Week 23 - Painter from Hell!

Tuesday dawned full of hope. The painter was coming and only had trim to do and it was a short work week. What a fool I was!

Tuesday was the first business day of the month so I did deans' reports and the day flew. I went to the pool for an ignoring-my-knee, full throttle workout and then planned to hit the market before heading home. But when we were in the pool, the sky got dark and the emergency broadcast system came over the radio with severe storm and hail warnings all around Lincoln. I took one look at the sky and decided to skip the market and head right home. It was pouring torrentially in Lincoln but I gradually drove out of it as I went north, hoping there hadn't been hail in Wahoo to pummel my freshly planted containers.

I needn't have worried about hail but apparently there was wind. I drove up to my house to find that the side storm door had been torn off its hinges, killing the door and damaging the siding in the process. My painter, who was already on my sh*t list, had not shut the door all the way when she left, thank you very much. Having gone through the exact same thing with my front door, I knew this would cost me hundreds of dollars. Needless to say, I was livid. I removed the door as I entered and went to check out the painter's progress. Yeah, right.

She was supposed to work the whole day because it was the only day she was working this week. So, what'd she do? Painted the trim around 1 window and primed 2 door jams and 2 doors. That's it! And what door did she leave covered with primer that comes off every time I touch it? The bathroom door, which is the only door in the house I really use, and that's despite me asking her to focus on a room and NOT on the hallway. Guess how pissed I was! So pissed that I couldn't fall asleep and when I finally did, I woke up at 3:30 and never fell back to sleep. No matter how much I told myself not to focus on it and get back to sleep, my mind went back to her inadequacies over and over. I finally got up at 4:30 and watched a documentary on Netflix to try and get my mind off it. I went to work exhausted and, you guessed it, still pissed. There was no way I was going to call her that day for fear my anger would transmit through the phone lines and make her permanently deaf in one ear (at least!)

I went through Wednesday in a fog and still didn’t feel like I could call her and be civil so figured I’d wait until Thursday. But after water aerobics on Thursday, I decided to go to Iron Man ALONE because I really wanted to see it on the big screen and couldn’t get anyone to go with me. I totally enjoyed it - fun and great dolby to boot. Anyway, by the time I got home it was too late to call so I left her voice mail Friday morning and waited for her call. Go figure, she didn’t call back! I stopped at Menard’s on the way home and bought a new screen door and my guys came to look at it and said they’d be back next Thursday to install it, which wouldn’t cost as much as I’d thought (I’m still out hundreds, mind you) so that was good.

She finally called Saturday. She had a list of excuses a mile long and I talked it all out with her and made it crystal clear I wasn’t happy. We left it that she would come back on Monday and do a full day’s work while I’m out of town at Nora’s mom’s funeral. I hung up feeling like there might be hope. I then spent a fun Saturday in Omaha shopping with Andrea. I scored a Liberty quilt and shams at Target on clearance so I can have new linens when my bedroom is finally done.

On Sunday I slammed through chores, went to Nancy’s in the afternoon to walk her gardens and suggest some plants and then headed home. I had decided that I would move all the furniture in the spare room so that all the baseboards were accessible. I moved both dressers into the living room and then decided I would just put all the living room furniture in the center of that room too. I then called my cleaning lady to see if she’d be willing to clean woodwork and walls when she comes on Tuesday. I figure if I prep everything for the painter, she might actually get some painting done. Every ridiculous excuse she had, I just negated. If I come home Monday night and there isn’t major work done, she’s is SO fired.

I’m headed to bed early since I’ll be on the road by 5:30 Monday morning, hopeful that the next time I blog, I’ll be talking about the completion of the paint job. That’s probably not going to happen but at least I know my door will be installed. I may have horrible luck with contractors but at least my deck guys are true to their word.