Painting smackdown
The ongoing discussions we've been having with Guillermo, our painter, came to a head yesterday when he and Walt met. Yesterday we were to do a walkthough of the place and note any touchups that were needed (I was at work during the day, so we went over at about 7:30 yesterday morning so I could do my walkthrough and Walt would add anything else he saw during the day). Guillermo was going to come by to get the rest of his money and we'd set a date for him to return to paint the new cabinets.
The other piece of this "touchup" work was that his crew needed to put the doors back on the existing cabinets. These are the original cabinets with the apartment, and while the cabinets themselves are really great, they were covered with 80 years of paint and grime and were generally pretty horrible. Guillermo's team had to take all the doors off, sand and paint them and then rehang the doors. When Walt came by in the afternoon to meet Guillermo, one of his guys was there hanging the doors -- and apparently it was an incredibly shoddy job. I came by that evening and saw that the hinges had been installed crookedly -- there is a row of cabinets with 3 identical sets of doors in a row -- and the hinges for each door were at a different height. There were also some hinges that were just downright crooked (clearly the guy installing them did not use a tape measure). I have no expertise in construction, but even I could clearly see that this was not good work.
When Guillermo came by to collect his money, Walt pointed out that the hinges were crooked and that he wanted Guillermo to rehang the doors so the hinges were straight. At that point all hell broke loose, with Guillermo exclaiming that he can never please us and our expectations were unrealistic and he was losing money on this job and Walt telling him that the hinges had been straight when he first took the doors off the cabinets, it's not our fault that he didn't scope the work correctly, etc. This discussion got so heated that at one point Guillermo exclaimed to Walt, "I feel like I want to punch you!" At the end of this, Guillermo did admit (in his own very indirect way) that he had done a poor job of scoping the work and didn't estimate the timing appropriately -- but then he also said he was quitting the job and didn't want anything more to do with us. Walt paid him (minus $800 because we still have to rehang the cabinet doors and paint the new cabinets when they arrive). What a nighmare.
At least he left the job with the apartment fully painted, so we don't have to do any of that work. Aaron is coming over next week to rehang the existing cabinet doors, and then we'll have to figure out what to do about the new ones that are arriving on the 28th. The other positive note that Walt mentioned is that we don't have to deal with Guillermo anymore or have long, illogical discussions about how he wants more money from us that we then have to negotiate down -- there is a definite plus in having all of that behind us. But of course I would have preferred to have Guillermo finish up the entire job so we don't have to spend a weekend painting the kitchen cabinets and such.
We're also still in a total lurch with the tile; none of these tile contractors seem to want any work, so we'll be moving in without a working bathroom (we do have a toilet, but that's it) and no sink anywhere (neither kitchen nor bathroom). My mom is in Monterey this weekend and left before we could get the contact information for the new guy they found, so I'm not feeling very confident that we'll have much hope of getting anyone in the near future. The stove and the refrigerator are being delivered tomorrow, so the kitchen will start to look slightly more kitchen-y. And I guess if Burke lets us use his sink, or if we take Cass' suggestion and install a temporary sink (which frankly sounds like an excellent idea that I think we'll pursue), we might even be able to do a modicum of cooking. I'm frankly leaning toward's my dad's special of takeout and Chinet, but we'll see... It will be a definitely pleasure when all of this is behind us!
The other piece of this "touchup" work was that his crew needed to put the doors back on the existing cabinets. These are the original cabinets with the apartment, and while the cabinets themselves are really great, they were covered with 80 years of paint and grime and were generally pretty horrible. Guillermo's team had to take all the doors off, sand and paint them and then rehang the doors. When Walt came by in the afternoon to meet Guillermo, one of his guys was there hanging the doors -- and apparently it was an incredibly shoddy job. I came by that evening and saw that the hinges had been installed crookedly -- there is a row of cabinets with 3 identical sets of doors in a row -- and the hinges for each door were at a different height. There were also some hinges that were just downright crooked (clearly the guy installing them did not use a tape measure). I have no expertise in construction, but even I could clearly see that this was not good work.
When Guillermo came by to collect his money, Walt pointed out that the hinges were crooked and that he wanted Guillermo to rehang the doors so the hinges were straight. At that point all hell broke loose, with Guillermo exclaiming that he can never please us and our expectations were unrealistic and he was losing money on this job and Walt telling him that the hinges had been straight when he first took the doors off the cabinets, it's not our fault that he didn't scope the work correctly, etc. This discussion got so heated that at one point Guillermo exclaimed to Walt, "I feel like I want to punch you!" At the end of this, Guillermo did admit (in his own very indirect way) that he had done a poor job of scoping the work and didn't estimate the timing appropriately -- but then he also said he was quitting the job and didn't want anything more to do with us. Walt paid him (minus $800 because we still have to rehang the cabinet doors and paint the new cabinets when they arrive). What a nighmare.
At least he left the job with the apartment fully painted, so we don't have to do any of that work. Aaron is coming over next week to rehang the existing cabinet doors, and then we'll have to figure out what to do about the new ones that are arriving on the 28th. The other positive note that Walt mentioned is that we don't have to deal with Guillermo anymore or have long, illogical discussions about how he wants more money from us that we then have to negotiate down -- there is a definite plus in having all of that behind us. But of course I would have preferred to have Guillermo finish up the entire job so we don't have to spend a weekend painting the kitchen cabinets and such.
We're also still in a total lurch with the tile; none of these tile contractors seem to want any work, so we'll be moving in without a working bathroom (we do have a toilet, but that's it) and no sink anywhere (neither kitchen nor bathroom). My mom is in Monterey this weekend and left before we could get the contact information for the new guy they found, so I'm not feeling very confident that we'll have much hope of getting anyone in the near future. The stove and the refrigerator are being delivered tomorrow, so the kitchen will start to look slightly more kitchen-y. And I guess if Burke lets us use his sink, or if we take Cass' suggestion and install a temporary sink (which frankly sounds like an excellent idea that I think we'll pursue), we might even be able to do a modicum of cooking. I'm frankly leaning toward's my dad's special of takeout and Chinet, but we'll see... It will be a definitely pleasure when all of this is behind us!
posted by Devon Szalva at
9:32 AM
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