left behind from numerous golf ball-sized hail that peppered all over the house, meant that one coat of paint was not going to do the job. I mean really, the previous agent submitted for ONE coat of paint on *most* of the house. That's ridiculous. It pays to complain loudly sometimes.
We picked out a new garage door, and also decided to go ahead and replace the front door and both of our back doors - those will be on our own dime and labor. (thank you honey!) We made our color choices and style choices, and I submitted a flurry of paperwork to the HOA last Friday for approval. I am competing with about 80% of our neighborhood for the coveted HOA signatures.
Monday (of this past week): I finally had the line item insurance paperwork in hand to show the contractor so that he knew exactly what the insurance company was going to cover, and so we could draw up a new contract for the work to be done and how much we would pay. He came over that afternoon and I showed him the garage door that we had picked out and he placed a call to the garage door sub. They responded later that afternoon with a 'yes, we can do that' and it would be ready in two weeks. Remember that. Two weeks. Meanwhile, we went through the rest of the list and the contractor reminded me that I needed to get a check from the insurance company. Asap. (vermin)
Tuesday: phone call from contractor:
C: Have I called you yet today about your garage door?
Me: (what now?....) Uh...no?
C: Oh, well they have it ready to install, and can be there tomorrow between 10 and noon.
Me: (shock and more than mild irritation) Ummm... let me look at the calendar.. (several complications), Yeah... I guess that will work.
I think about a total of 18 hours had passed since the "two weeks" statement and the "they will show up tomorrow" statement. Now, I know that most people have the opposite problem. They pay for work and it never gets done. I have a different problem. I know my contractor has a cell. I know that all of the subs have a cell. But nobody EVER CALLS to set up a time to come by - they just show up. They seem to think that I am always at home, and that we never leave the house to do things, and that we never need advanced notice for anything.
People in the contracting business, hear me out. IT IS FLAT OUT RUDE. okay?
So I got on the phone and moved the violin lesson, arranged a ride for somebody else, told Dean we needed to clear out the garage that evening, and then freaked out because I had nothing from the HOA. They had the paperwork for all of one business day so far, and that's only if they had picked it up from the HOA office. As luck would have it, that Friday before I had received a nice phone call from one of the ladies on the HOA board to let me know that I had verbal approval on the paint color choices, and that the paperwork would be on its way soon, as soon as it was signed off at their next meeting. So, with her number in hand, I called to plead my case that my contractor was messing with me and that the garage door was being installed tomorrow instead of two weeks from now and I needed approval for that. She was very sympathetic and understanding. Those HOA people need Christmas cards this year because our entire neighborhood has worked them overtime in the past couple of months.
Wednesday: right at 11:58 a.m., the garage guys showed up and installed the door over the next three hours. All irritation aside, it looks beautiful and totally changes the entire look of the house. I won't show pics until all the work is done. I received a call from the insurance guy, wanting to know if I had a signed contract with the contractor in hand. (I did) He will be by the next day to get a copy.
Thursday: Insurance guy shows up at appointed time, inspects the new door, takes the contract and gives me a substantial check. I may have trouble getting it cashed since it is large and I have to get two different banks' signatures on it as well. This could take some time. I call the contractor later to tell him I have the check and let him know that I will work on it beginning Monday, to get it endorsed by a bunch of different people, as this takes time, and I don't want to do it on Friday because it is Halloween, and that doesn't sound like fun. Halloween is supposed to be about fun - not spending the day in the car going from bank to bank.
Friday: Contractor shows up, unannounced, looks at the new garage door and then the real intention of his visit is clear:
C: Do you have a check ready for me yet?
I seriously want to go impale myself on a pitchfork. I would make a nice yard decoration for this Halloween evening.
