Pardon the dust... (part 1)

Have you ever hired a contractor? I would really think twice before I ever do it again as I did recently and what an experience it has been. The biggest lesson has been this: do not hire a tile guy to build a garage - even if he says he can do it.

Eight weeks ago the contractor we hired assured us he could build us a garage, he had just finished an addition. Sweet! We will finally be able to realize our dream of being able to garage our only vehicle again as well as our camper. This was going to be fun we said.

Today, as I type this, the contractor is still out there. We only required three outside walls and a roof, the front of the building is all doors. We did not want any inside work done as we would do that ourselves.

Then why is it taking so long, you ask? Great question! Well, the guy simply does not want to work. He will put up one board, then take a twenty minute break. One day, all that got done was one header put up - ALL day! His worker apologized to me and looked for other work as he was quite embarrassed at the progress that day. The sad thing is, this is every day. The siding started to go on four days ago and not one wall is yet finished. Not only that, this guy has no craftsmanship skills at all and is quite the savage with things. My husband seems to know more about construction than this guy. Every day it's a new crisis and my husband has to come up with a solution because the contractor can't and goes into a tailspin. He's had two workers quit on him and blames them for the lack of progress.

He actually told my husband that his wife told him he "needed to lower his clients expectations." I don't believe those words ever came out of her mouth. I met her when he insisted bringing his entire family over to meet us, which we thought was very strange.

The really frustrating part is that this guy claims to be a Christian and touts a symbol in his business name. I can tell you, there is nothing "Christian" about this man. He lies, is manipulative, deceitful and takes advantage of every little courtesy extended him. He has cost us way more money than if we had hired someone else, stolen our summer, stolen bow hunting season from my husband and due to contractor's lack of a proper bid that included garage doors, the man door and paint, my husband and I still need to paint the building and the weather is starting to turn.

And in all this mess, we lost our beloved Miss Angel. So much chaos all around us does not allow us to properly grieve. The mental and emotional stress that has come with this contractor has been so extreme that it has interrupted everything about our lives. This is why I am having difficulties keeping my self-imposed commitment to this blog.

We just want it to be over. I've been taking notes along the way (so far over six pages, front and back), and it will be quite an unbelievable story when it is actually over.

Thank you for letting me rant. Until next time. >^,,^<