Dogs and Jen: Home Edition

Remember Road Guy who blocked my car in? Well I have not been posting my full frustration with their endless road work, but it has been going on for months. Here’s a picture from last week:

I mention this now because they have been putting in sidewalks and curbs. This involves blocking them out with rebar and wood. The rebar always sticks up a foot or two. Most of the sidewalks on our street are done, but there is one corner that they are still working on. There are also still narrow but deep trenches (about 6 inches wide but 2 feet deep) between the road and the new curbs.

I have not mentioned here that I run marathons and I’ve been training since last spring for the Chicago Marathon, which is next Sunday (10/12). Today was my last little run - 5 miles - before totally laying off next week to heal up. It went great until 2 blocks from home when I came up the unfinished sidewalk corner. I went onto the road to get around it  and as I went back up on the sidewalk, I tripped on the trench. As I fell forward, I impaled my leg on a piece of the rebar that was sticking up. To took out a big chunk of my leg - the gouge was about an inch deep, 3 inches long, and an inch wide. Parts of my leg were oozing out of this hole.

So I pulled myself up, walked home, drove myself to the hospital, and got 6 stitches to close it up and a tetanus shot. I wish I’d taken a picture of it before they closed it, but for those of you who like gore, I put one of the currently closed wound over on my running blog.  This happened because I’m kind of clumsy, but I still want to hold Road Guys responsible in some way.

Incidentally, K and I now match. She had surgery on Monday to remove a benign tumor on her leg, and has her own row of stitches:

The good news is that I have permission from the doctors and staff to run the marathon next weekend. As long as that is allowed, the wound really doesn’t matter.

Good or bad, Cabinet Guy took my admonishments seriously and ordered yet another replacement door to replace the messed up one from yesterday. Thus, he will not be coming tomorrow. He says (as usual) that he put a rush on it and it may be here in a couple weeks. This usually means in about 5 weeks it will be here.

I’ll have to see what other options I can come up with between now and then.

Summary: No Cabinet Guy.

Full Text:

Last night I was up late working. I went to bed around 2:30am and could not fall asleep. I was all agitated and quickly realized it was because of Cabinet Guy since I was constructing arguments against him in my head.

You all read the email I sent him, but I knew that he had not checked all the items as I had asked him to do. I called this morning to (1) confirm the appointment and (2) make sure he had checked everything and that it was all there. Again, the conversation speaks for itself:

CG: Yes, they said everything  shipped. It should all be here.

Jen: Did you check? *EVERYTHING* is there?

CG: (pause) Yes, it’s all here.

Jen: Did you check it? There is no reason for you to come here if there are problems with the doors when you can check that before you come.

CG: Well it shipped in the usual way, so it should be fine.

Jen: It always ships in the usual way and last time there were like 6 doors we had to send back because of gouges.

CG: (here’s a gem)Well I can’t take any responsibility for that since it didn’t happen in front of me.

Jen: I don’t really care who is responsible for it, I just don’t want it here if it’s got a problem and I’m not going to let you install anything if there is a problem, so go check everything first.

CG: I’ll have to open everything.

Jen: Yes. Go do that.

CG: (exasperated) Ok. Let me call you back in 10 minutes.

30 minutes later, he calls back and says everything is fine except one glass door that has “small scratches that I may be able to fix.” Here’s where the conversation turns scarily Couric-Palin.

Jen: What do you mean “fix”?

CG:  I mean it’s something I can work with.

Jen: What do you mean “work with”. What specifically will you have to do?

CG: Well, I can work on it while I’m there since they are small.

Jen: (wishing I said “not to belabor the point”) What exactly are you going to do to work on it?

CG: Well, if they have this exact color of touch up paint in Arlington, I can put that on.

Jen: Do that before you come. There is no reason to bring it here if that doesn’t fix it and I won’t let you put it in until I know that it is right.

CG:  (getting a bit pissed off) Well. Then we’ll have to reschedule for Wednesday.

I said fine, come at 10. He said 11. I explained, yet again, that I have a job. He said “Well I need 2 hours” to which I proposed the simple solution of coming at 9. He was really upset at this point, but said fine. So again, we’ve moved the time to 9am on Wednesday.

I also send CG another email, and we’ll see how this goes:

Cabinet Guy-

Please send me before and after pictures of the scratches on this glass door. I seriously doubt the ability of touch up paint to effectively fix scratches without looking awful. Frankly, there is already too much in this kitchen that looks ridiculously bad and I will not accept these doors unless they look perfect as they should coming from the manufacturer.

If it is not possible to make the door look perfect AND to send the pictures, then just reorder the door. I am done accepting hacked up half-solutions to this endless stream of problems.

Jen

Let me begin with two tidbits of my family history.

First, we planted a lot of trees. Thousands and thousands of trees as my parents reforested a big plot of land. My darling brother Tom will protest that he planted many more trees than I did, and he is right. However, I have no fond memories of the countless weekends spent in the cold spring mud planting little sticks.

Second,  my dad (who is a bit crazy to be sure) always had these odd projects outside. Aside from the tree planting, it seems that he was always moving dirt. I don’t know where it came from, where exactly he moved it to, and certainly I have no idea about its purpose. Regardless, it seems like he would spend half of the spring and summer weekends moving the stuff.

It is with this in mind that I feel a bit odd about my return to working on the house this weekend. I planted trees and moved dirt.

Here is what the side of my yard facing the church people looked like when I started.

A couple weeks ago Behnke’s, my local nursery, sent me an email that leyland cypress trees were on sale. I finally got over there today and there were some left and they were on extra sale. Usual price: $174.99 each. My price: $75 each. Awesome. I also got soaked in the process of buying them since it started pouring when I arrived, conveniently stopping as I left.

These trees are to fill in that one space by the gate between the big cypress trees and the arborvitae I planted in the spring. The rain was helpful when I planted them because it made the ground nice and soft. Here we have the trees in place:

I wonder how long it will take them to catch up to their big neighbors…

This planting produces lots of extra dirt, since the trees fill up the hole. I’m using this to raise the level of my garden so, like my father before me, I shuttled the dirt around the yard. These activities together were pretty messy, though. Here’s me after finishing.

I was also excited to see how much the arborvitae have grown since I planted them. Here’s how they looked the day they went in last spring:

That’s about it for my tree plans. The next project is to re-landscape the front of the house (it still looks just like this). I don’t know much about landscaping, but I’m looking for something low maintenance with room for flowers. More about that later. I still have time before I need to plant the bulbs…

Today, I called Cabinet Guy. He said “I was on vacation over the weekend and just got back into town this afternoon. We had just agreed to touch base on Monday, not that I would install the doors.”

EXCUSE ME?!?!

1. You canceled the installation on Tuesday. Why would we make an appointment for the following Monday just to touch base?
2. Why would we set a time to talk if that’s all we were going to do?
3. You STILL weren’t there even to talk with me on Monday.
4. Seriously? Another vacation?

I pointed out facts 1-3 on the phone, but as I’ve said before, it’s like talking to a stupid adolescent boy. He just denies he did anything wrong, says that I misunderstood, sticks with his completely ridiculous story in the face of much evidence to the contrary, and makes me angry.

New time: Allegedly 10am Monday.

Regarding legal retaliation, I’m not sure how much I can do. There are two issues here. One is problems with the first delivery of the cabinets I have now. There were things wrong with them that are not fixed yet. However, I signed and paid for them when they were delivered because I did not fully understand that Cabinet Guy is evil nor did I anticipate that there could be problems as serious as this. Those problems will only have mediocre fixes. To really correct them would require removing two of the granite counter tops, removing 5 of the 10 cabinets, and ordering replacements. I’d essentially have to get the kitchen torn out again, and that would be a major pain even if I had the leverage to do it.

The other issue is the new doors. We do not have a written contract for these doors. This is good and bad. It is good because I can bother him about the price. It is bad because there is nothing tying him to do things on time.

I have considered writing up a contract for the missing doors that has a date and a reduction in price for each unit of time they are late. I doubt he would sign it though.

There is also the question of cutting my losses. The problem here is that I need the new doors and they have to fit in and match the cabinets. I don’t know if I could find anyone else dealing in the cabinets from this place. I could get them custom made and then they would probably match, but then I come to the question of cost. My guess is that it might cost more than what I’ve talked Cabinet Guy down to. So is it worth it to just wait and see how things go with CG? More than half the doors are here already. (This is my internal optimist fighting to get out).

As you can see, it’s quite a dilemma.

(side note: i fixed the problem that made you have to log in to comment. commenting should be back to normal now)

After not showing up last week, Cabinet Guy rescheduled for 11am today. It’s about 2:00 and he’s not here. He won’t answer my calls or return my voice mails.

I’m not surprised, but I am angry. Here’s the email he got, which includes many voice mail details as well.

Which one of you suggested Christmas as a  goal for installation? I’m starting to think that may have been too ambitious….

Cabinet Guy-

Last Tuesday when you canceled the installation, we agreed that you would do it today at 11am. It’s 1:45, but you obviously aren’t here nor are you answering my calls or returning my messages.  I assume you are not coming today.

I arranged my day around this appointment, including moving a number of meetings so my late morning would be free. It is extremely frustrating that you did not even call to let me know you were canceling again. I do not sit at home all day doing nothing, and my time is much more valuable than you treat it.

I am available from  3-5 on Thursday. I would appreciate it if you would make arrangements to be here right at 3 to get this done.

Please be sure that ALL the items, including the panels and trim, have arrived and are free of damage. Check them before you bring them - I do not want to go through the pieces with you if there is obvious damage. Make sure you have the tools and equipment necessary to cut and install them, as well. These have all been problems that have arisen at other times you have been here, and I want this finished, correctly, and all at once. I am very tired of waiting and hearing excuses about why one thing or another is not here after you told me it was.

We also need to discuss the price. This has dragged on far far too long beyond our last discussion. The waste of my time alone from missed appointments has cost me nearly as much as the cabinet doors. That is not to mention that these are not the style I ordered. $XXX seems much more reasonable to me - 25% less than we last discussed - considering the problems and delays.

I am heading to meetings for the afternoon, but you an reach me via email all day. I would appreciate a confirmation of the new installation time as well as the other details in this message.

-Jen

Cabinet Guy was supposed to be here at 2pm today to finally deliver and install the cabinet doors. Here it is, 3pm, and no Cabinet Guy. Apparently, he had to go pick up his son from school or something. Yet another step in the seemingly endless stream of problems.

We are rescheduled for Monday. Let’s see if THAT happens. Ug.

While I was out running this afternoon, Cabinet Guy called and said the remaining doors are in. We have scheduled them to be installed Tuesday afternoon. It would be so nice if they all actually came correctly because MOM is coming to my house on Thursday and I’d like her to see my correct kitchen (and maybe help me put on the hardware - if you don’t mind, MOM). However, Cabinet Guy never fails to disappoint so we will see what horrors Tuesday actually brings…

I woke up to things on my walls shaking. All I’m saying is, it would be nice if they told me the day before that something like this was going to happen.

I have not been working on my house much, but I do have  a way out of it. The curb guys filled in the big ditch by the driveway so I can get out. There’s still a trench in the yard, but I can avoid that pretty easily.