Kerfluffed

Day three of the torture known as painters in the house. It was supposed be two days of chaos but it's morphed into three.  I'm disappointed in the entire process and much of the result and have reached the point where I just want them the heck out of my house.

The walk through that generated the quote that resulted in the contract we signed appears to have been poorly communicated to the folks actually doing the work.  It's been three days of 'gotcha' as we remind and cajole about things that need (still) to be done.  Example:  at the end of a(nother) long day of painting, the owner of the company stopped by - and did his best to convince us to skip painting the stair bannister.  One of the primary reasons we decided to paint was ensuring that things that needed doing got done - and he was proposing that they'd wait to do that until after we're out.  (There's an agreement in the service contract that they will come back and touch up anything missed once we've taken down everything and the house is essentially empty - if we notice anything at that time, they'll fix it).  He also made several comments about 'so you're doing an 'as is' sale'.  Um, no.  An 'as is' sale is what you do when you have major issues you have no intention of repairing.  Bathrooms with torn up tile, flooring that's a mess, etc..  In a million years, this house would never be an 'as is' sale.  We refused to not get the stairs done - so he said it would be done tomorrow (now today).

And as we discussed the stairs last night, we reminded 'and the front door isn't done either'.  He said 'oh, you want the front door painted too'?  YES!  JUST AS WE SAID WHEN YOU DID THE FIRST WALK THROUGH.  Like it's a total shock to him that we want the front door redone.  We put on new hardware and now it REALLY needs it because there's a difference in the area covered with the new hardware vs. the old.

As I escaped into the garage this morning, I realized that the back door between the hallway and garage hadn't been painted either.  I cannot stress enough how 'paint all doors and all wood trim' was  a part of the quote, supposedly - but so much is still undone.

I showered in the downstairs bath this morning (my bathroom) and noticed so many wrong things - paint used to paint an area that doesn't match where they left off.  (Same paint and same color but possibly different 'finish' (matte vs. semi-gloss) and/or all paints are slightly different from color if they are mixed separately.  I get that.  But this?  No.  Totally different 'tone' from one space to another.  Door touched up with paint but really not repainted?

The owner stopped by again this morning - entered through the open garage - to announce that they couldn't match the stair paint and it would be another full day of costs to repaint.  Again, trying to get us to give up on getting that done.  I told J. 'fine, just get them finished and out though I'm disappointed and don't understand how painting that could be an 8 hour job.  I'm completely an amateur at painting but I could do it in 1/2 that time but whatever.  Get them out of here ASAP 'cuz I'm over it'.

The owner agreed to do the stairs for $250 - which I'm fine with.

So now we'll have painters here again all day - lovely.

On a great note, B. earned his Expert Infantryman Badge this morning upon completion of a TWELVE MILE ruck march in full gear.  Started with 64 attempting to qualify, 23 qualified and started the testing process and 8 finished and earned the badge!  We are so, so incredibly proud of him - when he sets his mind to something, he is unstoppable.

And another positive note - the district will be refunding the premiums that came out of my last check - completely in agreement that those deductions were in error.

I'm heading to the bank - we're now handling all of H's money which requires some replenishing of our petty cash for when we've covered his.  It's all fine. It's just sometimes a full time bookkeeping job but I'm up for the task.

Then I'm heading outside to work on the yard a bit more and then upstairs to continue to cull out my bedroom - getting clothes out of the closets and dresser to pack up -

I'll keep working on our 'as is' house.  As is and I hope it sells in a week.  It just might.  Fingers crossed.