The Fast and the Furious

I've had to take a few days to cool off before writing again. 

Let's start on a good note by saying they finished DH's pole barn in record time. Took them less than 2 days' worth of work, I'm thoroughly impressed.

I worked on the cabinets for 7 hours Saturday (Jan 7th) and was planning on moving out of the flooring guy's way as soon as he arrived. Although DH called throughout the day and asked the flooring worker if he was going to be there, worker assured us he was on his way at 11am but didn't show up until DH called him again at 4:30pm. I knew before I even talked to DH that worker was going to come up with some excuse as to why he was late or forgot or couldn't be on time-he liked to use his truck as an excuse quite a bit and guess what? He had a flat.

I know it's kind to give people the benefit of the doubt. Maybe he's down on his luck or he's having some emotional or psychological issues (I know his g/f recently left). The thing is, he's our renter as well and is MANY months behind on rent so DH gave him the option to come work on the RV for us and put the flooring in so he could knock some of the back-due rent off. TBH, I wish I'd have had this option when I would get behind on rent years ago, but it was either catch up or get out. 

So, let's rewind. DH let him know on December 4th we needed the flooring done in the camper. He put us off for a few weeks, but we were going out of town from the 19th to the 26th, a perfect opportunity for him to come and work while we were out of his way. Nope, when we got home the cameras hadn't been triggered and all the materials were still under tarps. That night when we got home, worker/renter came over and started to work, which was fine! I get it, maybe he didn't want to be at our house when we weren't home. But he got a few good hours' worth of tear out done.

Sporadically for the next week he came over and worked. Two to three hours at a time. *It should be noted that he does not have a job at this time, so when he's not working on the camper, he is at home.* It got to a point where when I was off work and available to work on the camper, we were either waiting on him to come over and work or he was out here working but taking frequent 1-hour breaks and blocking up the progress. 

DH finally gave him an ultimatum, either finish the flooring by Saturday, Jan 7th at midnight, or be evicted. We could not keep waiting on him to drag his feet to put the flooring in a 300s/f RV for weeks on end (he'd had a month by this time), when he'd previously finished the flooring in our 1300s/f house in two days (we paid him cash for that). 

Wednesday, the 4th, he came over and worked for a few hours, left to get lunch for an hour, came back as I was working in the front yard taking down Christmas decorations and played on his phone for a while, then went to the backyard to work. He came out an hour later saying he had cut his finger but wouldn't show it to me-now remember I'm a critical care nurse. He asked me for a bandage and when I offered one out of a first aid kit he watched me open, he said it wasn't the one he wanted and he was just going to go to CVS and get one. 

A band aid. 

He was gone for the rest of the day.

I worked Thursday, I got off early Friday, so I went outside to work on the camper. He came at 9am, worked for an hour and said he needed a drink. DH offered him a drink from in the house, but he said he was going to the store (around the corner from us). He was gone 45 minutes. Came back and worked for an hour while I was outside painting, he said something about needing to have a 'safety meeting' and walked to his truck. I shrugged it off thinking he was getting his cigarettes or something, I heard his truck crank up and leave. He was gone another hour and when he came back, he said he had gone to lunch. He talked to me for a bit about some woodworking he was doing in his spare time, then went back to work for about an hour and a half before telling DH his knees were hurting from an injury our 45lbs dog supposedly gave him a few days prior. This was the first I had heard of anything like that. DH told him he had until the next day (Saturday the 7th) to finish, no matter what.

No slide trim

With final slide trim

The 7th rolled around, I went out and started painting. DH called worker at about 11am and asked him if he was coming over, worker said he was on his way, but by 4:30pm worker still hadn't shown up. Worker lives about 20 minutes away in a rural area, but not too far. DH called worker back again and in true spirit, worker said he had misunderstood what was being said and that he would be on his way when he could. DH reminded him of the midnight deadline, and it was getting darker by the minute. Worker then said he had a flat tire. DH asked him where the hole was at, worker said he didn't know. DH told him to air the tire up and come over as we have plugs and means to repair tires here. Worker then stated he would be on his way as soon as he could air up the tire. 

Worker showed up at about 5:30pm, after dark. Soon after his arrival, worker asked DH if he could go ahead and just finish up on Sunday because it was already dark 'and it's hard to work in the dark on this,' DH said no. Worker then said he had a girl that was waiting on him and wanted to make him dinner, DH said he should have come over earlier and gotten the work done and he'd have been good to go. I stayed in the house because I was absolutely worn out, my elbow was acting up again from all the painting and I just wanted to shower and rest. I managed to finish most of the cabinet painting I wanted to get done though.

Entrance cabinets, painted and reinstalled the vent grating too

I'm pleased the green brought out the sand-tone of the countertops!

When DH told me about the dinner with the girl, I had a sneaking suspicion the girl was at worker's house (the rental) and that was why worker hadn't come over first thing in the morning as he was busy hanging with this new person. Worker finished relatively quickly that night in relation to what I knew still needed to be done.

The next day (Sunday), I went out to inspect the work. 

When I tell you I was so pissed off I couldn't see straight, I couldn't even let DH in the camper because I was so mad I was afraid I'd use my words on him. The floor was badly gapped up, the trim work was hacked together with gaps and notches in it, the floor didn't match up to the slide, and there were obvious pneumatic nails and nail holes in the slide trim. There was a half-inch of sawdust on the floor I had swept and vacuumed the day before, and the dust was sprayed all over the brand-new painted cabinets. 

Stairwell with gapped up wall corner trim as edging

I was so absolutely furious I didn't even take a photo, which is not like me. I took a deep breath, taped off all the cabinets I had been working on so I could paint walls, wiped walls down, and swept.

I then got the pry bar and ripped up the trim work and gapped pieces the worker had 'completed.' 

I gathered my supplies (circular saw, extension cord, scrap boards in the right direction, a piece of cardboard box to write on, a fresh carpenter's pencil, a tape measure, safety glasses, a square, razor knife with new razors, and a yardstick because I don't own a chalk snap-line) measured twice and cut once carefully on my marks like my dad taught me to, and *amazingly* my pieces fit like a tight puzzle. I don't know how to do flooring, but I do know how to use a tape measure and a circular saw, so I was about to learn. By 4pm, my tennis elbow was flared up so bad I couldn't lift the rubber mallet to pound the flooring into place. 

I've never in my life been so frustrated and angry that I felt like crying. Not ever. Not a single time in my lifetime. I get mad and get quiet, I'm nice until I'm not, and when I'm not nice, I'm nasty, soul-crushing mean with a mouth like a sailor. And I am absolutely done, let me tell you something. But as I sat on the floor, my right elbow almost unable to straighten with no strength in my grip, a half-torn up floor, sweaty, with a piece of LVP shaving in my eye from cutting the flooring, I wanted to cry and punch a wall. Insult to absolute injury. 

I had to work Monday, but I was off today (Tuesday). Due to the obnoxious and persistent pain from my elbow, I called Monday morning to schedule an appointment at my favorite orthopedic surgeon's office to have a cortisone shot and they were able to squeeze me in on Tuesday. I've taken it slow and easy today, no work on the camper until this injury eases up a bit. 

DH has had his hands full with the water heater anyway. I asked him to fix the water in the camper so I might be able to clean the shower and have water to wash windows and walls down. As he was checking connections, he realized the water heater was leaking badly. He pulled it out and it was completely rusted out, so we've added a water heater on to the list of things we have to purchase. 😒 Well at least that will be new and we'll have some good years to put on it. 

But that's been the extent of the work in the last bit! I'm just very frustrated right now with everything going on, but it will get better!