Painting debacle-

Update at the bottom~

The Painters are supposed to be here tomorrow to finish painting our doors. (My bad- I need to catch you all up to speed on our painting situation.)

The Painters finally showed up to our house to paint, after 5 months of avoiding me, on October 9th. They took every door down in the house, including closet doors, put them in our basement and painted away. Around noon everything looked okay. The interior doors were finished and hung back up. THEN Roberto, the Painter, proceeds to hang up our exterior doors. His helper (assistant- whatever you want to call him) took out a chunk of drywall on his way up the stairs- only to find that the paint did not do it’s job and cover the door correctly. So- Roberto took the door back downstairs and proceeded to sand and repaint it a 3rd time!! BUT that did not work out… Roberto then called a “paint expert” and they determined that the door was contaminated. (Listen, Roberto- I didn’t contaminate my freaking door and to be honest I don’t care who or what did. I JUST WANT IT FIXED!!) After some more analyzing and phone calls the paint expert, now at my house, and Roberto decided that the problem was not contamination it was that the door was too cold. Apparently, when you paint doors you should make sure that the door is between 50-60 degrees. (I would think that a Painter would know this, but what do I know!) By this point- the fumes in my house were SO BAD that my head wanted to jump off of my body, my mood wanted to kill all in sight and there were purple elephants dancing in the kitchen (just seeing if you are paying attention).

I had been trying to avoid the fumes all day (worrying about what I was exposing our unborn son to) by sitting outside. However, after a couple hours at 50 I started to freeze. Which I'm sure aided to my headache and mood. Finally, I couldn’t take it anymore. We had to leave this fumy house. So, Chris and I decided to go get a bite to eat. Roberto was going to hang our doors back up and take off as well. We said our goodbyes and scheduled a time to have Roberto and his team paint another day in the week. The plan was for Wednesday. When we came home about an hour later our front door was hung but our door that goes to the garage from the kitchen was not. Hmm, that is nice Roberto! It is supposed to get down to 30 degrees tonight and our garage is not insulated. Are YOU going to pay our electric bill? Chris pried the door in its opening and put a chair in front of it to hold it in place. I then found some socks and stuffed the handle and lock holes. This should do… After all, they are going to be back in 2 days. What’s two days?

Wednesday (10/11):
Two days came and the temperature dropped to around 30-something and the snow began to fall. Not exactly the most ideal painting conditions. So we reschedule, AGAIN. I asked Roberto why the door was not hung and found out that he couldn’t hang it because it has special hinges (that make the door shut back when it is left open) and he needed a certain tool to hang it back up. Okay- thanks for telling me!! I guess that I can leave the door sitting in the hole with socks in it for a couple more days since you obviously don’t have the tool!

Sunday (10/15):
It's Sunday morning and no Roberto. I called him and got his voicemail. A few hours passed, still no Roberto and no call. By this point- I am a little hot! C is gone and the door fell out of its hole (it is not an exactly easy job to put the heavy door back in the hole) and now has a dent in it… Grrrr! Finally, around 8pm Roberto calls. I kindly say, "I will be home tomorrow. " "Okay Ms Jamie, I will see you tomorrow." Roberto says.

Monday (10/16):
7:30 Roberto is scheduled to be at our house. He shows but along with him comes rain- and it is starting to get colder. The news is calling for snow. “Not a good day, Ms Jamie” Roberto says. I agree. I asked him if he could hang the door and he did not have the tool. We scheduled to have him come back on Friday.

Between Wednesday and Friday the door fell 2 more times adding more dents to the door and leaving white paint on my red couch and the chair. The dents are so bad that I think we might have to buy a new door. JOY! Those are only a couple hundred dollars. I have that growing in my garden around back!!!

Friday (10/20):
Again, Roberto calls and is coming around 7:30. The weather outside looks terrible it’s cold and raining. The high for the day is only 44. “Not a good day, Miss Jamie.” Roberto says. I agree but insist that he hang the door back up and show him the dents. Turns out that all he needed was an Alan Wrench. Are you kidding me?? If they would have hung the door up the first time (like they were supposed to) it wouldn’t have any dents. (Lesson learned! If people aren’t doing their job correctly you should not have to put up with it. Tell them to do it right. You don’t have to be mean just firm. NEVER AGAIN, will I be a push over.) The door was hung and we rescheduled again for this Sunday.

Saturday (10/21):
The weather looks okay. When I took C to the airport this morning it was raining/snowing. It is “supposed” to be clear tomorrow. Fingers crossed that this is the last time I have to schedule any painting!!

Monday (10/23):
The doors are hung!! Now they just need to fix our hinges the "special ones" b/c the door is not closing properly and the lock appears to be broken. Maybe, just maybe, I will be finished coordinating repairs this week, or month, or year [don't say a word Kari!]... who knows. At least there is light at the end of the tunnel.