Sweet, Sweet Sleep

Last night, for the first time since last Fall, we slept with our windows open in the bedroom. And it was heaven.

Even though it has been more than warm enough to warrant open windows before, it was an impossibility because our window contractor had not yet put in the screens.

A week or so ago, I had written a very long-winded and accusatory blog rant about how the contractor was completely out-of-line and unresponsive, that we'd hired him in July 2008 and the job still wasn't finished .... I named names and got into many of the sordid details of our dealings with the company.

But that was then, and this is now, and we have our screens. It's true, it did get to the point where we actually filed in Small Claims Court to get from him the money we would need to hire someone else to do the job, because we didn't ever think it was going to get done.

But it is done. And strangely enough, he acted just as friendly today as he did at the beginning. At least, that's what my husband told me; when everything went sour and I left him 50 voicemails in February that he never answered or acknowledged in any way, Keith agreed that, IF the contractor ever came back out to the house again, I wouldn't have to see him.

So this morning, I packed up myself and Eleanor and we vacated the premises for the day while Keith worked from home and awaited the contractor's arrival.

Overall, I felt like the whole experience with this contractor was a terrible one. We could never get a hold of him, when they did deign to show up, the skeleton crew came late and left early. Nothing got done anywhere close to on-time.

And yet ... the windows are great quality. We've had many, many compliments (from friends AND from other contractors) on how well they're made. The price was very fair, and he stuck to it even when installation proved more difficult than expected. And the company owner was always very friendly; holding the baby, patiently letting Beckett in and out 50 times a day while they were here, even chasing down Gomez when she escaped ..... he always joked about stealing Beckett away with him. And today, when they were finally FINALLY done with everything, one more time he asked Beckett if he wanted to go for a ride with him and go live in the country.

I just don't get it. Does he think that this is a normal way to operate? Is this standard procedure for him, to just forget about clients for months and then get around to finishing up the final details? And then he expects them to not be frustrated or angry that they've been anxiously awaiting this completion of work on their HOME for ages? Does he think it should all just be water under the bridge, and we are going to call him again the next time we need new windows? (And we will, because we could only afford to do half the house at one time. I shudder at the thought!)

For so long, I have been feeling so angry and abused. But now I'm just so very glad it's all over. I don't want to ever hire anyone else to do ANYTHING at our house. And I want to enjoy sleeping with the windows open all summer long.