Saturday, June 10, 2006
Once in a while, things work out.
Lately, I've been preoccupied with home improvement. Soon after I finished the roof, I found the floor in the hallway was not as sturdy as it had been. Trailers have floors made with particle board. At the time, I figured it was from an incident some 7 years ago when the washer dumped all it's water on the floor while I was out mowing the lawn. I knew there was one soft spot and figured it finally expanded. It was on my list to do next. Unfortunately, it became something that needed to be fixed asap. In the bathroom, on the same line as the floor, the stool started sinking. Because I weigh too much, I feared sitting down for very long, or putting all my weight on it. This made staying at home very uncomfortable. Luckily, there are some Quikee Marts nearby. I'm sure they wondered why I was in there, using up their bathrooms, all the time:) Oh, and I'm going to go out on a limb and say that pregnancy doesn't happen because of sitting on common toilet stools. So, I called one outfit that works on trailers. The guy asked me if I was home. I said, "no, but I can be, tomorrow." He said, "call me tomorrow when you're home."
I took off work the next day. I called his business number and left a message that I had called the day before, my phone number was such and such, I'm home, now. This was 8ish. At 10:00 am, he still had not called back. I called another company and they set up an appointment 5 days from then. I called the first place again. The guy answered. I told him who I was and that I had left a message, etc... He said he had to go to another town, but would I be there all day, he could stop by on his way back. I said, "sure." I had to be at work at 6:00pm. At 5:30, he still had not come by and I had to leave. I never received a call, either.. in fact, I still haven't. So, the other company came out. The next day, the estimate arrived in the mail. Ouch! It was huge.. but, worth it. I called the guy and asked when they could start. He informed me that the soonest was August 10th. I was saddened. I was not going to hang out at Quikee Mart all the time until then. I thanked him, but told him I needed to get the toilet fixed as it would probably be on the ground by August 10th. He understood, but advised me that he has so many jobs from the hail storms in March, and he has insurance companies crying out for those jobs to be done. He did offer to keep me in mind, should someone cancel. Of course, it was doubtful that would happen as no one had cancelled during all the time they'd been fixing the hailstorm damages.
Luckily for me, a coworker heard my plight and asked me about it. She said her husband could do the work. The day started out sunny. They came out this morning and worked all day on the floor, putting down plywood. They found, and fixed, a gushing leak behind the washer. That was what made the hallway and stool flooring go so quickly. Rain started pouring down right before the last boards were trimmed and placed. It's finished except for the linoleum, which I will put down later. All in all, it cost about $100 over half of what the contracter had quoted. It would have been less, but I was so happy they had come so quickly, I asked them to keep the money left over from what I had fronted for supplies. I hadn't mentioned it, on the blog, for fear something might happen that the fixing wouldn't go on as scheduled. Ahhhhhh! I'm happy.
I took off work the next day. I called his business number and left a message that I had called the day before, my phone number was such and such, I'm home, now. This was 8ish. At 10:00 am, he still had not called back. I called another company and they set up an appointment 5 days from then. I called the first place again. The guy answered. I told him who I was and that I had left a message, etc... He said he had to go to another town, but would I be there all day, he could stop by on his way back. I said, "sure." I had to be at work at 6:00pm. At 5:30, he still had not come by and I had to leave. I never received a call, either.. in fact, I still haven't. So, the other company came out. The next day, the estimate arrived in the mail. Ouch! It was huge.. but, worth it. I called the guy and asked when they could start. He informed me that the soonest was August 10th. I was saddened. I was not going to hang out at Quikee Mart all the time until then. I thanked him, but told him I needed to get the toilet fixed as it would probably be on the ground by August 10th. He understood, but advised me that he has so many jobs from the hail storms in March, and he has insurance companies crying out for those jobs to be done. He did offer to keep me in mind, should someone cancel. Of course, it was doubtful that would happen as no one had cancelled during all the time they'd been fixing the hailstorm damages.
Luckily for me, a coworker heard my plight and asked me about it. She said her husband could do the work. The day started out sunny. They came out this morning and worked all day on the floor, putting down plywood. They found, and fixed, a gushing leak behind the washer. That was what made the hallway and stool flooring go so quickly. Rain started pouring down right before the last boards were trimmed and placed. It's finished except for the linoleum, which I will put down later. All in all, it cost about $100 over half of what the contracter had quoted. It would have been less, but I was so happy they had come so quickly, I asked them to keep the money left over from what I had fronted for supplies. I hadn't mentioned it, on the blog, for fear something might happen that the fixing wouldn't go on as scheduled. Ahhhhhh! I'm happy.
