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.