Saturday, June 9, 2007

So. Tired. Saturday.

This week has been absolutely nonstop.

It began last Saturday, when I had a scheduled walk-through for an apartment rehab consulting job. Basically I looked at the place and told him what to change in order to rent/sell for more money.

The apartment was supposed to be empty so that I could spend some real time in each room taking notes and photographs. Think it was? Of course not. The tenants were still there, surrounded by boxes and four screaming kids. One bedroom door was closed and I dared not even go in there, lest I find someone changing or napping. It was ridiculous.

After snapping as many pictures as I could get away with, I headed out to Home Depot and Target for paint color specs, light fixture model names and the like. Then I spent the rest of the day composing a draft report, product list and sample advertisement for the apartment.

Sunday was supposed to be bathroom tile day at the house. My tile guy was 1.5 hours late in calling me, and then I had to pick him up since he doesn't have a car. We worked until after 8PM and he only got the subfloor down. (This was supposed to be a two-day project - subfloor and tile the first day, grout the second.)

Afterwards I worked a bit more on the consulting report and went to bed.

On Monday I started Kaplan/Prosource Real Estate License Course II. (M-T, 8:30AM-5PM in BLOOMINGTON. Ugh.) I spent my lunch break racing to the nearest (far) Kinko's to slap my report into a portfolio with decent paper. That kind of sucked.

After class I went and found the tile guy at the house (the Good Scientist had brought him over in the morning) and he had about 1/2 of the tile laid, and was surrounded by LOTS and LOTS of waste from botched cuts. Yeah.

So I waited to meet with the consulting guy who inexplicably requested to meet me at my house to get the report. WTF? I guess he wanted to see my work again, but why wait until after he had agreed to pay me? I wondered if he'd change his mind about hiring me when he saw the chaotic state of the house, complete with KQ-blasting, chain-smoking, coke-bottle-littering tile guy in the house.

Consulting guy was two hours late, wanted a tour and some chatsy-chat, but eventually paid me and left. Tile guy and I were out of the house around 9PM, tile still unfinished.

On Tuesday, tile guy had to work his day job, so I met him after my class, around 5:30. He immediately requested that we stop at: a) USbank, b) a store for smokes and cokes, and c) Home Depot for some supplies. I told him to GO SCREW HIMSELF!

Okay I'm lying. I didn't tell him that but I wish I had. I took him to the bank and store, but insisted that there was NO EFFING WAY we were going across town to the Quarry Home Depot during rush hour. We wouldn't have gotten to the house until 7pm if we did that!!!

Argh. I took him to North End Hardware near the house, and then the idiot realized that the drill bit he wanted to get wouldn't work on porcelain anyway, so he didn't buy it and the whole thing was a waste of effing time.

He worked (and I studied) until 10:30pm and then we called it quits. All the tile was laid except for two tiny slivers along one wall. (I have no clue why he didn't place those, since he ostensibly had made all the cuts the day before, but whatever.)

We took Wednesday and Thursday evenings off from the tile saga, since he was busy and I was tired of his face anyway. We agreed to resume (finish???) on Friday.

Friday I had no class in Bloomington, thankfully. As a result, I scheduled a carpenter to come out and take care of some trim work that I don't like to do. Guess what time he said he could come???? 7:30AM. WTF?

I wanted it done though, so I agreed.

Carpenter guy was actually VERY professional, I'm happy to report. He showed up on time, worked diligently and quietly with an Ipod in his ears and he didn't even litter my house with cigarettes and empty coke bottles. Whee! He finished almost everything he said he would finish, and will return next Friday to do the remainder. I'm quite encouraged.

Tile guy, on the other hand, cancelled Friday night and said he'd have to come Sunday morning to grout. I feel like grouting my fucking self, since it's not hard and I'm sick of him and I DON'T WANT TO HAVE TO GET UP EARLY ON SUNDAY TOO, DAMMIT.

Whatever. And then he has the nerve to complain that he's not making any money on this job because it's taking so much longer than he thought.

Um, well? We DID go through the space beforehand and he DID look at everything and give me the price and time quote based upon his so-called professional opinion. Personally I feel like paying him LESS because he's eaten up so much of my time....

Ugh.

So today I had planned on visiting two open houses near my place as well as checking out the Spring Art Party at North Commons Park. However, it's now 12:30 and I'm still in my underwear, laying on the couch blogging. I'm considering the benefits of not moving from this position for the rest of the day. I am fried.

Hopefully next week will be easier.

3 comments:

Kevin from Minneapolis said...

need help?

Ranty said...

With work or with laying on the couch blogging? :-)

Seriously that's very nice of you Kevin... be careful because I might just take you up on it sometime!

Honduras Sprout said...

You are one busy lady!

Tile guy...reminds me of a guy I hired to do some mud/paint work I didn't have time for and I ended up firing him and we got into a fight in my front yard about payment. Phone in hand ready to dial 911.

Lesson learned...I would never hire a handyman again without checking with a referral.

It sounds like you needed a day to stay parked on the couch in your undies. Did you?