I have not been making an entry in a while and it has not been for lack of material but rather for lack of time. A lot has happened since we moved to the new digs and we have been very busy settling in. The house is pretty much complete now. We are missing the canopy at the back and a few little things here and there. It is a beautiful house I have to say. Very modern and very interesting. The way we envisioned it has become true.
We are now working on the garage and today the concrete slab was being poured by a team of workers. I came home tonight and went to take a look at the work. The two masons were sitting in their truck which was parked in the middle of the lane way... No comment. I had spoken to our super nice builder earlier on and he told me that they were looking for their payment (WTF? It doesn't look like they are even close to being finished so why would I pay them?) and he also called them "prima donnas". They must be acquainted with the plumbers and drywall guy we had to deal with. Oh great! Looks like I am going to be in for a good laugh.
I am looking at the slab with Super Nice Builder and the two fellows join us. Don't even say hello. Yeah, nice to meet you too! One of them looks like he is carrying the whole fucking weight of the universe on his shoulders (Do yourself a favor dude. Take a happy pill and put a smile of your face). He has this sort of totally fucking discontent look on his face. Very bitter. Plus he is about 5"2 and 180 lbs. Total turn on. He opens his mouth and all I hear is some kind of a grunt. Pardon me? Nice talking to you as well. No really, I mean that...... (O_0 ) Where are your manners? Why don't you try a little harder? The other guy, not much more sophisticated in the social skills department, blurs out a series of complaints (The cement is shit. It is going to take them all night to finish the work...) and demands (We need a heater. We need light. No. You need my foot or rather my builder's foot up your ass). Anyways, complete whiners.
It is interesting because over the past few months we have dealt with the same team of trades pretty much every day. Nice, cool, hard working guys. They are honest, are doing a great job. We were sort of spoiled I guess. Then today I see these assholes idiots and I get reminded that yes, there are really dickhead unbearable trades in the construction industry. I am pretty sure the nicest trades work for my builder because he is a very nice guy himself. So he attracts the right crowd so to speak. Those dudes doing the slab today have never worked for him. He had to hire them because he couldn't get his regular guy (who is very good) to do the work. I guess they won't be working for him in the future. At least I hope they won't.
I thought I would never write this sentence but the Prodema showed up last week and we can all start breathing again. The work on the facade can now start after having been delayed for approximately 3 months, courtesy of our useless sales rep.
First, I would like to say a few works about that asshole dick head idiot. The dealings with him were probably the worst I have had to go through with a sales person. The difficulty was that:
1- We needed the product
2- It was fairly expensive
3- There is nobody else carrying this product in our area. Actually, we found out a few weeks later that someone was carrying Prodema but it was too late to change supplier.
In other words, buying this product was not like buying a pair of shoes. If you want to buy a pair of shoes and the sales rep is being a dick, you can go somewhere else and find the same pair of shoes, either in another store or online. Of course, with Prodema, we didn't have the same sort of flexibility. Choice of alternate supplier was inexistant.
At any rate, the negotiations following the second order were very painful. The rep told us that he would be for any repair to the blue skin (as it had been exposed to the UV rays for too long) but then took his word back. He told us that we would be able to inspect the product on our property but then said he needed to be paid first... and so on and so forth. Total crook.
Not to mention the BS we had to go through with the air freight cost. Ugh. Brutal.
Anyways, the truck came last week to deliver the panels and I made sure that the guys unloaded ALL of them before handing the delivery guy his cheque. We also deducted the amount of the repair costs to the Blue Skin from the balance. Of course, the sales rep didn't know about that and wasn't too pleased finding out that a substantial chunk of his payment had been deducted. He sent this lame email saying that "he was accepting the back charge just because he wanted this nightmare to end and sorry about the confusion". Huh? He wanted the nightmare to end? Unless I am delusional but I thought he created this nightmare by acting like a total jerk and by showing total irrespect to his clients. And "sorry about the confusion"? Seriously? That's called a confusion? I thought it was called a major fuck up but surely, I am too tough...
At any rate, the color was what we ordered. The guys are putting the panels up and quite frankly, they look amazing. I can't wait for all of them to be in place, it is going to totally change the look of the house.
We have now moved into the house. The past few days have been crazy busy, between trying to get the house as ready as possible and organizing the move. Moving is a giant pain in the ass. Really. But I'll get back to that. Right now, the giant pain in the ass are the plumbers. A couple of weeks ago, as we were getting close to moving day, I informed the plumbers that they should come in and mount all the plumbing fixtures, install the toilets and do the necessary hook ups. I gave them enough notice to get organized. They told me they would show up on Sunday prior to the move and get it done. The plan was for them to go to town and get things ready for us.
On that day, they called me and told me that they were at the house. I had to meet them to sort of tell them what to put where and what not.
Starting time: 9AM. The house was empty so they had plenty of time to figure things out and they didn't have to work with a multitude of other trades. First thing they do is they start to complain because they had to bring a couple of toilets up a set of stairs... OK, well, I don't really understand what the big deal is but whatever. After a couple of hours of bitching and complaining about various things such as "how am I supposed to install this and why did you have to pick this fixture and really you need this toilet installed there", they decided that they were done for the day and left.
Finish time: 11:30 AM. Items completed: NONE (well except for carrying a couple of toilets in the rooms where they belonged). Moving date: 2 days.
So not promising. I don't get this actually. The house is empty which makes it easier to work, I still owe these clowns a balance so you'd think they would want to finish the job and get paid but noooooo... let's fucking drag this on.
Anyways, I called my main contact who subcontracted the project to these guys to let him know that this was not acceptable and that since we were sort of in a rush, it would be good if they could finish up.
He assured me that they would come on Monday and work their asses off to finish up. Fine.
Monday comes. 9AM: I show up at the place to find out that there was a leak in one of the pipes. The plumbers of course are blaming the problem on the dry walls guys who apparently have punched a nail through the pipes. Right. I have heard that excuse before and again, I don't really give a shit. Just fix the problem and let's move on. 11Am: plumbers are leaving to go to another job. Items completed: NONE. Leak: Fixed... MAYBE.
I give a call to my main contact right away. What the fuck is going on? I don't get it. These guys are supposed to FINISH up the job but they only work 2 hours at a time. It is very strange to say the least. He tells me that he just talked to his guys and that they won't show up till later on Tuesday. How late? I asked. Well, around 4-5 in the afternoon.........................
4-5 in the afternoon on Tuesday? That's the day we are moving into the house and they are planning on finishing that day without having managed to install anything thus far. Somehow I don't see it happening but you never know.
I spoke to my builder right after this phone call and he was quite pissed off. He basically said "this is fucking bullshit. Let's hire another plumber". Ok, that works with me. These idiots are seriously starting to get on my nerves at this point.
We managed to find another plumber on short notice which is close to a fucking miracle. Plumbers are in high demand apparently. The guy is supposed to show up on Tuesday and start working right away.
Tuesday morning: I arrive at the house at 10 to find the new plumber and the old crew who wasn't supposed to show up till the end of the day. Ouch... this is going to get ugly. Super nice builder is not there yet so I guess I am going to have to deal with this. As expected, it doesn't take much time to get into a real fiasco.... I feel like I am dealing with the contestants on America's Next Top Model at this point. It goes from "OH MY GOD, you brought another plumber?" to "You know I made a real sacrifice to be here for you this morning and I also brought another guy and I was going to fix everything and blah blah and now you've insulted me, it is the first time I get fired from a job and I am leaving right now and..." and more and more bullshit.
o_O
I have insulted you? Seriously? Who is the client here for G*d's sake? You have insulted me by showing me on several occasions that you really didn't give a shit about this job. You did not fulfill your side of the deal while I have fulfilled mine by paying you on time no questions asked. I gave you plenty of chances to get your job done but yet, you couldn't do it. WHAT AM I SUPPOSED TO DO?
At any rate, the plumbers left and the new plumber took over. He got most of the job done and he is a nice guy, without an attitude, which is what I want on this job site. He had to fix the first leak which these idiots didn't fix at all.
On Thursday, we had another leak in the house due to the previous plumbers' shitty work. I think that getting rid of them was the probably the best thing to do. Hopefully we don't get anymore bad surprises over the next few days.
The Prodema fiasco has continued to unfold over the past few days. I am not finished bitching about it obviously. I let my other half deal with it for a couple of days but since the sale reps were acting like complete assholes, I had to let them know how pissed off I really was. It turns out that the initial confirmation for the order was sent to my husband who had to sign it and return it. My husband has a very busy job and when he received the purchase order to sign, he sort of read it partially, checked that the amount was correct and sent it back. It never crossed his mind to look for a mistake in the confirmation simply because he has sent an email stating in capital letters what type of wood we were ordering. At any rate, there was a mistake in that contract, which we signed so now we are held partially responsible for the problem.
Personally, I find that a little far fetched and I don't understand the following:
- How does the sales person go and order a complete different finish after he gets an email from us stating clearly what we want?
- How come the sales person doesn't check his own work and realize that he has made a mistake?
- How does he then blame my husband for not finding the error?
To me this read as "I have no balls and I don't want to take responsibility so I will blame my customer for the problem". That's so professional. I am impressed. NOT.
I actually asked a few of my friends who are exclusive dealers for some pretty fancy products/lines and they told me that the customer is not supposed to check a confirmation for errors. That's not their job. The sales person has to do it. That sounds more like it.
Anyways, I could not let that go so I sent an email to our cheesy little sales rep in which I wrote that he had no balls. Literally. Honestly, that's the truth and I am not going to tip toe around this guy and let him jerk us around like this. It is ridiculous.
Well, I guess when a woman sends an email to a man stating that he has no balls, that awakens some kind of a reaction and I got an email back from my new best friend saying that he was sort of sorry I felt that way and that no matter what he was going to do, he didn't think I would change my mind about how I feel... Blah blah blah. Ok, cut to the chase dude. He then offered some kind of a deal that he hadn't even offered before. So I guess that dragging balls into the mix got us somewhere.
Now, I am always willing to give a second chance to someone, based on the assumption that everybody makes mistakes and should be given the opportunity to correct their fuck-up.
So we told our rep to go ahead and write up a second order, which we will be air freighting so it shows up faster. The second order is sent yesterday and what do we notice? He has specified the wrong wood finish again!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Three words: What. The. Fuck.
Like this guy is on some sort of drug or something? Like, why can he not get it right? It is easy but still he can't do it. I have never seen this my entire life, I swear to God. How many times it is going to take for him to get it done properly. Seriously. Let's see what order confirmation #3 looks like. I can't wait. Really.
Just when we thought we had regained control of the project, we were in for another big fucking surprise.
As I have mentioned before, we have been waiting to receive some material from Spain. The material is called Prodema and it is used as cladding on the outside surface of the house. We prepared the house for it a while ago as we were supposed to get it at the beginning of April but it turned out at that time that the Prodema has just been put on a boat and was going to be 4 weeks late.
It arrived in North America at the beginning of May and was delayed in custom for about 4 weeks, which is something I have never heard of. At any rate, it finally made to our town and was being delivered today. Now, I am not sure whether I should cry or completely lose it about this whole thing.
Yesterday, before the Prodema was supposed to be delivered, the supplier asked us to process payment. We declined on the basis that we needed to inspect the material and make sure it was the RIGHT wood. The supplier called back and said "we won't unload the truck unless we have payment in full". To that we replied "Say what? What the fuck are you talking about? You are delivering 2 months behind schedule and you want to dictate the terms of payment. Why don't you just go fuck yourself? Seriously! Not a chance". The sales guy, this really cheesey little asshole, called back and said that "he has been burned out by so many residential customers, that's why he needs payment but ok, he'll make an exception and let us inspect the material before getting paid". You fucking right you will. So the truck arrives this morning and the two Russians carpenters are now unloading the truck. This Prodema is heavy as hell and they are really having a hard time bringing the stuff down.
At any rate, the material is tightly packed in a crate and we decide to open it to make sure we have the right color material. Package opens and..................... WRONG FUCKING FINISH!!!!
!!!!! (O_0) !!!!
At first, I was like "WTF, am I dreaming? Is this really happening? Can't be happening! I must be high or something". One of the carpenters goes "Is it right wood?". I answered "I am pretty sure it is not right wood".
I was sort of in denial at this point. I was thinking "How can they fuck that up? I mean, 40k of the wrong material". We needed MOCCA and it turns out that DARK BROWN was ordered. Two completely different finishes, even if you were color blind or a complete idiot with colors/finishes, you would get it right. Mocca is the same color as coffee and dark brown is red. Hello, is anyone fucking paying attention cuz it surely doesn't look like it. So now, we are back to square one, we don't have the material, we don't exactly know what to do. Our completely idiotic salesperson has been trying to figure something out but now we are dealing with the person above him who is trying to figure out the lead time on the Mocca. Is it in stock and how fast can it be shipped? Since we are moving at the end of June, it looks like we might move in a house which exterior is not complete.
Great! Well, the thing is, again, we have no control over anything so there is not much that we can do. It is just another one of these really irritating situations that can't be solved easily, it is going to take a lot of negotiating and threats to get our Prodema in a reasonable time frame. Of course, some of my friends will say "well, but you know, you are lucky that you can build a house, so just don't complain, suck it up". Okay, sure, I can suck it up but because you are lucky enough to build a house, does that mean that you have to lay low and keep your mouth shut when shit like that happens? Does it mean that you have to suck it up when some stupid sales person makes a mistake like this and doesn't check his work? So you are basically supposed to say "Oh, that's fine, please don't worry about it, we will just wait for the fucking Prodema for another 5 months, what's the rush?" Quite frankly, screw that. I am going to complain about all I want because I think that's completely justified. And I am not finished complaining. That's just the beginning.
Over the past few weeks, many mistakes have been brought up to light on the job site. I was speaking with a good friend of mine who says that the drywall reveals many problems that were invisible before. No kidding! Besides the fact that these mistakes are being discovered, there is also the very annoying fact that nobody is ready to take responsibility for these problems. Needless to say that I am so fucking utterly annoyed by this. At the stage of the game, it sort of goes like this: the drywall is fucked up so you ask the drywall guy "why is this like that?"and the answer is "it is not me, it is the framer".
Then you go to the framer and they tell you "No it is not me, it is either the dry wall guys' or the structural engineer's fault"... OK. Well, I am not convinced and I am not happy either.
Right now we have a problem with the door jamb sticking out further than the dry wall. The answer I get from the carpenter (who I trust) is "the dry wall guy told us what size door jamb to get and that's what we got". The drywall guy will say "no, that's not my fault, your builder probably ordered the jambs at the wrong size". Meanwhile, I am thinking "no way, my builder would not make a mistake like that". It is entirely the drywall guy's fault. But somehow he doesn't have the balls to admit it.
Why is nobody taking ownership of their mistakes? WHY??? I mean, I make mistakes, I hate making mistakes but I take responsibility and I also try to fix them. But when everybody is too busy blaming the "other guy", it leaves very little time to actually sit down and try to find a way to fix the mistake. That really really REALLY pisses me off. A lot of my friends just tell me "don't get so fucking upset, try to relax, have a drink". Okay, I can do that and I can try to relax but it is just one thing after the other these days and I am really losing my patience at this point. Alcohol is just not the answer anymore. Now, I would like this type of answer from the trades: "Yes, I think it could be my fault, I am sure I can fix it, let me see what I can do". Now I know that this is not going to happen in this case. Which is too bad.
In "normal" life, when someone has been M.I.A for a while, people say "no news is good news". And it is usually right. However, in the construction world, I found out that "no news is bad, VERY VERY bad news". Back in January, we ordered our floors and a material called Prodema that we are using as cladding on one portion of the house. The floors are manufactured in Germany, the Prodema is manufactured in Spain. Both products typically have a lead time of 10-12 weeks. Given the fact that both orders were placed in January, the materials should be ready for delivery to the job site this week or next.
A couple of weeks ago, we had a meeting with our Prodema sales rep who told us that the Prodema had arrived on our continent, was clearing custom and was supposed to be delivered to the site a couple of weeks after. Consequently, we started prepping the house for the cladding which involved putting up blue skin on the sheating and mounting the strapping on which the panels have to be fixed. I emailed the rep last week to find out when the delivery was supposed to take place as we have to make room for it. It sort of went last this:
"Hi A, could you let me know when we can expect the Prodema to arrive to the site. Thanks".
" Hi, I am away on business, someone from my office will call you today to let you know."
Ok, great... The day goes by, then another day goes by.... nobody calls. So I decide to call the office.
Me -"Hi, I am trying to locate an order. Could you transfer me to A?"
Receptionist (who clearly doesn't know sh*t about anything) - "Oh, he is away on business"
Me - "WTF, how long is he away on business for... I need someone to get back to me asap".
Receptionist - "I am transferring you to his cellphone".
Me - "Noooooooooooooo!" Too late. I get transferred to his voicemail once again.
Well, obviously at this point, I realize that the receptionist is running interferences on her boss's behalf and I also realize that he is avoiding me. That is probably because he has BAD news. But how bad?
Well, it turns out pretty damn bad. The order can't be located at this point. It is either on a boat in a container, so it could be here next week or in three weeks or it is still in Spain in the factory. Nobody knows anything. How is that possible? I don't get it. I mean, shouldn't there be a tracking order number? I worked in a furniture store a long time ago and we always knew where our furniture was. Apparently the best case scenario is for the material to show up at the beginning of May... But really, I don't care about the best case scenario at this point, I care about the worst case scenario and I also care about people a) telling me the truth b) not trying to jerk me around and c) not avoiding me.
Next item on the list: the floors. ETA for the floors was end of April. Great! We are not ready for them yet but it is good to know that they are available if we need them. Last week, I get a call from the rep saying "would it be really inconvenient if the floors arrived mid-May?". Uh oh... that doesn't sound very promising... What's happening now? At any rate, I told her that mid-May was fine but no later than that. Okay, she says, let me get back to you tomorrow. A week later, I still have not heard back. That is definitely NOT good.
So I called yesterday:
Me - "Hi, how are you? Have you received any news as where the floors are?"
Rep - "No, I am sorry, I will call tomorrow".
Me - (thinking "but you were supposed to call last week...") "oh, ok... well do you have any idea if the floors are on their way... Have they been shipped?"
Rep - "I don't know".
Me - "OK... are the floors still in Germany?" (which would be a fucking disaster).
Rep - "I don't know..."
Me - (thinking "What the fuck do you know then??????") "Can you please find out and let me know tomorrow".
Rep - "Yes, I will call you tomorrow for sure".
The thing is, the rep is this very very nice woman I have been dealing with for years. We have a good rapport and that's the only reason why I stayed calm. During the whole conversation, I felt like banging the phone on the table and saying "What is going on here???? Get me a fucking answer!!!!!". I know she is not responsible for this screw up but what I would like is for her to get me an answer right now, good or bad. She is supposed to let me know today... but I still have not heard.
I am very concerned and annoyed right now.
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