venting...

Everyone knows how hard Dusty has been working on this job in Willard, the "Salmon's house" (mansion). He was supposed to be finished painting before we moved here, that was in June. You know how construction goes, SLOW and ALWAYS behind. So, we thought, no big deal. It is about one hour in between of where we moved from, about the same for fuel either way. He told her that once we moved down here that he would have to work after hours because of his job, but he would do it. She agreed. Well! Here we go! The first trip: "V" called Dusty and said, okay, we are ready for you to paint. Dusty got his Dad and friend ready to leave early in the morning. Get down there, and there is NO way they are ready... Trip #1. A similar trip happened once again, before he actually began, and even when he did start, they weren't all the way ready for him.

For example, the trim wasn't up. They decided they would put the trim up after he and painted it, then go back and do touch-ups (a pain, but still manageable, at least we can start)! All is well.

He works pretty good for a week, after hours...then it starts! Dusty leaves for lunch, comes back and the "Brazilian wood floor" people are bringing the wood in the house. He asks them when they are putting that in… Monday! Oh great. "V" says, “Dusty, they are putting our floors in so you are going to have to come back after they finish, in about a week.” (What do you do?) “V” calls after about two weeks, we are ready for you… refer to Trip #1. They were putting the tile in too! “Do you want us to mask off the tile people so we can spray that ceiling above them while they are working or what?” Honestly. (What do you do?) We wait about another week. “V” calls, "we are ready!" Oh yeah?! Anyways, this happens multiple times. Finally, everything is finished, but the paint and carpet! Oh yes, you guessed it! Cabinets, dining table, EVERYTHING!! Oh great, we get to "remodel" this brand new, $560,000 house (by having to mask off EVERYTHING!) Lucky us! So away Dusty and his dad go, hard at work…I mean Dusty is working at least 50 hours at Sherwin plus driving two hours a day and working up there. His dad works at like 4 in the morning until 4, then meets Dusty there.

A little example of how “pushy?” they are: Dusty had painted the 20+ doors downstairs. They asked him if he wanted them to set up the doors, so he could just spray away, how nice of them. He tells them how to set them up, like dominoes, with boards screwed into the tops. So! He goes to spray they weren’t screwed tight enough, ope! There goes one door, and two, and three, oh! There’s the wall! Oh, and the one that hit the wall broke in half! (What do you do?)

A little about the homeowners...They have seven kids, he makes $100 an hour (she told Dusty the first time they met). They are one-uppers. She was mad her house didn’t bid at $600,000. You get the idea. No, wait, there is more. NO “thank you’s”, “oh, that looks really good”, “wow”. NO, NONE OF THAT… Instead, “what about that”, “when are you going to do this”. VERY UNGRATEFUL. They only look at what is wrong with their house. Of course, when you think negative all day, that is what you are going to get: NEGATIVISM! They have never, not once told Dusty Thank You.

A little about Dusty…He doesn’t dislike anyone. ANYONE!!!. These people: well, I think they are first on his list.

Where are we at now?! Well, well, well, this is the reason for this blog tonight! Dusty gave her a new bid because he has had to do more things than he bid. For example:

1. They didn’t like the ceiling color: remask, an extra drive up there, more paint, and labor.
2. They had him paint underneath their 3 car garage (this garage could probably fit six cars inside it, we are not exaggerating): masking, gas, paint, labor.
3. MORE MASKING! If only I had my camera yesterday, they had to mask that huge kitchen, cabinets, island, and floors in all!

So, Dusty all but finishes: the entry way, some pillars, some trim (mind you that they moved into the basement after the put carpet in LAST WEEKEND and Dusty wasn’t finished with the trim down there.) (What do you do?) So he had probably 10 more hours plus touch-ups (which, they laid the doors against and put holes in the walls so the dry-wall is showing through, remember “dominoes”). Dusty had to re-bid her for all the extra stuff, if not; we would pretty much be doing this work pro-bono. When he told her that he was going to fax her the new bid, she was disgusted. “What for?” (Don’t worry; we will give it to you in a detailed list!)

Today, she got the bid, and Dusty got the call! He wasn’t able to answer it because he was working. She leaves him a message:

“Dusty, I just got your bid. It’s not going to work for us, so we don’t want you working on the house anymore. Please call me at such and such number so we can talk about how much we owe you after we take off you paying for the door and what work you didn’t do. Hang up.”

Dusty has called three times and she hasn’t answered. What do you do? Doesn’t this just make you sick? Dusty has a head ache and can’t stop thinking about it. He said, “Boy, I’ve never been fired from a paint job before.”