Handymen - When you find a good one, keep him busy

I was getting there.  Step by step.  I wanted to do some work in the house before I moved in.  I had hardwood floors refinished, new carpet laid, painted the ceilings family room. I had Pergo floors installed in the kitchen and dining area. I ordered glass  custom cut to put in the kitchen cupboard doors to give it a more updated look. I ordered a new kitchen counter top and new light fixtures in the dining room and canned lights for the kitchen. I special ordered a oven microwave combo to have installed later. I had french doors installed where the sliding glass door was.  I worked every night after work and every weekend from sun up to sun up. I was determined to get my life back on track and settled in.

I had no plans to ever move again. I was tired of moving. I had the moving van scheduled.  I had rented a U-haul to move all the boxes in Jackie's basement.  Moving day was here and nothing went right. My cousin is a big believer of Feng Shui. She would spend hours reading books on this topic and applying different techniques of it to her home.

She happened to have a book with her and she mapped my house to know where I needed to have positive energy.  Her focus was to relieve the stress of the day as every thing that  could go wrong was happening.   She told me I needed the front door to be painted burgundy. The color would bring harmony and peace.  Are you kidding me?  

"Jackie, I'm moving! I don't have time to paint the fucking door some color to  let the positive chi move freely! I've got to get the truck unloaded!" I know she was trying to help, but the color of the door was not going to change my luck at the moment.

"You don't have to paint it, just throw some thing over it that is burgundy, don't you have burgundy towels?"

"You are serious? You think throwing a bath towel over the door is all of a sudden going to make this black cloud I'm living under disappear?"  She was living in another world.

"Let me try." Knock yourself out, towel woman!  She took a bath towel and flung it over the front door and within minutes things started to go smoother. I don't believe the towel had a thing to do with it, I'm thinking I had run out of bad luck, so the only thing left was good luck.

Painting the door was the first thing on my list.  She insisted that I paint it some shade of burgundy. It's been painted that way for many years now, can't say it has kept the positive chi floating in the house, but again, I never open that door.  Who knows? It might be stacked on the stoop waiting for the door to open so it can spread its wings and fly!

I had negotiated time off with my new position.  Like the three year hiatus I had been on had not been enough, but I had booked a cruise and was determined to celebrate my new life.  Mike and Jackie were going with me. I invited Patty to join us, a token of my appreciation for allowing me to live with her for several weeks while I moved into my home.

I was about to learn a very hard lesson that I continue to learn.  Do not trust anyone.  I had hired a firm that strictly did handyman work.  I needed extra hands to do a lot of the work and I was on a tight time schedule.  They installed canned lights in the kitchen, replaced the dining room light, hung the french doors and they were to install my counter top, but the counter top had been delivered twice and both times it was wrong.

It was early December and I wanted this done before I left on the cruise. The counter top was delivered and as they walked up the driveway they dropped it. Three counter tops.  I had been without one for over a month. I couldn't understand it, I painted the door for cripes sake! Where was this positive energy that was supposed to help me out?

I had drawn up plans for a custom cabinet I wanted it built to house the oven microwave combo.  The supervisor who was working for the handyman shop needed cash, so we struck a deal, I'd pay him cash on the side, if he'd do the work and have the work completed by the time I returned from my vacation.

We signed a contract and I paid him as he needed cash now.  He'd been at my house for over a month and I trusted him to be in the house alone. I left on the cruise and was excited to return to my new kitchen. 

The week was over and I headed home, expecting to open the door and find every thing in its place.  The first thing I spotted was the oven microwave combo sitting in the middle of the floor just like I had left it. My stomach dropped to the floor.  I walked through the laundry room, the cupboard was not built, the counter top not finished, but a note laid on the  counter top, "I'm sorry. I couldn't finish the job, my dad died and I needed the money."  

I was fuming.  I was tired of living in this house that was torn up and I wanted the kitchen done.  I called him and he refused to answer the phone.  I called the company he had worked for and he had just stopped coming into work one day.  I could not hold them accountable, he was not supposed to be working on the side.  I was screwed.  Fifteen hundred dollars and just a few things knocked off my list.

I hired another company that did similar work.  The young man that came to my house was a Godsend.  I had told him about my situation with the other man. He told me that I was wasting my money hiring these handymen for seventy five dollars an hour. He knew he was one of them, but I was too nice.  He had someone in mind that could help me and within a few days he introduced me to his father, Ray.  What a treasure I found in this man, he was just what I  needed at a time my life was so dark. He worked exclusively for  me for the next two years.