Pink Poogle Toy Forum

Our project is not going as expected (do they ever?). They're having to cut two holes in each wall to get the old stuff out instead of one (ugh), which means they didn't finish the upstairs today. Hopefully, they'll be able to finish the upstairs tomorrow and get everything blown tomorrow as well.
PLUS the drywall repair people that they supposedly usually work with not only wanted an arm and a leg to do the work, but they hadn't been told about this, so weren't available until next week. ....?! We were told we'd be done by Wednesday at latest, giving us time to paint and get the house back into order before Friday...when we have a visitor. Sigh. All of this was SUPPOSED to happen last week, but apparently COVID has delayed shipping of materials, etc. Gah.
So....Mr. P went to Lowe's this morning and picked up what he'll need to do drywall repair work. He has two days of "personal time" he has to use before the end of the year or he'll lose them, and he's done enough work with drywall before that he figured he could do it WAY cheaper and at least immediately, so we won't have to rearrange the upstairs a second time. With any luck, he'll be able to get a lot of it done (I may help with what I can), as they finish each upstairs room (at least the initial sanding/mudding/taping and other layer of mud). He's done some research on doing spackle, which we were initially worried wouldn't match the original, but he's seen ways to do it that SHOULD help us match well enough. Not looking forward to the painting to follow, but with any luck, we'll be able to get everything done in the time frame we have. Our visitor will have to deal with the crack lines in the ceiling, because we'll need to have someone else come in and do that. However, we will be asking for quotes from multiple people for the repair, because what the guy was asking for originally was ridiculous.

...they left yesterday again at 3, after wasting a great chunk of the day. To make it worse, they claimed they going to pick something up and then would come back to at least do the last step they needed to before they blew in the insulation, and never returned. I had taken the kids to do something that Mr. P had wanted to do with us (that was free and out of the house - they kept setting off the smoke alarm while cutting the drywall, and between that and the dust, we had to keep the kids out as much as possible), and apparently he could've come, but missed out since they lied to him about coming back. We were furious. Mr. P wasted a personal day that he could've worked, and instead had to sit over their heads to get them to work instead of standing around talking. No insulation all night last night....and it was 38 when we woke up. Frost on the ground this morning. Not sure how much colder it got, but I'm scared to see what our heating bill will be this month, as we had absolutely no insulation upstairs last night.

Needless to say, we are not amused in the least. Mr. P had words with the boss, about the delays, etc, and general stupidity. Even when they left yesterday, they did some stupid non-safe things. They left the following in Littlest P's room: window open (it's not gotten above 60 all day), a 6-foot ladder (closed and leaning against a wall) and a box cutter (bright red, open fully, and the only thing colorful in the room since everything else is tarped). And in Middle Little P's room: an extension cord, still plugged into the wall, a drill, a bunch of drywall screws, and an open stepladder coated in dust, and another non-dangerous (probably?) tool. And in the playroom on the ground, some sort of hand saw, and another power tool meant for cutting that's name is eluding me right now. Keep in mind, they've seen the kids and know we're staying here. Biggest Little P was furious, as he's had blade safety training. I commented something to the effect of "Lord help their kids if they have any," to which Middle Little P responded, "I hope if they do, they have mommies to protect them."

They are here this morning (and in greater numbers and the boss is here breathing down their necks) and hopefully already working, but honestly, I have the kids in the only room in the house that is completely untouched (that is not a bathroom), we have a space heater on (the front door is stuck open due to the hose), and I'm trying to keep them busy long enough to get to the point that we can go to the science center and stay out of the house for a few hours. The more things I can do with them outside of the house right now, the better. I asked my TKD instructor if I'm welcome to join the juniors class today (even if not for credit towards belt testing) just to get some frustration out. Apparently, I am, so I might.

/endrant

They did get the insulation put in upstairs, at least. They were going to leave without finishing putting the drywall back together...but I was like, uhm, no. We need to be mudding ALL of it. I don't know when they left, as I was out of the house, but they at least got the holes put back together. Some of them weren't done carefully, though, so we're not particularly thrilled about that. Ugh. Anyways, at the very minimum, we were able to start on the mudding. I kept the kids out of the house for as much of the day as possible, and when they were in "bed" (camping on the living room floor, because their rooms were a mess with dropped insulation, etc), I helped as much as I could...which constituted putting the rest of the drywall tape on. Mr. P worked literally all night, and is still not done mudding (though he's close now). I've sanded the stuff that has the second layer dried.

For all they claimed they would be starting to cut the ceiling at 6:59:59, to get things done faster, they didn't even show up until around 7:25, and weren't cutting for a bit after that. Then they broke the glass on our china cabinet. *facepalm* It appears that they might actually have blown in some of it and are screwing the drywall back into the ceiling. They still have a lot of blowing to do, plus all the clean up. Just...sigh.

...it sounded like they weren't going to do any clean up at all, and I was like....!?!? First, we're responsible for tarping everything we want to protect, then they want us to clean up their mess? (And boy, is it a mess.) Either work ethics have changed, or they're different here (I mean, we already know home construction here in general is pretty poor compared to elsewhere), or we've just found people that don't see it as their responsibility to clean up their own messes.

Maybe it'll be done and cleaned up after today? Maybe? I mean, we're still a long way to moving furniture back, but at least there won't be any more dust, and we'll have access to things again. Like...the fridge. And the stove. I am SO tired of fast food, dry food from the pantry...and I miss my hot tea!