Fishiness

Met with Dave this morning. He'll do the porch steps this weekend. Whew!

While I was home waiting for Dave, around 10 to 9, Sim called to see if his regular assistant--who routinely beats him to my house--was parked in front of my house or not. He said he was in my neighborhood on 50th and he'd be to the house shortly.

The meeting with Dave was pretty quick. We looked at the steps as is, and talked about how they could be fixed with a reasonable balance of aesthetics and efficiency/expediency. Then we discussed timing, as in when he could come over and do the fix. Our meeting lasted probably 5 to 10 minutes. Then we were on our separate ways.

As I drove away from the house I realized that Sim should be there shortly. It was quarter past 9, so kind of odd that he wasn't there already really. So I looped the block and went back home. As I approached the corner, I saw Sim coming the other way, so we got to my house at the same time. I told him Dave was coming on the weekend to fix the steps, so I needed to know if they could work in parallel or if I needed to manage scheduling. He said they could work at the same time, no problem.

Whew. So that was quick. Off to work I went. I was lucky enough to get into the parking garage by 9:30 and get the early bird special daily rate, 10 bucks for all day. Yay. Be thankful for small favors.

O but I sighed too soon. At NOON I get a call from Sim saying he's waiting for Dave to come back with the key so he can get into the house. Sim says he looked for the key in the lock box but it's not there. Dave doesn't have the key, Dave never used the key, he knocked on the door and I opened it. Sim was the last person with the key from the lock box, and to my knowledge, he's the only person with the combination, so the locating the key is his responsibility. He says, okay he'll call me back.

I'm impatient.

Ten minutes later I called him back to see if he'd found the key. If he can't find it, I'll need to drive home for my lunch hour to make sure he can get in. He can't. Off I go. I arrive home to find a note in the door "Went to lunch, be right back." ! But what's more, I check the lock box and the key is in there! Jesus. So I call him and tell him that the key is in there and I'm going back to work.

Pretty much all the advice I get from folks is to fire him. I'm convinced--though why I can't explain--that we're in the home stretch. As long as I see visible progress on a daily basis, I'll stick with it.

When I got home from work I went upstairs. Visible progress zero... maybe? There's dust all over the bathroom, and I know I didn't put it there. So I call Sim. He says he sanded the floor to smooth the seams. Ugh. Whatever. He says he'll be back early in the morning. Yay for that, I guess.

Another Hold Up

I started off waiting for my tile contractor to show up for a meeting. I had almost given up when he showed. We had a face to face conversation after exchanging written statements that seemed almost irreconcilable. I rejected a $2,000 change order to a $2650 original bid. He never mentioned my letter in response so I don't officially know if he received it yet or not. I sent it to him certified mail, but only yesterday. I also sent him a copy via email Sunday night but it's unclear whether he ever checks his email. He did tell me about how the job was more complex than he thought it was at first and explained some carpentry tasks and creative mudwork he had to do to compensate. I reminded him that I asked him before he started, and before 8 weeks of delay on his side, what prepwork needed to be done. When we parted we agreed he'd finish the job, but only for the original estimate.

But then...

When I got home from work today I went straight upstairs to the bathroom to see what had been done. NOTHING. AAgh! So, after trying to decide what to think, how to respond, I just called him to see what he had to say. His substitute assistant, the brother of his regular assistant, tripped on the front porch steps first thing. Sim took him to the hospital, he had a hairline fracture to the wrist. Shoot.

So now I'm meeting with Dave tomorrow morning to talk about fixing the front porch steps. This could be interesting. Dave's the one who did the carpentry that Sim had all the complaints about. Sim did some funky stuff with the bathroom floor, different from how we first described it, oh probably going on a year ago now, or maybe only 10 months. I wonder what Dave will think of it. I've been living on borrowed time with the porch steps anyway. Shoot.

Four Strikes!

I've been looking through my checks and browsing the Washington L&I page on the web trying to put together the particulars of what info I need and what info I want to report if I report this guy, the tiler. I wrote him the "first half" check to start (which I shouldn't have, at least in the amount that I did, since "first half" is typically a materials payment and I'm providing most of the materials) on February 21, it's now April 17th. Last Thursday was the 4th time he's told me either that he'd be "done in a week", or "at your house full time 'til it's finished" or both. Funny thing, Tuesday evening he said "I'll be at your house full time starting tomorrow" and "I should be there by noon" in the same breath.

Now it's Thursday again, a week after the last "done in a week claim". One day after his "We'll be at your house 'til it's done" and the only progress is ONE BOARD of hardibacker over the rough-in carpentry I did last weekend, no two weeks ago just before I was sick. There's a note leaned up against my front door when I got home from work yesterday afternoon. I came home early to meet with him. But I arrive home to find a note on a nasty old piece of sheetrock that says "Wrong size board, I'll be back tomorrow at 7:30". Now it's 7:50 in the morning, there's no sign of him and no call from him, and I'll be late to work. Agh!

No Reply, But Maybe Some Response

I emailed Sim summarizing our situation, what he said would be done that hadn't, that I wasn't able to get ahold of him on the phone, needing the job to get finished so that I could refinance my mortgages--nevermind live in a "finished" house (I don't know if I'll ever feel like this is a finished house...). I told him I understood if he was too busy to do it, since he's recently had a fire at home and is having trouble timing things with his own contractors and all, but if that were the case then please refund my money and return my materials.

Whew! That's the short version.

I still haven't heard back from him, so I don't actually know if he got my email. So maybe it's just coincidence, but today when I returned home from work, I found that all the remaining backer board is installed, and the room is mostly cleared out and looking tile-ready (for all I know). Tomorrow's Friday and I have the day off. I expect that means I'll lay eyes on the guy and we can talk about the remainder of the work and timeline.

Aaagh!

Trivial if not truly negligible, nominal work has been done in two weeks. I spoke with Sim--"the Tile Guy"--on Monday, he said in his note (pictured right) that he'd be here 8:30 on Tuesday. I took him at his word and went to work rather than hanging out at home to see that he got here. What's the point, it's not like my being here is going to make him come here or anything. I was so excited to come home from work Tuesday (yesterday), expecting to see some visible progress. He said once he started putting in tile, it would take 5 days or so to finish. So I thought I'd see significant progress.

No such luck.



Only when I went in to take a picture of the note did I notice that there was possibly, just possibly one new backer board piece up from the last time I looked. It's also possible that he did that on Monday then wrecked on the black ice on Tuesday on his way to my house so early in the cold morning... Who knows?! I tried calling him twice yesterday and got his voicemail both times. I'm having a hard time sleeping on account of I don't know WHAT to do about this. I guess at this point I'll keep calling him, maybe send him a letter if I can figure out how to word it. I'm waiting for a decent time of day to call him, thus we find me blogging at quarter to 6 in the morning...