August 23, 2012 - To Make a Short Story Long

This will likely take a while, so sit back and enjoy.  Or not.

To make a short story long, let me begin with how we decided this would be the year for exterior home improvement.  We had some siding that has begun rotting over the past few years, due to the lawn sprinklers, both ours and our neighbors, causing moisture problems. About 99% of the siding was in great condition, so it was just a matter of replacing a few boards here and there.  We found a licensed and bonded company to do the work, at about twice the cost we had expected to pay, and bit the bullet and hired them.  I might also add that I had agreed to have this same company paint the house, at about twice the cost we had expected to pay.  Not a firm commitment on the paint job, just a handshake.  Thus the fiasco began.


The men, a contractor and two workers, arrived on time with their materials.  The contractor gave the men their demolition instructions, then left them to work on their own.  Of course, they rushed the job, which resulted in unrepairable damage  to a few boards other than those they were replacing, as well as completely demolishing the dryer vent.  I pointed out these things to the contracter when he returned, and he did, on his own and without charging us extra, replace the boards his crew had damaged as well as purchase a new dryer vent.  All went well....for the next half hour.  Turns out quitting time was 3 PM.

The next morning, contractor  and one helper (the second failed to show up for work) showed up at 6:30 AM and plugged in their air compressor, which I'm sure made the neighbors real happy.  The two of them worked off and on all day.  More off than on, as the contractor kept leaving to check in at other jobs or to run after a tool he forgot to bring, or whatever.  About halfway through the day I went out to check the progress and wasn't exactly impressed with the job they were doing.  He had told me they don't do any top nailing on their siding, but there were places where the bottom of one board would protrude out a good quarter of an inch frome the adjoining board.  I told him that was unacceptible to me, and made him top nail those boards to keep them flush.  It's not like top nailing made any difference, as the entire house had been sided more than 30 years ago using top nailing of the boards, and unless one gets right up close and personal with the siding, it's not even noticeable.


The siding installed, the contractor proceeded to install the new dryer vent.  He worked on the outside, while the worker did the inside connection to the dryer.  Job finished, the contractor came in for his final payment (it had been half down, half on job completion), and I stupidly paid him without doing a final inspection of his work.

They had worked overtime, I had to get to the store for some groceries and get back to fix dinner, and it was getting late, and our air conditioner had suddenly stopped working.  A 4-year old heat pump and air handler, all completely dead!  It was the next morning before I called the heating company for repairs, then went out to see what had been done on the house.  I found this.....

 This board is protruding at least 1/2" out from the adjoining one, and the caulking has dried so it can't be pushed back and nailed.  There are chips along the edge of the next board.

 Another protruding board, as well as sloppy caulking which is evident at every joint.

TV cable was removed and left lying on the ground.  I draped it up over the fence to keep it from getting damaged, but I'm the one who will have to reattach it to the house.

Well, the repairman showed up to check out the heat pump, and found fuses blown inside the air handler.  He couldn't explain it, but suspects the siding guys had possibly hit a wire with a nail, shorting it out and causing the fuses to blow.  It was under warranty for parts, but of course we had to fork out the money for the service call.

That's just the beginning of the fiasco.  The short story get longer.

I tossed a load of clothes into the dryer.  When I went to remove them, they were still wet.  Thinking the siding guys may have kinked the dryer duct, I got out a flashlight and mirror, and checked behind the dryer.  Oh dear, what a mess it was!  

Bear with me here.  This takes a bit of explaining of circumstances.

 First of all, you can see how tightly the washer and dryer fit in the laundry room.  

There is also very little room to move the dryer out from the wall.  We could pull it forward just far enough for me to lean over the edge of the washer, and reach the clamp on the dryer duct with a very long screwdriver.

 This is what I removed.  Not only was it a crushed mess, it was a very dangerous situation and a fire hazard.


There was no way we wanted to have to pull out the washer and move it into the hallway to give us room to get behind the dryer.  The plan was to tilt the dryer forward until the front rested on the small stool.  Use your imagination to see how this made a V shaped area between the washer and dryer, and gave us maybe 14-16" between the dryer and the wall for working space.  Now, Mr. Granny is not a small man.  There was no way he could squeeze back there, so guess who had to sacrifice her body to make the duct connections.  Mr. Granny had to hold the front of the dryer up so I could use the stool to climb up onto the top of the washer.  I'm on my hands and knees on the washer, and have to twist around to a sitting position.  Then I have to work my left foot and leg over the back of the dryer while my right leg is still in a bent sitting position.  It takes a few minutes to get the kink worked out of my left hip, then Mr. Granny grabs my right foot and forces that leg up and over the back of the dryer.  The toes of my right foot suddenly cramped, and it was a couple more minutes before they quit pointing up to the ceiling and relaxed back into their normal position on my foot.  I'm now sitting on the washer, legs dangling in the narrow space behind the dryer, so I drop down to the floor.  I have to bend down and force the duct into place.  It's hot.  It's confining.  I'm claustrophobic.  There is barely room to move.  I'm really close to panicking, when the parts all finally come together and I can tighten up the clamps.


Unfortunately, what (or who) goes in, must also get out!  There is not enough room for the little stool to fit behind the dryer, and there is no way this old lady can hoist herself up onto that washer.  I finally discover the stool, placed on its side with bottom legs under the dryer, gives me a 3" ledge on which to stand.  Just enough height to get me back onto the washer and out of the h*ll hole.



We're back in business.


So there you have it.  Bad siding application, crappy caulking, messed up heat pump and destryed dryer vent and ducting.  I'm sorry, but handshake or not this contractor is NOT getting the job of painting my house.  I will do it myself.  I can't mess it up any worse than they can, and I'll save thousands of dollars.  I have already begun......

After I climbed out from behind the dryer, I grabbed a paintbrush and painted the garage entry door and trim.  It's a beginning!

I was exhausted from my full day of work.  Besides the dryer repair and the painting, I had mopped the floors, washed all the laundry and hung most of it on the line, weeded and raked the entire garden, and cut down all of the early corn stalks.  I decided to send Mr. Granny out to pick up something for his dinner, and I treated myself to an evening concert!  


I went to see Hinder.  Plug your ears, the sound from my camera was crappy, so I don't know why I even bothered uploading the video!  This YouTube video  of the original recording is much, much better.  Anyway, I got home and crashed just after 11 last night, and wished I could have slept all day today!


The glass company comes today to finalize the deal and schedule a complete replacement of all of our old aluminum framed windows and sliding glass doors with new vinyl ones.  It's costing about three times what we thought it would.  Let's hope this goes smoother than the siding job.



38 comments:

  1. That's awful. Sorry AG. Did you report them to BBB?

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    1. Nartaya, I didn't. I really liked the guy,, even though I was very dissatisfied with the work, so I decided his losing the painting job will be his punishment.

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  2. oh my it sounds like you 2 have been though A LOT!! Sorry to hear that everything went so badly!

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    1. Mrs. P., now I'm beginning to wonder about the windows. When the guy called this morning, he said he'd be coming to town at 10:00 am, but wasn't too sure about when he'd get here and would call. It's 2:00 pm now, and I'm still waiting :-(

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  3. A good, honest contractor with good, honest, reliable workers is hard to find. We have had some success finding good ones on Service Magic...that is when word of mouth fails us. At least there you can read some reviews of others who have used them.

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    1. Sustainably, we hired this guy because his company just installed siding on our neighbor's garage and did a fast and professional job. Our neighbors are very happy. Same company, but different workers.

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  4. Oh Granny! I literally yelled out loud when I scrolled down your post to that picture of the dryer duct. I'm so sorry it was such an ordeal. Surely your kids can help you with the painting, in payment for all the wonderful veggies you give them? I don't blame you for not wanting those bozos to do it. I wouldn't want to paint the outside of my house, and I'm younger than you. I hate ladders. Be careful.

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    1. Alison, one son is too busy, one has very poor eyesight so can't see well enough to paint. Daughter runs a business and a home with children, her husband is also too busy at his job. I don't mind ladders, and I'll take my time. If it takes me two months to paint the house, so be it. I'm more concerned with getting that siding (and caulking) mess taken care of before I paint.

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  5. It's not funny-but isn't it the truth about stuff costing twice (at least) what we think it should.
    I sure wish I lived nearby. I'd take the old windows off your hands. I've got a project in mind........
    Sorry about the crummy workers. I could kick some serious a@# too!
    :D

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    1. Sue, having always been a do-it-yourself person, I really get sticker shock when I see what it costs to have work done for you. Then when the workmanship is worse than you could have done yourself, it makes it doubly hard to take.

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  6. I'm very sorry to hear your story and sad to say it is an all too common one. My parents who are in their 80's have just gone through a circus getting their roof re-shingled. Same thing, very expensive, never on time and well intentioned workers making some sloppy mistakes. We live too far away to be of any help. It's too bad it's so hard to get a good contractor. I hope you have had a chance to really get some rest after your ordeal!

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  7. I'm a lazy bum and rarely do things myself so am well acquainted with those kinds of problems. I still remember the tile guys that tiled my water shut off valve closed. They wouldn't call me back at all. So I had to chisel it out. It took forever. I've certainly learned to carefully inspect before giving them that last check. But that drier vent is just evil since it is one of the most common places for house fires to start.

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    1. Daphne, you know I'll be a quick learner as I have to hire more and more things done through my elder years. I won't be nearly so trusting before handing over that final check from now on.

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  8. Hi Granny, I've only posted a comment to your blog once before but I've been reading your blog for the past year and just wanted to say.. you are freaking awesome for going to see HINDER after a day like that! Rock on, Granny!!

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    1. LOL, Kristy, I wouldn't have missed it no matter how tired I was! I've loved Hinder since I bought their album Extreme Behavior. Although I'm not always a fan of their lyrics, I am a fan of their music in general. I'm embarrassed to admit one of my favorites is Get Stoned, and no, I never have gotten stoned!

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  9. I'm only laughing a little. It's one of those situations where if you don't laugh you'll cry or murder someone. Hopefully you will be able to laugh at the series of unfortunate events in time.

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    1. Langela, I was laughing at the positions I had to put my body through to get behind that dryer. Well, I was laughing after the hip and foot cramping stopped ;-)

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  10. Wow! Aren't you a trooper? I got mad just reading this, hate to think if it had happened to me. But here's something I've learned over the years: When I hire a company, I specify who I want on the job. When I interviewed a contractor for a big job, I asked how many guys would be needed, he said two for x number of days, so I said "I want YOU and your best worker, not a bunch of different guys coming and going." When he saw that I meant business, he agreed. Went beautifully. I was also there the whole time, inspecting as they went along. I made it pretty obvious I wasn't the customer they could be careless about. My husband calls me The General Contractor!

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    1. Jean, do you hire out? I could use you as my General Contractor! At least I'm quite sure I picked the best window installer. They do the most business in our area, but the drawback is that they are booked up on jobs for a month in advance, so I'm looking at the third week in September before I'll get the new windows and doors.

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  11. You are a regular pioneer woman. You may call yourself Granny, but I know a million women half your age who wouldn't dare paint a house, let alone take care of the household chores while doing it. You go girl!

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  12. Granny, I'm happy that you got that dryer vent hose out of there and replaced. That's definitely a fire hazard. You should have had Annie make a video!!

    With regard to that messy repair job, I would be hopping mad!

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    1. Robin, I'm hopping mad over the entire fiasco. I'm right back to "might as well do it myself".

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  13. So sorry for your contractor headache. Definitely go on Angie's List and review them so other's may avoid him and he will lose business because of his sloppy work!

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    1. Agriburbia, he already lost a $4000 painting job. And I saved $4000.

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  14. that's a whole lot of not fun. Hope the painting goes smoothly

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    1. Kirsty, the painting will go slow, but I have a couple of months of good weather ahead, so I hope I can get it completed!

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  15. EEEK! That company would not be getting another dime of my money for sure and certain. Grrr... I am mad for you. Hope the paint job goes smoothly and the weather hold sout for you.

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    1. Barbie, it was lovely painting weather today. I hope it stays this way! I actually had to wear a sweater out to the garden tonight, and just the other day it was 102 degrees!

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  16. That company was not very professional, I hate people who don't take pride in there work. This is why I always try and do things myself if possible. Contractors always want a lot more then the job is worth and most don't do as good of a job as I would anyway.

    You sound like you are a doit yourself kind of gal, and glad to hear you are not going to let them paint your house. Your husband is a lucky man to have you.

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    1. Milligan, I also dislike people who don't take pride in their work. If you can't do a job right, don't do it at all.

      The house painting has begun, and I have survived day one!

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  17. My eyes were watering from laughing as I read about you getting into and out of the confined space behind the dryer! LOL! Crazy stuff but I think we have all been there in some form or another.

    So sorry the contractor was so bad. I hope the next round witht he windows goes better.

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    1. Kitsap, it was one of those times someone should have had a camera on us. You cannot believe the contortions my old body had to go through to get behind that dryer and back out! I didn't know so many body parts could get Charlie horses!

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  18. Oh Dear! Funny and aggravating all in the same post! That’s really unacceptable work. Dangerous even!

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  19. This is awful, but I absolutely believe it and sympathize since that "quality" of work I have seen here as well. Nobody takes pride in their professions anymore and it makes me sick.

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    1. Yep, Erin. I can screw it up myself for a lot less money! Unfortunately, there are some things we just can't do, especially when it involves nailing up heavy boards.

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  20. I can't believe you went to see the band, Hinder! That is hilarious! I bet my brother would like to see them, too. I'm glad you got the dryer vent hose straightened out, too....

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    1. Greg, when people think of grannies, they think of rockers. I didn't know they meant chairs, LOL! I've been a fan of Hinder for several years now, since their debut album. I'd much rather rock out than spend my time sitting in a rocker ;-)

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