For the past week, I have felt like my house has been invaded by the most annoying handyman in the world. He eventually gets things done, I hope, and he works cheap, but that's about all that I can think of that might be positive. I am almost convinced that my wife did this to me on purpose. Because I hadn't gotten around to doing it for the past couple of months, she hired this guy to strip some old wallpaper, and make some repairs on one wall of our bedroom. That involved a few days of constant hammering and hourly updates on a job that I wasn't really so interested in to begin with. After that, she put him to work straightening out a toilet that some other handyman had installed slightly crooked in our upstairs bathroom, and that job is on its third day now. To make things worse, everything he says is said loudly, and everything has to be said immediately, and without regard for whether I am on the phone with someone or busy working. After finally getting through to a real person at the Social Security office, this guy came in, after my wife had already told him to go ahead and get another one, to explain to me that he had broken a flange, whatever that is. I didn't know what it was, didn't care, and couldn't understand why he couldn't simply go buy another one. The whole toilet cost just over a hundred bucks, so how expensive can a flange be? But no, he launched into what was surely going to be a long explanation of how the flange got broken, how important it was, and what it might cost to get a new one, all of it at a volume that I could have heard from across the street, and I've got this guy from Social Security on the phone. I guess I was rude, and my wife is mad at me now because she finally found someone who would do all the stuff that I have been putting off for months, and so on, but at least she was speaking at a more normal volume, so I guess I still came out ahead in the deal, or that would be the case if not for the fact that this guy is going to go home eventually, hopefully, and my wife will still be mad at me.
Okay, keep in mind that it's the writer in me that's saying this... but as I read your story, my mind was coming up with delicious irony scenarios for the ending to your story. Wouldn't it be a kind of ironic karma if everything mister handyman touched falls apart or breaks in about a week? Of course then you'd end up doing it yourself anyhow. I may have to re-think this flawed storyline! I'm sure you'll be glad when that flange-breaking home wrecker is gone from your life! Oh yeah, as for your wife... chocolate and flowers five days early for Valentine's Day wouldn't hurt... maybe fasten a diamond or emerald ring to the flange? Okay, now I'm getting silly but I enjoyed reading about the handyman from heck. @Ken Anderson
I don't really think he's all that handy. I suspect he's just someone who is brave enough to break something and then see if he can put it back together again. I would have gotten around to fixing it myself eventually. I keep telling my wife that if I say that I'll do something, I'll do it. She doesn't need to remind me about it every six months.
I've been looking for a cheap handyman but now I'm not so sure. I'm also with you on getting upset for him talking while you were on the phone with social security. It's so hard to reach someone on the phone these days that when you finally do its a relief. Of course, that is when my dog starts barking. He does it every time I'm on the phone with something important. Grrrr
Do you think Handyman might have a hearing problem cuz it sure sounds like it. Not to long ago my husband was talking unusually loud so I asked him why. He said he couldn't hear himself talk. He had been fighting off a cold so that was probably the case. Maybe the Handyman's is from his age?
I had an aunt who always talked in a near whisper. If I asked her to speak up so we can hear her, she'd say "I can hear me".
This reminds me of an incident when we rented the house owned by my husband's family friend. Part of the deal was to spruce up the house and the expenses will be equally shared by the owner and us. On the first day, we were surprised that a certain Rolex arrived purportedly sent by the house owner. Rolex was too fast on the paint and started the job as soon as he got settled. When the day is over, Rolex had painted the wa
I agree, he could have a hearing problem, or he could live with someone who has difficulty hearing, and that's why he's used to speaking loudly. From the constant feedback and updates, it sounds as if he's either been trained that way from working with or for someone else, or perhaps he's lonely and enjoys doing the handyman chores so he can have some interpersonal interactions. I don't mind someone talking to me when they're working, but of course it seems every time the landlady sends someone here (which is a rarity, and always way past time when she does send someone), I'm in the middle of doing something such as your Social Security call. My main issue with the guys she sends is they tend to smell like they've drunk their breakfast, and ALWAYS leave the doors open. Leaving the doors open is a big no no here, since I have indoor cats and strays outside. Even if that wasn't the case, I wouldn't want them open for bugs or random animals to get in. I just can't seem to get that across to them, so when one of them is here, I spend all day going behind them closing doors and supervising both sets of cats.
Gee, I wonder what happened to my post above. From what I remember, I had completed that post about the house painter named Rolex. Anyway, let me just continue that Rolex had painted the entire ceiling and the wall (not sure of this) in just one day. But the paint on the floor caused by the drips and splatters took us 3 days to clean. So that fast worker is not worth it. When we hire a house worker now, we make sure that he is neat and has finesse in his working methods. We are fed up with the clutter that we had to clean after the work.
This is the second day of the insulation project. There are eight people here right now. Because we have asbestos-vinyl siding on the house, the insulation has to be done on the interior. So they are drilling holes every foot or so along each of our exterior walls, in which to blow the insulation, and someone will be repairing the holes later. There are people in the crawl space replacing the flexible dryer vent with a solid one, adding a new vapor barrier, and spraying foam insulation on our foundation walls, although I think another team will be coming in to do some of that. There are electricians doing something with the bathroom vent upstairs, and I don't even know how that found its way into the project. Everything is pulled away from the exterior walls and piled into the center of the rooms so, while they will drag the heavy stuff back, we'll be left with putting everything back together. They are going to spray several inches of insulation over my attic floor, over which I will have to build a platform if I want to use the attic, as I do. In the process of moving everything, we are going through bins after bin of stuff that has been stored in the attic for the the past sixteen years, throwing away or selling everything that we can bear to part with. I think I'm having a harder time with that than my wife is, since I sort of want to save everything. I have union records from when I was the VP of a UPIU local more than forty years ago, as well as manuals for paper bag machines, although I haven't worked in a paper bag plant since 1985. Still you know, one never knows when he might need that stuff.
Oh how I can relate to this! When we downsized, I was *so* sad... everything I came across had a memory, no matter how small. And I hated tossing things so very much. There are some things I didn't mind parting with, but so many more that I did mind. It was never really a "never know when you may need it again" issue for me... I convinced myself that if I'd need something, I'd just go out and buy it again. It was the memories for me. How could I *possibly* toss a little Winnie the Pooh sleeper that my daughter threw up on when she was two weeks old?! Well okay, so I wasn't *that* bad, but I guess some things bordered pretty close to it.
I don't have that much trouble purging things, I have to laugh at myself sometimes that I have kept some things for as long as I have, and then there are always the things that I start to wonder where they managed to get off too. In all sincerity I could really use a handyman, but it is the same old story, when I have the time I have no money. I can't say that I blame you for not wanting a loud stranger around the house all the time. I have been there and done that and I do not miss it at all. Last batch that went thru here managed to leave the freezer door open and it burned out the compressor before I realized they left it open. I was cleaning up bits and pieces from their work for quite sometime. You know thinking about blown insulation, don't that stuff eventually settle and you are left with areas that are not insulated? I knew this lady that had her ceilings done, it was far from cheap and then about a year later she had a light or something put in and low and behold they discovered a huge area that the blown insulation never even touched. It is hard to know what might be behind those walls. She was so mad because she paid a good amount of money for that. I hope this is not what you experience.
The machines seem to pack it pretty tight, so I'm thinking they might have improved on that. Even if that were the case, we'll be far better off because some of the insulation we had was paper, which has been crumbled on the bottom for many years now. The house was built in 1910. It's not costing me a cent, so I'll put up with the craziness for a few days.
Perhaps we can solve the problem with our "stuff" by finding a midway point and installing a giant storage shed whereby everyone who is a member of good standing with this forum can store their wannabeusefuls. I probably have a ton of stuff that should be stored in my shop alone. In my opinion, anything that makes a sound when dropped however far from the floor, should be saved for that special project [that will probably never happen] when a wannabeuseful can be utilized.