Resistance is Futile

What disappointed us the most about the job they had done, was that it was mostly done. The things we were unhappy with, were things that would require A LOT of undoing to change. Handyman had done a walk-through with the boss before the bid was made. He had asked over and over, "Any issues with this? This is where X goes. Any problems?" No, no and nope. But the boss wasn't on the job and apparently hadn't discussed in detail, exactly how things were supposed to go.

Had they talked to me during the day, I would have been able to either stop the work at that point until Handyman could address it; or at least call him and ask him for a decision on things that they could then apply to the on-going work.

Why, oh why, didn't they coordinate with me? I had opened conversation with them multiple times throughout the day. They could have brought things up at any time. Nothing. Not even a request for approval.

So the youngish boss/owner showed up the next morning. Handyman walked him from place to place, pointing out what we were unhappy about. I overheard him saying something about Handyman being more of a carpenter than they were...and somehow H. impressed upon them how that trap was going to be up above that ceiling, no ifs, ands or buts about it.

Only one of the plumbers was there from the day before. Handyman called me into the fray as we walked out into the (future) laundry room. The boss stood looking at the work, repeating, "You're the customer. We want you to be happy." But he never said, "You're right. This should've been done differently." When I plead my case about the washer hose box being in the completely wrong place, their response was "Washer hoses are 5' long. It'll reach, no problem."

I turned to the owner and said, "We get one shot at this. Would this be acceptable in your home?" He hemmed and hawed and finally said, "Yeah. I think so." I was shocked. But it pretty much summed up their level of professionalism. I turned to the plumber who had done the work..."I gave you a scale drawing of this space. How did it turn out like this?" I asked. "This is not where the drawing shows the box."

He hemmed and hawed and ended up with, "I don't know." Certainly something you do not want to hear from someone who is getting paid $100/hour, or thereabouts. I wanted to say, "Did you just use the force? Any old place on this wall is fine, because washer hoses are 5' long." Do other people not care about this stuff?

I told the boss how unprofessional it was, that they didn't tell me they fell through the ceiling, twice! His reply was, "Well, they were going to tell your husband."

They tried to console us with these two options: "We can rip out all the work we have done, which will have to include all the new work in the 2 new bathrooms upstairs and re-do it (not at their expense-mind you); or you can flip-flop the position of your washer and dryer. Dryer doors are reversible, you know?"

The original contracted amount was almost $3,000, so ripping out and redo on our dime was way out of consideration. Handyman pointed out how the dryer vent was going to run through the crawlspace to the outside; and how the positions were set to make the venting easy by running it along the band board (THAT WE REPLACED THE WEEK BEFORE--the 20' one!) to the outside. They offered to run the dryer vent through the crawl space for us and rough-in our slop sink. And they would take $100 off the bill for the drywall damage in the garage ceiling.

$100 sounds like a lot until you consider that we will have to cut and remove the damaged drywall, and reinstall it from below--holding it over our heads. Because you know, we don't really have any other pressing needs in this house right now. The garage ceiling can just be thrown into the mix--NOT! Handyman's time is worth more than the $100.

There was no option other than to accept their proposal. They ran the dryer vent. They finished up whatever they weren't done with, in silence. The boss left. No one apologized. We succeeded in not screaming in frustration.

After they left, Handyman ventured into the crawlspace and was not happy with the work done there either. It will work fine, but it is not done in an orderly or efficient manner. It seems like a job done by a teenager who doesn't care. Not what you're hoping to get on a system that needs to function really well for the next several decades.

What could we do, but move on? Eternally optimistic, we realize it could've been a lot worse. Lesson learned, again. (I'm encouraging the girls to marry plumbers.)