So, the painters are one day in at our place. It's making life a bit difficult, especially for E, who has to entertain the kids all day away from the house.Not to be uncharitable (well, maybe to be a bit uncharitable), but I can't help wondering how professional these fellas are. Mental note: Don't always go for the cheapest quote.
Yesterday they painted the kitchen ceiling, and a bit later, big chunks started peeling off. It certainly ain't no Sistine Chapel. Now, I'm no expert, but instinct tells me to wait until spac filler is dry before applying paint. Maybe give that a go this time, fellas.
And then there's the not-so-cheap circular, fluorescent globe in the kitchen that mysteriously fell to the ground and smashed. They had nothing to do with it, apparently. They were in a another room when it 'just fell'. Hmm. Sounds like Mr Nobody's been up to his tricks again.
I think I got off on the wrong foot with these guys when the first thing one of them said to me was 'well, first of all, a cup of coffee- can you make me one?'. One word, champ: Thermos.
Anyways, at least they came back this morning. I was half expecting them to do a runner with the down-payment. Ah, good times at the McLaughlin house.
6 comments:
Good times indeed!
We are having our own experiences with real estate agents. One has been visiting asking us to let him sell our house. He's trying to seduce us with wild over-estimates of it's value. Another agent is singing the praises of an average house that doesn't quite suit our needs...
Domestic fun. Got to love it.
This is why I paint my own house. When it's a bad job it's my own fault!
The theory is you want 3 things: cheap / quality / fast - but you can only have 2 of them...
Sheesh. And to think all that would make us happy would be for the landlord to get rid of the broken water tank on the front lawn (after 10 months), fix the latch on the side gate, finish the retaining wall and give us a TV antenna!
oh no!
We made the mistake of hiring cheap removalists (two burly guys who went by the name of "Ben and Jerry"...that should have tipped me off) and it was just awful. They threw our stuff into the truck and were really careless with everything - ended up breaking our butcher's trolley (which we used as bench space for our kitchen) and a few other fragile things. Then in our new place, one of them stepped in what I think was tomato sauce and trailed it all over our new carpet.
I had this existential crisis over being really really pissed off and feeling middle class guilt over being so angry at "hired help" when normally Sam and I would just hire a truck and rope a couple of friends into moving ourselves. The first and last time we get cheap removalists!!
In our last place, I was sitting in the dining area when I heard a strange noise and a crash. Looking in the toilet / bathroom area I found that the toilet light shade had fallen off and smashed on the floor. It seemed that it had been 'fixed' in place years before with glue and had finally given way. A shame really - it was a pretty shade.
And I was still finding bits of it months later despite sweeping and mopping regularly. All I can think of is that some went under the lino only to reappear at random intervals.
Simone- Ick. Look up 'smarmy' in the dictionary and you get a picture of a real estate agent. We'll be dealing with them again soon as well.
Amy- Yeah I would've liked to do the job myself, but with the kids it's too hard to find any decent windows of time to do it.
Wendy- Maybe you could turn the water tank into an interesting 'discussion piece' of sculpture.
Soph- Hm interesting existential crisis. I can relate. Yeah, we've learned the same lesson- it's good to be thrifty, but sometimes you gotta pay more to get the job done properly.
Laetitia- I fear that will happen with our shades as well. There doesn't seem to be much keeping them up.
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