Welcome to our home … our second attempt at a fixer-upper.

Oh, yes. There’s more.  That wasn’t the end of it.

(If you’re not caught up on our contractor incidents, read this. Also, there’s legit cussing in this post. Sorry moms.)

So, remember when I said we were meeting yet another contractor this last Saturday?  Well, we met with him.  We’re showing him around the house.  Asking him to quote some small handyman items, the master bathroom, and the basement work.  We’re in the basement, trying to turn lights.  None of them are working and we can’t figure out why.  Then we find this:

Yep. Those are live wires just hanging around in our basement.  Right where we paid them extra to install a junction box because the wires had to be cut to put in the pocket door.

We did pay him.  They definitely never installed the junction box.  They definitely did turn all of the breakers back ON before they left.

So, two things happened:

1. We forgot to go into the basement when we checked their work and paid him.
2. He obviously didn’t check his sub’s work either.

Again, I’m confused.

• I am confused as to why in the world they would cut the wires and NOT immediately install the junction box to hook them back up? Super confused.
• I am confused as to how no one on MAN’s team caught this. (Confused, but not surprised.)
• I’m confused as to why MAN didn’t check the work? (I thought that’s what we hired him for.)

So, he’s already paid and gone. I didn’t think we’d ever hear from him again, even though Patrick was trying to contact him.  Patrick was livid.  Like really mad.  He left him a voice message and texted him pictures of the issue.

Nothing.

Nothing Saturday.

Nothing Sunday.

Monday, Patrick texted again.

Nothing Monday.

Tuesday, Patrick left another voice message. And then texted again.

Then MAN called him back.

The resulting call was pure contractor bullshit. Like surreal contractor bullshit.

It went something like this. (I’m paraphrasing; I wasn’t there.)

[P] Hey man.  Your guys left live wires hanging in my basement where you were supposed to install that junction box.

[MAN] What wires?  We didn’t cut any wires in the basement.  That wasn’t my guys.

[P] Yeah, man, it was your guys.  You even texted me pictures of it a few weeks ago, letting me know that you found wires in the walls and that you needed to charge me an extra $140 to re-route the wires and install the junction box.

[MAN] Oh, yeah yeah yeah.  Those wires.  But I don’t think that we cut any wires in the basement.

[P] Yeah, man, you did.  And then your guys just left them hanging there and turned the breakers back on.

[MAN] Oh, well, I can get my guy out there to install the junction box this afternoon.

[P] No, man. That’s okay.  I’ve already got an electrician coming out later this week to fix this issue and do some other work for me.  I just want you to refund the money we paid you since you didn’t complete the work.

[MAN] Oh, well that $140 wasn’t all for the wires and junction box.  It was for some other stuff too.

[P] Okay, whatever man.  Just wanted to let you know that this happened.  And, since you were the general contractor, I thought you’d like to know your guys left this situation.  Also, though, shouldn’t have you known about this and checked all their work before now?

[MAN] No. no, man, that’s your job.  You’re the homeowner.  You’re supposed to check all the work and make sure it’s completed.

[P] Well, then what am I paying you for?  I mean, if you’re going to sub out the work and then I’m responsible for checking and approving the work, what do I need you for? (laughing, light-heartedly, because my husband’s got mad skills.)

[MAN] Oh, well, you know man.  I just make it all come together and get my guys in there to do that actual work … [blah blah blah].  But, I’ll give you $40 back for the junction box and work we didn’t complete.

[P] Thanks, man.  One more thing … just wondering … Before this all happened, I thought everything was going really well.  We had a pretty good working relationship.  And then it just deteriorated overnight.  What happened?

[MAN] Well, I don’t want to say anything bad, and come between a husband and wife … but your wife got kind of negative there and I just can’t work with that attitude and karma around me.  It’s just not a good situation to work in, so I just finished the job and bowed out.

[P] Okay, man.  Well, we’re about to sell our other house, and we’re just dumping all of that money into this house, and I basically wanted someone to hand it to in exchange for all this remodeling work … but she’s my wife, so I think that you understand whose side I’m going to fall on in this exchange, right.  It’s been nice working with you, thanks for your help man.

[MAN] Oh, well, huh … I guess we can see how it goes.  I mean, maybe we can work something out [blah, blah, blah].

[P] Well, thanks.  I’ll keep an eye out for the money.  Hope your future endeavors go well.  Bye.

5 minutes later, Patrick gets a text. … [From MAN]

I looked at the pictures again. I’ll give you $70 back instead, split the original added cost.

So, to clarify:

1. I didn’t get pissy with him until AFTER all of the shit in the original post happened. I had had it. Shit was stolen, contractors were drinking on the job, our house was a complete mess, people were lying, and he was being all no worries, be happy about it (which if you know me, you know that I am NOT a no worries, be happy type person. Fuck reggae.)
2. And by pissy, I mean … I never yelled at him or actually told him what I thought. I just became indifferent towards him. I just quit conversing with him. I told him that Patrick was now dealing with the contractors so he should talk to him about stuff instead. (But, again, if you know me, you know that this probably came off as bitchy, so his blasé, carefree viewpoint took this as me saying I hate you, which is kind of what I meant anyway. But, Patrick is right, I need to work on being faker; I’m really really bad at it – especially when someone has us over a barrel and we need them for something.  It’s a learning process, right? Although, I already knew this about myself.)
3. Also, MAN knew about all of the other work we had going forward. MAN quoted half of it already. We explained our phases to him and approximate timeline. He knew about all the upcoming work and still fucked it all up. I even wrote about it in my last post, questioning why contractors do that … and THAT was BEFORE this all happened! Our theory is that MAN is juggling so many projects and doesn’t actually work on any of them – just coordinates them – that he can’t keep straight which jobs have what coming or going. (He told Patrick about a food chain business he’s getting into, and another house he’s helping build or something … he’s a hustler. And, he’s good at it.)
4. Also, I cannot seriously believe and kind of refuse to accept that in your 15+ year general contracting career, I am the bitchiest woman you’ve ever dealt with. I mean, you remodel really expensive houses, where a light fixture costs the same amount as our ENTIRE job. I’m pretty straight-forward. Communicate with us and do what you say. We won’t have a problem. That did not happen.  (Plus, even from the beginning, he communicated mostly with Patrick anyway; Patrick’s the negotiator/project manager on our team.)
5. And finally, you’re going to blame me? Really? For fuck’s sake. If you can’t take a woman being mad after everything that happened while you were working on this little job, you’re not the right contractor for us anyway. You never apologized or recognized or took responsibility for anything that was happening. Hell, you never even brought it up.  And when we brought it up, all you had were excuses.  We could barely get you to call or text us back after you got the job; even though when you were with us, you were constantly on your phone. So, I’m not sorry I was “mean” to you and your adult feelings are hurt. We were business partners. Not friends. You offered me your services. I had realistic expectations about your services. You tanked on your end. I still paid you. If you worked an actual job, where you weren’t the boss, you might not still have that job. Oh, wait. You did work this actual job. Where I was the actual boss. And you don’t actually still have that job. Bye.

Just for the record, all of this stuff happened BEFORE the relationship soured.

BEFORE.

Patrick brought up all this half-ass work BEFORE I got pissy, and MAN just gave us excuses.

Literally, MAN worked on the house for 2 weeks prior to me getting salty on a Sunday afternoon.  MAN was schedule to meet the city inspector on Monday; then finished the drywall work on Tuesday, and we paid him on Wednesday.

We found the wires on Saturday.

The lying, mess, stolen stuff, bad communication, outlet situation, gouges in our newly finished ceilings … all happened prior to that Sunday afternoon.

I stand by my right to be and act mad.

We’re still waiting on the money. It’s Friday.