so my dad told me not that long ago that i have "high expectations". for myself and for others. i totally see what he means in regards to myself; i'm constantly throwing myself into the pressure cooker.
but having high expectations of others? not so much. when i pay you for a service or set up an appointment with you, i expect it to be done. and done properly. otherwise, i might as well just be throwing my money down the garbage disposal. maybe you all can settle this "debate" between me and pops.
- Expectation: 2 months ago met with carpet guy
we told him what we needed for both of our houses: 3 rooms at my place, nearly the whole house at j's. we wanted the cheaper carpet, light colored, and a decent quality install. he guaranteed that to us, gave us an estimate, and took our number down b/c he had to order/wait on the roll of carpet to arrive. 1 month goes by and we don't hear from him. j calls him and leaves several messages before he calls back. turns out, the carpet had come in, but he used it to install at another job. he'd have to order a new roll for us. much phone tag later (all with j initiating the calls), we FINALLY have an appointment set up. he's to come out on friday, 12/19/08. thursday rolls around and he calls and cancels and says he'll have to do it saturday instead. which was a HUGE headache in and of itself since the cleaning lady (more on that later) was coming that same day. but don't fret, we worked it out to where she would come later.
saturday came. he didn't show at the appointment time so j called. he actually answered but explained his "weekend crew" hadn't shown up yet. grrrr. ok.....hours go by. j calls at least 10 times. dude never answers. j's final call/message was to tell him to fuck off. we still haven't heard back from him.
HIGH expectation on my part?
- Expectation: a clean house
so a great friend has this really clean house. i'm stressed to the max trying to work out all this move crap and my back has gotten progressively worse. and, to be honest, i just don't deep clean all that often. so i get a recommendation from said great friend for her cleaning lady's info. meet with the cleaning lady and give her a walk through of the house. at the time, there was junk EVERYWHERE. seriously, embarrassing. but i knew it'd be picked up before she came to clean. we agreed on her doing a deep clean for $180. kind of a steep price tag, but hey, worth it to get every nook and crany cleaned - especially before the fam comes for christmas! cleaning lady is really nice and boasts about how i'm going to have such a sparkling clean house......yet she continues to say things like "oh, don't need to do that room since it's just storage." or "oh, don't really need much cleaning in here since y'all don't use it." each time i'd clarify with, "um, no, it does need to be done. the whole house needs to be done." and she'd just gloss it over with an "oh yeah, sure. just not as much." hunh??? are we speaking different languages? whatever. she's promising a sparkling house and i'm willing to bite.
well after MUCH schedule changing and her being a champ to work with us, she was FINALLY to come last night. beau and i spent a "d&j" day together shopping (got some kick ass artwork) and going to Santa's Wonderland . we expected (there i go, using that "e" word) to come home to her ever elusive "sparkling" house. but we didn't.
we had spent the day before COMPLETELY emptying over half of the house and storing it into the (empty - more on that expectation later) garage. we did this b/c j had randomly, and i mean completely randomly, found a carpet guy (just called a number on the side of a truck parked in his neighborhood!) and he was coming sunday morning**. so now, by sunday afternoon when cleaning lady is to come, the ONLY furniture in my house is the living room couch, armoire, and my bed. NOTHING else. and there's fresh new carpet and flooring is complete. should be a BREEZE to clean. i leave my $180 check and some christmas candies and go out for a day with my hunny.
i came home to a house that smelled like bleach. good sign! until:
- i stepped in a "puddle". immediately start blaming dogs for pissing on my clean floor.....only, there are no dogs at la casa. they're at j's house - specifically so the carpet/cleaning people wouldn't have any distractions. i smell it; it's bleach water. then i start looking and there are similar puddles ALL OVER my tile floor. like she just randomly threw down some water and left it. w/o mopping. the stains on my kitchen floor were still there - she didn't mop.
- dust/animal hair on ALL counter tops (remember, animals are not there)
- dirt in my master bath tub: was not there when i left
- didn't clean the outside of master shower
- broke one of the mirrors in master bath
- didn't mop/clean ANY of the wood floors
- didn't vacuum ANY of the newly carpeted rooms
- just swipe dusted the ceiling fans.....and got dust that wasn't cleaned up after doing so.....and completley didn't do one ceiling fan
- didn't clean ANY baseboards even though there was no furniture blocking (we even pulled the bed into the middle of the room)
- animal hair INSIDE my microwave (was not there when i left)
- didn't clean outside of refrigerator
- didn't vacuum/dust away spider webs
- didn't clean windows
- didn't clean cabinets/doors
- didn't shake out rugs - just folded them up and put them on top of my (not cleaned/dusted) washer/dryer
- animal hair/dirt in guest shower/bathtub.
- didn't dust windowsills
- didn't vacuum couch
- didn't vacuum curtains
really??!??? ok, so i understand i used to clean houses and *may* be nitpicking. and i could understand that if i did the white glove test, but my house is DIRTIER than when i left it. wtf?? and y'all, even j is PISSED. i didn't point everything out to him - he noticed her shoddy work all with his "untrained" eyes.
HIGH expectation on my part??
- EXPECTATION: people to show up when they say they will.
this past saturday was a busy, busy day. j and his pops were working on sprucing up his house; i was taking autumn to the vet to do a final check on a "wound" (yeah. awesome. jack decided to randomly try to eat my old lady dog an hour before we were to catch a plane for our house hunting trip. gah.); i was finishing up my totally kick ass sweater for odear's kick ass ugly sweater christmas party; AND i was driving clear across town to pick up the bestest samosas and pakori to take to said party from Raja Sweets .......and somewhere in there, we were squeezing in a pick up for some (A LOT) of stuff we sold on craig's list.
the chic that bought all the stuff lived far, far away. in a la porte. so we told her to just call us when she was on her way. she called at 11:45 and said she'd be there in 2 hours. j and his dad made sure to be at my house by 1:45.....and i ended up getting home from all the errands around 2. and then we all sat there in the garage drinking a few cervezas. we called; and called; and called. they kept promising to be there in "20 minutes" or "we're a couple exits away". whatever. they didn't end up getting there until 4. FOUR!!!! and then we spent an hour loading up everything.
and really, i couldn't stay mad at them. they were REALLY nice/sweet/apologetic; i got a wad of cash; she got a houseful (almost) of furniture to replace all her things from a housefire (dang. that sux! and makes all my rantiness seem petty); and i had reclaimed my garage! but stiillllll - over 2 hours late!!
HIGH expectations on my part for people to show up when they say they will??
- EXPECTATION: a handyman to do what he was hired for.
we all know my love of dino from Dino's Remodeling. he does a great job at a great price. he came over one evening and kind of rushed me through my list and told me to just leave him a note. we all know how long winded i am - i left a VERY detailed note. and he only did half of the things, and a couple of the ones he did, he did wrong.....called him, he didn't answer. didn't call back for over a week so we were moving fwd with using a new handyman and i was just going to consider the money i gave him as only a semi-loss since he did some of the work.
the day before new handyman is to come, dino calls. says he was out of town on a job and really, really wants to rectify any issues. great. set up time for him to come over the next day.....next day comes and he's busy on another job and pushes us back. and back. and back. he FINALLY comes after re-re-rescheduling and finishes the job. i'm satisfied and happy. so this was a happy ending, but it didn't start that way.
HIGH expectations?
- EXPECTATION: quotes to redo some landscaping
so yeah, my yard doesn't look all that great anymore. 50 dogs and a serious lack of time will create a really run down yard. BUT i want to fix that! i want my house to look pretty! and to sell ;p......and is it too much to expect for it to not cost an arm and a leg???
we contact 2 people on craig's list. it takes 2-3 wks to finally get quotes back from them. and they were highhighhigh! i finally coerce j into asking his neighbor - his neighbor that does lawns for a living - his neighbor i've been bugging him to ask for months!
he does; neighbor takes a look; gives a quote; a kick ass quote! and is set to start on our houses this week. he's a hard worker and does a good job, but i just feel like i/we've been burned SO much over the past few weeks, that i don't want to get my hopes up too high.
HIGH expectation for people to come get business from me? business i'm paying them for?? business, i.e. MONEY, during this "recession"??
- EXPECTATION: movers stick to timeline
so yeah, we've already established we're moving. to which house exactly hasn't been pinned down (but we're getting close! more to come on that soon). but we're moving! and we needed to set up a schedule with the movers THREE weeks in advance. so about 4 wks ago, we had them come out and do a log of all of our things and schedule 12/28/08 for them to come and start packing/moving us. they agreed.
last week they called and said they couldn't do 12/28, it'd have to be 1/6/09......we were both set to start our new jobs 1/5/09. hrrrmmmm??
no reason. no apologies. just had to move it back and *we* have to work around *their* schedule.
HIGH expectation for movers to stick with an agreement they made??
- EXPECTATION: pine needles removed from my roof, a clean pool, a working hot tub, and an a/c-furnace blower that is fixed after being broken for close to 3 months.
this is all on beau's to-do list. i'm hoping by posting it up here for all the world to see, it'll keep him accountable ;p
HIGH expecation for beau to get his honey-do list done?? btw, luv ya babe!
so am i a high maintenance, high expectations chic or what? or am i just the most unluckiest person in the world????
**the carpeting was done by Leon's Carpet & Son (not a typo, that's the name - he owns carpet and his son ;p. srsly though, it's b/c english isn't his first language). they did a KICK ASS job. no lie, y'all. awesomeawesomeawesome!!! and for an EXCELLENT price!!!! here's their info. pls use them, i get no kick backs, i just want to pay it foward. they showed up when they said they would, did a good job, in a timely manner, and were uber nice. just want to throw them some bidness to send them my muchos gracias!
Leon's Carpet & Son
Abel Leon (owner)
english: (817)219-9352
spanish: (832)859-1629
email: rubenleon21@yahoo.com
serves dallas, houston, and surrounding areas.
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