This cottage is going to kill us...

As I mentioned in a previous post, we hired a painter. C**** was so eager for work that she called Lorenzo three times. He gave her the job and we were really hopeful, especially after the Dud Debacle.

When someone is working in your home when you aren't there to supervise, a great deal of trust is assumed. Her price was $25./hour, and we were warned that she is slow. But the work was good, so whatever. Anyway, the first bill came in at $620. We paid it. The upstairs bathroom was already done (by me) and I had also re-painted our daughter's room. All there was to do up there was repaint two bedrooms, and do the hallway.

When Lorenzo went over there last weekend, the upstairs wasn't finished, the stairwell wasn't finished, and the main floor had only been primed. This seemed a bit odd, especially considering that she took on a helper. Lorenzo assumed she had only put in a few hours as she had other projects going on. When Lorenzo left on Sunday, she handed him an invoice. When he opened the envelope on the ferry he nearly choked on his breakfast burrito.

The amount was for $1825. and this didn't include the helper's hours. In other words, we're supposed to pay her a total of $2400. (plus her helper's fee) and not a single room is finished. No trim work has been done, not a single door has been painted.  $1825 equals 73 hours of work. And not one single area of our tiny cottage is finished.

So he called her up and expressed how concerned he was about this. She said, "You don't understand. There is a great deal of brush-work involved, etc." Lorenzo said, "Fair enough, but we're talking nearly three thousand dollars, if we include your helper's fee, and not one single room is finished. " Knowing this didn't bode well, he asked for a quote for the remaining work. She agreed to write up an estimate and breezily quipped, "I don't really need this job, you know."  Wow.

A few days later, she says she needs 6 more days at $47./hour (for herself and her helper) and another 2 days at $25./hr. The grand total would be $5101. not including the previous hours for her helper that we still haven't received. And this would be assuming she could finish in 8 days which is impossible, given the turtle-with-tendinitis-like pace at which this project has been proceeding. She started on October 10th. It's been nearly a month. At this rate, it will morph into a six or seven thousand dollar fee. For a cottage that's about 1000 square feet.

Lorenzo called her this morning and explained that $5000 plus extras for a puny shack is just not right. She replied, "I don't know where you're getting your math." He spelled it out.
She refused to acknowledge that her pricing may be perceived as a tad unreasonable. In addition, he had told her to charge his Home Hardware account for any primer she might need. The charges have totalled $297. Some of the items listed are drop-cloths, rollers, saran wrap, sanding pads, sponges, rags, paint trays, etc. When he suggested that a painter should be responsible for her own tools the conversation went rapidly down-hill.

She called him "weird" and then she accused him of being unethical. This really bothered me, because Lorenzo is highly ethical; he's a kind and decent man. I don't know another human being as generous as my husband. So when I heard that she called him unethical, I wanted to jump on the next ferry.

The dialogue ended with her becoming very angry. She said he's created "bad karma" for himself. Lorenzo said, "How have I created bad karma? Tell me what I've done wrong." Her reply was, "You are a strange little man."  Click.

When Lorenzo called me this morning to tell me all this he sounded drained. I cannot help but feel that we are either cursed when it comes to hiring people, or that the world is spilling over with incompetence. This is unbelievable and completely disappointing. Another painter fired.

Concerned that an angry woman has the key to our house, Lorenzo talked to our neighbour and asked that she retrieve the key for us. Our neighbour said, "You know, a few times she came here asking what time it was." I guess she doesn't own a watch. But somehow she knows how many hours she worked? Someone else on the island was watching her going in and out of our cottage and expressed some concern that something didn't seem right.

The only thing that offers a bit of vindication is that her invoice is outstanding. Legally, we could pay her nothing. There was no contract. But we would never do that, being the ethical people we are. Lorenzo will deduct her bogus hardware expenses, and arrive at a figure he feels to be fair.

What is most bewildering, is that C**** quit on us just because Lorenzo questioned her pricing, which was hardly unreasonable. How unprofessional.

So this weekend, we will probably celebrate our 17th anniversary apart. We need the ceiling painted before the new stove goes in. Lorenzo will do that, and then I will go over and finish painting the cottage. The whole situation is patently unfair. If her comment about "bad karma" is referring to some kind of future retribution, she is dealing with the wrong people. Lorenzo is Italian. Just saying....


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Hey! Obama won! YAAAAAY!!!