So we had someone come check the roof, which led to an insurance claim on the roof and they also included the repair to the ceiling in the claim.
Then, in March, Dave broke his ankle, which screwed up our lives for a while, and it wasn't until April that the roof was replaced.
First of June we had the flood/carpet crisis, so it was August before we felt we could afford our not-covered-by-insurance- portion of the ceiling job. When the guy (arranged through the roofer) originally came out to estimate the job, the amount to scrape the whole ceiling and paint the three walls (rather than just patch the ceiling) seemed reasonable. It was arranged he would be there at 8:00 a.m. on 9/8, the day after Labor Day.
So Dave and I spent time over the weekend boxing up our stuff (Painter Guy said he would move everything, but who wants someone touching their stuff??) and moving all but the big pieces of furniture from the room.
On 9/8, there was an issue with the scaffolding not being available and he finally showed up at 6:00 p.m. and dropped off some tools and the scaffolding (question: he knew weeks in advance...why wasn't the scaffold reserved and ready??).
But they (I mean him and his wife) assembled the scaffold...and spread plastic...and he did scrape the ceiling and retaped and bedded...
But his idea of clean up wasn't the same as ours...they left without saying goodbye and didn't bother moving the loveseat, footstool and end tables back into the living room and everything, and I mean everything, was still covered in dust...
Rob & Xander came over and moved the rest of the furniture back (thank Heaven for good friends!). I had to wash down the bookshelves and thoroughly clean our new couch (it was grey instead of brown) and end tables; Dave had to vacuum the chairs, loveseat, foot stool, carpet and vents (he vacuumed the carpet twice and I vacuumed it once).
Painter Guy did:
- scrape the popcorn off the ceiling,
- paint the ceiling and three walls,
- complain about the amount of money he agreed to do the job for (I referred him back to the roofer who had it bundled in the insurance claim),
- tell me about all of the stuff he was able to do (including scoffing at me for calling the electricians out to fix the outlets in the kitchen, cause 'he coulda done that'), and
- complain about how much he worked and how tired he was (he actually called me one day and said he was really tired and could he come in the afternoon so he could get some rest...being a nice person, I, of course, said "sure"...found out later that he went and painted a building instead of getting sleep...).
- ever show up when he said he was going to show up,
- tape off anything,
- cover items still in the room with sufficient plastic while he was scraping,
- wet the popcorn before scraping it off, thus creating massive amounts of dust,
- cover items still in the room with plastic while painting, or
- do an acceptable clean up.
I tried to be nice and understanding the entire job. But, if we had hired him directly, I would have probably wanted to fire him on Day One for not being prepared and showing up when he said he was going to do so and would have told him so; on Day Two, I would have fired him when he again didn't show up when he said he was going to be here.
But I felt trapped since it was part of the insurance claim and could only complain to the roofer guy who coordinated this crap and he could only say how sorry he was that this happened (Painter Guy didn't work for him, but was one of the painters the roofing company uses when painting on a job is needed, i.e., a subcontractor).
But as of last night, the living room and library (which was full of boxes and furniture during the process) are back to normal and we don't feel so discombobulated...
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The color of the walls is truest in the star-wall picture, but I love how the color of the walls change depending on the light at different times of day...
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- always have Norm supervise people to do jobs needed that he himself can't or won't do...I would trust anyone he chooses and oversees, and
- Dave and I will never move...if packing up one room disconcerts us this much, we would never be able to cope with the whole house. In fact, I'm surprised we ever left Garland.
