more de-whitetrashifying, or perhaps not so much

The process of getting new siding on our house has officially begun. And I am not happy, for the following reasons:

1) We were told that a “crew” is generally two or three guys. We have one dude working on our house. One.

2) The guy started over two weeks after the supplies were delivered, because the company allegedly just didn’t have any installers available until this week. In the meantime, the stuff has been sitting in our driveway, just waiting to be hung on our house, but fine, whatever.

3) The one dude crew? His name is Chuck. (Of course it is!) The first day on the job, he called my office number and left me a voicemail, wanting to know if it was ok – since he lives about 100 miles away – if he parked his camper in our driveway and lived in our yard for the next two weeks while he does the installation. And, um? Call me a privacy freak, but hell-to-the-no, that is not ok!

After I got his voicemail, I called the office manager lady who I’ve been talking to a lot lately, and asked her, “Don’t you guys pay to put him up in a motel or something?” I mean, the guy lives in the Olympia area, which is really far away, so I understand him not wanting to make the daily commute. But, camping out in my yard? What the hell? That issue is now resolved – I did some googling and found an RV park about ten miles from our house. So he can park his camper there, and then have access to toilets and showers and all of those other amenities that don’t involve him coming inside my damn house.

4) He starts hammering at about 6:30 in the morning. My alarm doesn’t go off until 7:00. I cannot think of a more unpleasant way to wake up. I need ear plugs, but then I’m afraid that I’d sleep through my alarm.

5) Last night, when I got home from my pre-natal yoga class (go me!), Dave took me outside to show me the first of the new siding that’s been put up. And I love the color, as I knew I would. (I’m the one who picked it, after all. I had to sell Dave on it.) But the seams, where the pieces of siding begin and end? Um. They’re bad. Lots of bubbles and gaps and things that shouldn’t be there. It looks like Dave and I installed it ourselves. And apparently Chuck told Dave that although he’s been installing siding for over 30 years, this is the first time he’s ever installed this particular type of siding. I have a major problem with the idea of being someone’s guinea pig, especially when we’re paying them a huge amount of money for a particular “service.”

This morning, I went outside and asked him about the gaps along the seams. He said that he doesn’t know “what idiot” told me that siding is supposed to look seamless. I told him that the idiot in question is the sales rep from his company who sold the project to us. He gave me this speech about how the siding is going to expand the first time the sun hits it, and then the seams won’t be visible anymore, yadda yadda. I had a total girl moment right then, because I was thinking, “But it’s vinyl, which is a man-made material. It doesn’t expand and contract like, say, wood…” I don’t know why I didn’t say it, I don’t think it was a fear of being too aggressive. I think it was just early in the morning and my brain and mouth weren’t cooperating yet.

Oh, he also does that thing that some people do where they say your name every time they address you? “Well, you see, Cindy…”, “Yeah, Cindy, I know what you mean, but…”, etc. I generally consider that to be a quality that dishonest people use to try to ingratiate themselves to others. I hate it. I get that you remember my name. You can stop saying it now.

Anyway, I’m going to make Dave go talk to him about the issue with the seams, because I think he might respond differently when talking to a man. Who knows. But if he gives Dave a bullshit answer about why the siding looks so bad, I’m calling the company and telling them that they either need to get us another “crew” or they can give up any hope of ever seeing a dime from us.

In other news, I planted flowers last weekend. Look, pretty!


10 thoughts on “more de-whitetrashifying, or perhaps not so much

  1. I am soooo glad that all of the houses in England are made of brick and therefore don’t require no flashy siding!

  2. The Better Business Bureau can help as well. You can use their online guide to find out if the company has had any complaints and if so, how they were resolved.

  3. I Hate, with a captial H, most people who come to do work on our house (either of the ones we’ve owned), because we sort of seem incapable of dealing with normal people. The guy who showed up at your house would totally be the kind of workman we’d have.
    I hope you get it resolved soon.

  4. Oh my god, that sounds horrible. All of it. The trailor, the wanting to live in your yard, the hammering, the awful work, the first name thing. Yeeee! Here’s hoping for big improvements very soon!

  5. I wouldn’t mind so much if it didn’t seem like every major job we’ve had done over the last couple of years seems to have been done by (or involve talking to) cowboys and hacks. Landscaping, siding, plumbing, septic, insurance, water damage repair – all of ’em. ..

    Makes me wonder how on earth anyone finds reliable people to do work.

    And we still have to find someone to do the driveway, euchh…

    /vent over

  6. haha, oh and I forgot the worst of them all..

    Home Refinancing companies.

    😀

    /vent really over

  7. Thanks for reminding me of the whole list, hon. I think we should probably both get evaluated for post-traumatic stress disorder.

    The driveway is so getting postponed until next year. I can’t deal with any more slimy salesmen in our house.

  8. I know you guys kind of live off the beaten path a bit, so I’m not sure how many neighbors you have close by. I wonder, though, if there’s a way to hire future contractors/roofers/driveway pavers through word of mouth recommendations, esp. if you like the work you see and they don’t have campers in their yard at the time. My parents had their kitchen redone through someone who came highly recommended by neighbors, and they keep hiring him to do “just a few more” things, from resurfacing cabinets to replacing flooring the downstairs bathroom to ditching the old hot tub and redoing their sunroom.

    Do you ever go to thenest.com? It’s a newlywed site afiliated with theknot.com, the wedding planning site. Those ladies LOVE to give ad/assvice on the message boards. I bet you could get a few leads for the future.

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