Dave's "Arrrrgh" Construction

Jeff and I went up to the condo about 9:00 thinking we'd meet with Dave's Construction and go over plans before going out to buy a new stapler. There were no signs of them anywhere.

I left a message with his wife/secretary and we went to Lowe's and when they didn't have anything, we went to Home Depot. We decided to get a Porter Cable 3 gun set with pancake compressor. There was a tempting offer on Senco's 3 gun set but we would have had to drive to Provo's Home Depot. It's amazing how much the gas crisis has to do with decisions any more.

Anyway, Dave called back and said he'd be there at 11:30 - 12:00. I made sure that he had the code to the key in the back so he could get in. Jeff and I went for sushi then I dropped him off home and went up to the condo.

A man and his assistant were there and I tried to introduce myself by saying "I'm Denise" and all I got from this tall guy in a makeshift eyepatch was "You're Denise" and he walked into the house. I don't know if he was ticked because he got there before me or what but I had a hard time communicating the rest of the day. It turns out that eye patch guy was Dave himself (I think, he never did introduce himself but he's the guy with the phone....so that's usually the guy in charge.)

I just had all sorts of trouble from: asking for a half arch on the playroom door (got a full) to "I didn't think I had to do the ceiling" to "we'll come back with the electrical stuff is ready" to "Oh, I didn't know we were doing a window sill" (sounds like he wants to charge more.)

He was also rude about what I was doing upstairs. Those comments went as follows:
"What are you putting that [underlayment] down with?" I informed him that the manufacturer wanted staples.

"You're supposed to use screws on each one of those x's" I'm just following the manufacturers suggestions.

"What flooring are you putting down?" Laminate. "This plywood stuff is expensive, you don't need [no stinkin'] plywood. You just need OSB [chip board] under laminate.

I was dumbfounded at this point because he had given me the "only people with penises should install flooring" look three times at this point. I just mumbled something about "well, I wanted plywood and this is what I was shown." Something stupid when I really wanted to rip into him for not minding his own business.

At this point I'm not sure what I'm going to get from him. I'm not hopeful and in fact I'm discouraged about his communication abilities. If I can't even get a half arch when I want one, what else is he going to ignore?

Lessons Learned:

Be EXTREMELY specific on your contract bid. EXTREMELY! Because you think you know what "finished and ready to paint" means...but do you and your contractor think alike? Write down each step of the process (as best you can), even the clean-up.

Do your research about what a job entails. Even though you might not do it yourself at least you'll know when workmen are doing it wrong.