My dear friend, Dr. J, has had her share of homeowner's blues. She bought her new house in 2007, and the house has not let her alone since then. When you buy a new house, there are things that need fixing, and Dr. J's house was no exception. She called and called and called the builder about things that needed fixing, and there were always promises, promises, promises that someone would come to fix it. Calls were ignored and ignored, and finally, the company got up enough courage to tell her, "we're out of business, good bye and good luck!"
Dr. J is a fine lady, with beautifully manicured fingernails, who is a patron, educator and lover of the arts, especially theatre. She taught theatre for many years, and was a distinguished professor at a midwest state university. She knows so much, and I've worked with her on several shows that she directed, I learn something new every time I am with her. She shocked the heck out of me when she told me that she was caulking, painting, spackling and doing homeowner stuff to try to fix the problems that she was experiencing with her house.
One issue was a leaky shower. She called a plumber--one could call him the dumber plumber, because in fixing her shower, he burned a hole in her bathroom floor with his work light! Then he some how twisted the story around to blame the burn on her! Then, when she invited some other worker to her house to try to fix the burn, she fell faint onto the floor, and had to be taken to the hospital. Her dear friend, N, who is an expert faux painter, painted the burn mark and made it almost as good as new. So that story is almost done, after Dr. J spent more time with spackle, paint and caulk.
Dr. J still had another big issue that needed dealing with, one that the bankrupt bulder never would address--there was a crack in her foundation wall. So, she started looking for someone to repair that. She got one guy to come out, he insisted on getting a down payment, then didn't show up to fix the crack when he said he was coming. Dr. J thought she was taken to the cleaners on that one, and stopped payment on his check. He called her later, mad as could be, and said he'd be out today to fix the crack!
Dr. J was panicked by the thought of a crazed crack man coming to her house, with her being home alone with him. So she called a cadre of her girl friends to join together to have a hen party while the crack man was working. He wouldn't dare go off on a whole bunch of ladies, we'd claw his eyes out!
We had a nice gathering, lots of good chatting, and the crack man said not a word, but went right to work. I had to leave before the work was inspected, I hope it was OK, and my friend survived yet another potential home improvement disaster.
Better luck in the future, Dr. J, but you can invite us over any time for some girl talk!
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