Tension & Coffee

Coffee is a great soother of tension headaches...at least today. We got a phone call from our builder this morning - he wanted to come over and collect the last 10% we owe him on the job he did. I never actually started blogging until our job was 90% finished, so just some background info for you: we needed more office space so we tore down the old office, rebuilt it so that it was level with the old part of the house, added a basement underneath, expanded the bedroom upstairs and added 15 feet to the end of it. Now it is much more conducive to conducting business.
Before:
Somewhat After:


At the beginning of the project communication was over and above, but as things progressed and they took on another job (big boss had a friend who was desparate), communication was non-existent. We felt that we were pains in their backsides and they were rushing to complete our job, doing a lousy job in the process. The finished product on the inside looks amatuerish at best. The drywall screws are literally popping through the paint. I have a problem with the attitude of one of the carpenters and I don't ever want him back in my home again. I put up with him at the time by thinking It's almost done and he'll be out of here. The basement stairs have a curve at the bottom and the way he had built them was too sharp of a curve; there was no spot for your foot to go because of the angle and it was actually a hazard. I mentioned this to him because the big boss was never around and his response to me? I blame you. This is your fault. You should have said something before we put the wall in. I don't know if we can fix this without ripping out all the stairs. Well that sent me to my room in tears for the rest of the day. Idiot called the big boss and big boss said he'd bring supplies right over to fix it. It took maybe an hour to fix. I have a problem with people who blame others, whether it was their mistake or not. All he had to say was, I'll talk to big boss and see what we can do about it. Idiot also made a built-in book shelf that I had requested but he made it totally different from how we had talked about it. This was somewhat how our conversation went:

Idiot: So you don't want adjustable shelves.

Me: No, you can measure the bookshelf in the bedroom. I like the height of those shelves.

Idiot: Okay.

So the next thing I know, he has routered out spaces to put in the cheeziest white metal adjustable track system that I've ever seen. I hate them. And I told the nice carpenter guy that I hate them. Nice carpenter guy told big boss and big boss was surprised. It's too late to do anything about it so we're just covering up the cheeziness with books. Husband and I were talking just last week that we thought big boss was avoiding us...anyhoo that brings us to today. Out of my 3 page list of complaints we narrowed it down to just the essentials that the idiot crew needs to fix. Big boss is sending blondie over tomorrow to start to fix the screw holes popping through; big boss will work on the squeaky closet doors himself and finally put up the closet rods that we talked about 4 months ago; big boss will fix the boys' bedroom door that is no longer latching closed; and I think blondie will finish puttying in the nail holes that got missed.

We're going to hire a real builder to re-gut the sunroom (whole 'nuther post there) and maybe fix up the rest of the things I'm not happy about that idiot crew did.

So that's this morning's tension headache. But my 4 cups of coffee have helped. You know, I think I'll do okay in China - coffee is pronouned kaw-fay'. How beautiful is that!

AND I won a donut on Friday on my roll-up-the-rim. I'm not a loser after all!