Saving One Penny at a Time: Day 17: About as Nervous as You Can Get

So I woke up a little timid today. I didn't sleep the best last night after watching my niece fall and bang her head on concrete, and I also had the disappointments of yesterday's remodel lingering on the mind. Well, today I made the decision to lay low. I figured the boss had received my message and would be either dropping by the house or communicating with his workers...a message that probably wouldn't be received too well. Discipline/chastisement was hopefully forthcoming.

Sigh.

So I decided to let the workers work. I did drive by the house first thing in the morning to see if the workers were there yet, and they weren't, so I just took a quick glance and drove off. I then made a run to Menard's to pick up where I left off yesterday...all of the items that I had had in the cart when my niece tumbled. I returned and picked up four exterior lights, a chrome bathtub drain cover, and two bathtub faucet handle cover plates (both were missing).

I drove back to the house and made a couple of rounds around the neighborhood before stopping in. I had seen the workers there, but I just wanted to keep a low profile today! I dropped off the exterior lights, installed the bathtub drain cover, said hi to one guy, then headed out pretty quickly! And that's how I let it be for the rest of the day.

Previous bathtub drain.

$4.99 to give it a sharp look! (Now just need to clean below it!). :)

So I didn't get hardly anything done. But that was fine by me if the project would continue as planned.

Well, thankfully, the boss emailed me in the afternoon to tell me that he had had a talk with all of his workers. He said the interior wall would be fixed up to pre-construction condition, the termite damage would be fully replaced as promised in the contract, and the end-of-the-day procedures would take on a more professional flare.

Fine by me. I was actually quite nervous opening up the email, but I was pleasantly surprised to see the response. He handled the criticism and requests quite well, and I was thankful for that.

Well, so as not to cause too much awkwardness and because I was flying out tonight, I decided to drop by at the end of the day with Dad. I had actually drive around numerous times again before going to Mom and Dad's house and then finally picking him up. I just didn't want to be THAT guy, so I stayed away.

But we are not enemies, and as I stated in the email, I DO appreciate the work that is being done. So with that, we headed over to the house around 4:45 P.M.

I was beyond pleased. The workers had REMOVED the previously-installed siding below the front-picture window and removed the damaged plywood. And perhaps much to their surprise, more damaged wood was found! The worker showed me two damaged 2x4's underneath the plywood, the 2x4's that supported the window! He replaced both of them. I was thrilled. The problem had been addressed and was not ignored! I seriously can't express my pleasure with how it was addressed.

The massive section that was replaced. Underneath two 2x4's were also replaced.

The workers were just bending over backwards, too, informing us of everything they were doing. He eagerly expressed how he was going to replace the back holes (caused by Dad and me a few weeks ago) with wood before covering it up, he asked about closing and locking windows, and what gets me the most is that the oldest of the workers was out raking up the mess that had previously been being left behind every day! I was tickled pink. It was hard not to smirk. I actually busted out laughing later today at the thought of him raking. I was quite pleased.

I told Dad, "We both know that this is how it should have been from the beginning, so I don't want to give them too much undue credit, but I am just thrilled that the problems were addressed properly. And that guy raking?! Oh, it just tickles me so."

I was pretty happy. And compared to last night, I was ecstatic. I gave the "ok" for the front wall work to continue, and I caught a flight out of town.

So it looks like we took a few steps back today since the siding is no longer there, but I know just how far forward we actually moved today, and that gives me such peace of mind. Plus ALL of the windows were installed today, too! The house is back to moving right along.

The stern but kind email paid off. I have a contractor doing good work, and he has a happy customer. The way it should be.