Post of Complaints…

Here I am, very near the end of this remodel, and I have continued to discover problems with past work from DB, problems with work from NF and the FC&T team, and have held off for two whole days writing a post on the matter but just can’t wait any longer.

Here’s my list of crap:

Vinyl Siding – Above the living room picture window there is a row falling into the house showing a big gap and it looks like crap.

Cable – Time Warner sent their contractor to hook up the cable and he was unable to do so since DB ripped the cable box off of the house and CUT the cable to the street and threw it into the bushes or cut it close to the ground & covered it up & we can’t find it.  According to my brother, the cable guy, all you have to do is remove the box from the house, put up the vinyl siding, and reattach the box to the house, or if you don’t want to reattach it, call TWC and they will put it back up.  All very simple.

Phone – DB did the same thing with the phone box and AT&T will charge me to reinstall the phone line from the street.

Dishwasher – This is the biggest bone of contention – NF installed the cabinets all wonky and out of line and the DW can’t be installed correctly meaning I can’t open three drawers.  DB would blame all of this squarely on NF, but DB fucked the floors up so much that I’m sure that contributed to the wonkiness of the cabinets.  Don’t drop a ball on my floors because it may just end up in another room.  Also, I called Florence Carpet and Tile since the New Guy said the cabinet plan was to blame since there weren’t enough spacers to ensure the shit will all open.  I called Monday.  I was told that the “plan” called for two 3 inch spacers in the corner and if NF only put in one 3 inch and one 1 inch, he wasn’t following the plan.  That’s what NF did.  I also told the New Guy that the DW wasn’t even installed correctly – it should be flush with the cabinets but he says it’s the cabinet lady, the cabinet lady says it’s the installer and I’m sure the installer will blame somebody.  Nice to never have to take any responsibility for anything.

To add insult to injury, the cabinet lady said on Monday that she would call me on Tuesday morning to set up a time to come over and look at the kitchen and it is now Wednesday night and she has not called me.  Oh, but to REALLY add insult to injury, that same store polished and cut a piece of my leftover countertops to use as the hearth of my fireplace and was supposed to deliver it last Friday.  He never showed.  I asked the cabinet lady about that and she said he did deliver it because it was on his schedule.  I said he didn’t because it’s not there.  She said she would also check on that and talk to me about that on Tuesday.  No call back, no fucking hearth – BUT I DID GET A BILL for the labor.  Are you freaking kidding me?

Outlets/light switches – all are crooked.

Laundry room – the plug for the washing machine doesn’t work.

Doors – My new doors aren’t square.  Not at all.  I can see light around the front door.  The back door – well, let’s just say my brother had to chisel that shit out just to let me use the deadbolt even after the new guys routed it out since DB had it all f’ed up.

Closets – DB threw away all of the closet poles and shelves – like I couldn’t have used those again?  Especially in the coat closet. After he threw all of those out, I figured he was either selling off my crap or giving it to his Craig’s List Killers – I mean workers – to have or sell so I put an end to throwing potentially useful shit away.  But I still don’t have anything to hang my coats on.

Bathroom extension was built on top of a hydrangea that I have now asked both DB and NG to dig up and get out of there and it is now underneath the house.

Floors – I already stated they are crooked and slanted but there is a dip in the dining room that is so big a snake could come in.

I’m not even finished yet but am stopping.

Now, for the only positive thing to report, and surprisingly it has to do with Time Warner, they are coming back out tomorrow to hopefully put in a temporary above-ground line to hook my shit up until the under-ground guys come find the damn cable that DB probably hid just to punish me for complaining about him.

After a PAINFULLY long wait on hold and then a painful conversation with whatever asshole dares call himself a customer service representative, who spent the conversation telling me they couldn’t come back until the cable was buried underground and even if I already had a cable underground, they couldn’t come back because there was now a work order in the system to install an underground cable.  After repeating himself to me thinking that would make me hang up, I asked for his supervisor.  She started off snotty, “I understand you have already been told…”

Bitch?  Please.  No, really, “Yes, I was told that by your guy, but my brother, who is a TWC tech says that the guy, who is not a TWC employee but an independent contractor, should have done a temp line.”  Her, “Wait, who?”  Me, “Let me just let you talk to him.”

Alan (and when he gets all technical he sounds like the adults on Charlie Brown to me):  “Yeah, this is blah-de-blah, tech # blah, and there is a buried cable with a jump-to-wonk-wonk-wonk, wonk-wonk-wonk, wah-wah-wah – Yes, I know this because I did it over a year ago…  Yes, I did the work on this house and I know it’s there because I put it there when the other people lived here…  My number is blah…  Yes.  I am telling you they can and if I were doing it from the get-go that’s what would have been done.  Yes they can send someone back out.  We do that all the time.  Just send them back and not a contractor…  No, put that in there – an actual Time Warner tech not the other guys…  Okay.”

Ten minutes later, I get a call from the local TWC office to schedule a new appointment for tomorrow morning.  See, if he were a lawyer, I wouldn’t have cable tomorrow.  But if I were a TWC tech, he wouldn’t have been released on his own recognizance when his ex-wife/Satan trumped up charges.  We are the yin and yang of siblings.  Unless I don’t have cable tomorrow.