Of Painters and Clerks

I think houses are more expensive than children.

Really! After giving birth to Kara last December, Luke and I still managed to keep a hefty amount in savings while showering the baby with various Carter's onesies and stuffed blocks and board books written by Dr. Seuss and accommodating a dinner menu that featured several take-out orders a week. But now, after owning this home just 14 days, we've already spent my quarterly bonus, taken out an interest-free loan from my employer, and scrapped plans to upgrade our dining room set before the end of the year. It's daunting, and it's scary, and I don't like it. But I do like saving us the stress of moving our own boxes, dragging out the painting process, and eliminating the overall dog smell once and for all.

Finding a painter wasn't as easy as we thought it would be. Since we don't have a lot of experience with vendors in the home improvement area, we asked our realtor for a recommendation, and she passed along the name of a company who received glowing marks from one of her clients. I called the number and set up a walk-through/estimate for Thursday afternoon. The house is forty minutes from our apartment but only twenty from my work, so I made the appointment on my lunch hour and arrived with ten minutes to spare. That's when I received a call from Jessica, the project manager, who apologized and said she was running late and was I interested in rescheduling?

I said no, I'm not interested in rescheduling, I'm already at the house, I'd rather just wait. OK, she said. I'll be there in fifteen minutes.

Thirty minutes later she was parking in my driveway and apologizing profusely for her tardiness. Se had a doctor's appointment that ran over and put her behind schedule. That's OK, I said. Stuff happens.

I gave Jessica a tour of the house and explained what needed to be done. There was much note-taking and head-nodding, and she sounded confident that her team could complete the job in three or four days. I told her about our flooring appointment for the week of October 20 and our desire to complete all painting by then. How soon can we get an estimate? I asked. Oh, this evening, definitely, she replied. Look for it on your e-mail.

I looked in my e-mail. All evening. Nothing.

At eight o'clock, there was a voice mail from Jessica apologizing for her tardiness in e-mailing the estimate (sound familiar?) and promised to have something by one-thirty the next day. I frowned. Luke's dad had graciously offered to drive down and help with painting the bedrooms; he planned to leave northwest Indiana on Friday at noon. If we accepted the quote, he wouldn't need to make the four-hour round trip. Is there any way we can get it in the morning? I asked.

Sure, sure you can get it in the morning, Jessica said. I'll stay up all night if I have to. I just couldn't get to it during the day, and I want to make sure we give you a good price without undercharging for the work.

The little voice in my head didn't give a rat's ass how long it took, that's your problem, how hard can it be, don't you have a formula for hammering these things out? But I didn't say that, just thanked her for the update. You'll have the estimate by nine tomorrow morning, she said. Thank you, I said. That would be great.

At eight forty-five Friday morning, I logged into Gmail with great anticipation, eager to see the numbers and run them by Luke so we could make a decision before his dad got on the road.

At nine o'clock, I hit refresh. And again five minutes later. And again. And again. AND AGAIN.

By noon, there was still no estimate, and I was mad as hell. But still I kept my cool! I left a voice mail with Jessica AND the owner explaining our urgency and how much we wanted to move forward with this project and could somebody PLEASE call me back?

Nothing. I never heard from the bastards again.

But all's well that ends well. Luke scrambled to do some online research on other painters in the city and found someone who was certified with the Better Business Bureau and who called us back when he said he would and also showed up for the walk-through on time. Imagine that! The icing on the cake was when he said the entire house (cabinets included!) could indeed be finished by the twentieth. But we didn't get that news until Saturday morning, so Luke's dad did come down, and the two of them attempted to work on the bedrooms, but there was an unfortunate sprayer incident and the ceilings took a gazillion years to paint and really, it's just better to hand this over to professionals and admit that when it comes to tackling eighteen hundred square feet of interior structure in just two weeks, we are not cut out for the job. Give it up for Jones Painting.

As for the crappy guys? Turns out their Better Business Bureau rating is just as disappointing as their customer service, so it really did work out for the best. I'd like to be the bigger person and write the whole thing off as a learning experience. I'd like to say I'm not interested in using my blog to steer unsuspecting Hoosiers towards greener, more qualified pastures. But alas, I'm not a bigger person, and Painters Unlimited won't get any love from me, that's for damn sure.

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I'm still in awe that so many of you are interested in my nerdy comics and controversially sacrilegious Jesus figurine. Even Luke's BFF put in a bid; if I knew he'd be interested, I wouldn't have even offered it to the masses. But that wouldn't be fair now, not after I got your hopes up, so instead I'm going to write the name of each interested commenter on a piece of paper and literally pull the winner from a hat; specifically, one of Luke's hats. Hopefully in the next couple of days, because this weekend we'll be in Chicago bidding my sister Ryan a fond farewell before she flies to Germany to be reunited with her husband Jason, who just finished a tour of duty in Iraq. We won't be back until Monday morning, after which I'll have to high tail it to the office and then do a final walk-through of the house to review the paint job. But rest assured, the goodies will be distributed soon.

Comments

[Operation Pink Herring]

Sadly, the frustration you dealt with is nothing compared with the agony of actually painting a house when you're a perfectionist. Kudos for hiring pros! I will never understand how companies like the first one you went to stay in business. A pox on Painters Unlimited for wasting your time!

[Jen L.]

Houses DEFINITELY cost more than children. You are so right. Glad your painting woes will soon be over. Can't wait to see the "After" pictures!

[AJU5's Mom]

Houses do eat money! We have spent more money at Lowe's and Home Depot this year than anywhere else except for the mortgage company. But, once you get all of the projects done, you can go a year or two with very little spending!

[Liz]

It took us more than a year to pay off all the debt we racked up in those first few glorious months of becoming first-time homebuyers.

And I'm glad you called those painter dudes out for their bad behavior. They deserve it.

[daddyd]

Luke's dad had a good time. Kara loves him. She is a joy.
But it figures, we put in about four man days and the pros will take about 16 man days. (4 x 4 = 16)Practice helps make it better.

[Liz]

You're doing great. Checking references and BBB records is definitely the way to go... getting several estimates can also help (if you're not in a time crunch), to determine if the rates are fair or too high.

Also- I've had great luck with services like Consumer Checkbook (http://www.checkbook.org/) and Angie's List (http://www.angieslist.com/Angieslist/), where community members rate area service providers. When I've called a company with tons of great reviews, I've rarely been disappointed.

love,
your friendly librarian

[GirlHouse]

Seriously, how long does it take to give an estimate!! I would have expected a rough estimate before she left!! So glad you found someone else to work with.
With owning a home, you'll soon see that there is always someting that needs fixed or replaced. Just keep reminding yourself that it's an investment.
When we bought our home someone gave us the Home Improvement book by Home Depot. It has actually helped alot.

[Christina]

This is exactly what I go through every time we need work done. Plumber, landscaper, painter, garage door service, deck restoration, all of it! I guess they didnt get the memo that the economy is in the crapper? You would think they wanted the work. Apparently not.
You will be so glad to have this all done for you. It is always 8x's more work than it seems when you decided to start.

[Professor Art Nerd]

Yeah, you would think they'd be glad for the work. I know at least around here, construction and improvement businesses are closing due to lack of work.

If only you lived closer- I have a friend who is a professional painter. He does side jobs and is so reasonable- we usually just have to buy him beer! Now if only we had some more rooms for him to paint. ugh.

[Erika with Parsing Nonsense]

Ugh, that experience sounds like the worst! I'm so proud of you for keeping your head cool throughout it, though. I'm not even pregnant and I can guaran-darn-tee you that there would have much ganashing of teeth and probably hurled cell phones as a result of that kind of ineptitude. I'm glad you found a good painter, good luck!

[Rachel]

I'm glad you found another company that was willing to do the work, do it faster, and obviously be more professional. I would think you would have gotten at least a guestimate before she left.

I hope you let your realtor know so she doesn't recommend this company to anyone else.

[The Ghost of Murray Rothbard]

I second the recommendation for Angie's List...my parents used them to find a roofer and and a fencing contractor and had great luck.

Also, a great rating service for auto mechanics can be found at the website of the (very funny) NPR show Car Talk at cartalk.com.

As for children being more expensive than houses, well, I suppose that all depends. The current Dept. of Agriculture statistics say that it will cost between $140K and $250K for a dual-parent to raise a child to the age of seventeen (NB: This does not include a college education).

I looked it up and it seems that the median purchase price for a house in Indianapolis is about $140K (Indy is one of the most affordable real estate markets nationwide). Now, this does not include any fun extras like utilities, financing fees, upkeep, additions, insurance or the like.

So, in the end, I would venture a guess and say that (if you don't include a college education), a house will end up being more expensive. If you add this in (assuming four years at the going rate to attend a public, four-year university or college, which is about $30K), you get a little closer but I'd say not much.

I guess I would consider both a sort of investment. What one invests in children, I suspect, goes far beyond money. For most, represents a more rewarding (if less quantifiable) return on that investment.

[Amy]

Probably Angie's List is the only good way to get a real recommendation, kinda like reading the product reviews on Amazon from real ppl. I don't trust BBB stuff as much (I mean complaints, sure, but they can also be from a person w/axe to grind, and "certification" often means the business paid the BBB a fee to be called that).

My dad was a professional painter for his second job and I now live with a contractor, so I've seen both sides of it. Estimates do take a LOT of time for some things, but for painting a formula can often be applied. Maybe that lady wasn't good at measuring or something and therefore couldn't do a quick formula? Anyway, I'm glad you have a path forward!!