Thursday, July 08, 2010

FINISHING THE BASEMENT A BIG PAIN IN THE....STUPID CONTRACTOR!

The Saga of our basement goes something like this:

A long time ago (March) in a basement far far away, there was a contractor who seemed to shine above the rest in price and availability.  He toiled long days with his partner (who is his son) and did a good job with framing, electrical and plumbing.  We were loving working with them.

And then something TERRIBLE HAPPENED- SUMMER CAME!!

Yes our beloved contractor who swore the drywall would be in by June 21st, dissappeared on June 11th.  Without any call backs, texts, drop-bys...we thought about issuing an AMBER ALERT!  We thought that might be a bit overboard, but now that 3 weeks...3 1/2 to be specific...have gone by we really think that might be the way to go.  He must have been ABDUCTED or something.

But no...its far worse...ITS DECK SEASON!  Those decks pay far more money (apparently) than we do...thus they take precidence.  We get it.  HOWEVER, when 3 weeks goes by without ANY WORD, when 3 major items were supposed to be done MANY MANY days ago...we knew it was time to play hardball.

So we  were given a strategy.  Contact other contractors and get a quote, and come back to contractor A and say " If you don't want to have to pay us the $XXX.XX we paid you to do XY and Z to our basement, then you need to contact ASAP because otherwise we have another contractor who will do it for the same amount.

So we carried out the brilliant strategy given to us by a WELL to do HIGH PROFILE contractor himself.  he said NO CONTRACTOR wants to pay that money, so they will come back.  This high profile contractor referred contractor A to us, incidentally.

Well, I guess our contractor must REALLY be DEAD, PARALYZED, or have AMPUTATED LIMBS.  Maybe he is laying in a forest somewhere with a big tree over him, or maybe he contracted the over-hyped SWINE FLU.  Whatever it is, NO WORD!

So we have one of our previous-quote-guys from way back in March picking up the slack.  THANK GOODNESS! It JUST so happened they could start right away, because two other jobs have hard wood on back order. 

So looking down the road a week and a half, Mark and Allison can move in and actually have light switches, some outlets, even a toilet possibly.  And FOUR WALLS for privacy.  We are not guarenteeing a door yet - maybe some cool beads...but our basement is FINALLY underway.

WHAT CRAZINESS!  (PICTURES TO COME!)