sigh... hiring people to do work in your home

[hulagirl87]

Asking for opinions... here is the situation - sorry so long!!!!

We are redoing 2 of our bedrooms. One to be the nursery and our master bedroom. I contacted a guy that has done some work in our house before to come in and paint the master bedroom and paint the trim in both rooms. I had removed the wallpaper in the master bedroom (and all that lovely glue) so I figured he would come in, repair the walls if needed, prime and paint. We were also trying to schedule carpet to be installed, so I contacted the painter first and scheduled a time for last Thursday at 8:30 am and then carpet to be installed the following Wednesday thinking this would be a fair amount of time to get the bedrooms done and ready for carpeting.

Well, on Thursday it got to be 9:15 so I called him and he said that he told me Friday. I know this is not the case but I said fine and I would see him Friday. When he showed up on Friday he was here for about 2 hours just spackling and repairing the walls. There wasn't much that needed to be done there. He said that he could not caulk around the trim because he had left his caulking gun and the job he had done on Thursday. He said that he would see me Monday (today) at 8:30. He called this morning and said that he forgot that when he told me 8:30 Monday that he had another job to finish up and that he would be here between 11 and 12.

I'm stressing out because I just want to get everything done in the house. We are sleeping on our mattress in our family room and our house is crazy disorganized I'm hoping that he can get everything done today and tomorrow so that I do not have to reschedule the carpet installation. I just really wanted everything done by Thanksgiving. We ordered the furniture for the nursery and are supposed to pick it up this weekend. I'm annoyed that my timeline has fallen all apart! DH says that we should fire him. I'm not sure what to do. The whole point in me hiring him in the first place was so that I would not have to worry about anything. If I could go in there and paint I would, but being pregnant the fumes aren't so good. I'm thinking of saying something to him when he gets here, but not being a fan of confrontation, I'm not sure what to say.

For those that actually read this, thanks! I just needed to vent and see if anyone else gets frustrated by hiring outside people to do work in their homes...

 

[happygirl]

The guy doesn't sound very professional. I hope he gets his act together and get on the ball.

 

[DMickey28]

This would frustrated me as well .... I wish I could hire someone to do that work in my house right now. We just moved and bought a new house (well new to us) and need to paint a lot. I can't afford to hire someone but I also feel such pride doing the project myself, which ticks me off because I"d love to 'be able' to hire someone!!

As for the fumes when pregnant, as long as you are using a latex paint, the fumes are not harmful to you or the baby. They may get to your head and make you feel dizzy but that would happen to anyone. They will not harm you or your baby ... open some windows and you will be fine.

I painted DS's room a few weeks ago and am getting ready to start on our family room this week. Then our kitchen and THEN the nursery .... I figure i have more time to do the nursery since I can just close the door to it rather than leave the kitchen and family room in shambles for a week or two!

Good Luck ... I hope it works out. Can you and DH get the painting done on your own at least in the nursery this week so you can put the furniture in there?

Congrats on your baby ... do you know the gender?

 

[hulagirl87]

Good Luck ... I hope it works out. Can you and DH get the painting done on your own at least in the nursery this week so you can put the furniture in there?

Congrats on your baby ... do you know the gender?

Thanks The nursery walls are already painted, DH put in new trim that needs to be painted so we wanted the painter to do that for us. I would be fine doing the work myself but I don't think I am a very good painter DH said that he would do the priming tonight and the painting tomorrow when he gets home from work. I just worry that it wouldn't be dry for Wednesday.

We are having a girl Very excited!

Congrats to you! And good luck getting everything done in your house

 

[dis-happy]

In my experience, even great painters are unreliable. Honestly, I think it's the paint fumes.

Hope it all comes together soon and worth the wait!

 

[mjkacmom]

In my experience, even great painters are unreliable. Honestly, I think it's the paint fumes.

Hope it all comes together soon and worth the wait!

I've had this experience with most of our contractors, unfortunately. The worst is when you're at the end of something that has taken months, and suddenly they're not showing up, or only sending one guy, because they've started another project.

 

[Kim&Chris]

Lovely, just what you need before the holidays. That is extremely frustrating!! Have you paid him any $$ yet?