Is this a provocative title? Are you at all curious? Am I talking about Jesus or . . .? Actually I’m talking about a repairman who told me he was coming on Monday to do a little work on the house. Then, when I called yesterday, he said, “I had another job to finish and I’m coming in the morning.”
I think any unemployed remotely handy man or woman should consider going into the handyman business. I called one out of the phonebook this week to see if he could switch out a kitchen faucet. Sure, he could do it, but here’s the catch: I would have to commit to a four-hour minimum for $265 and oh, by the way, the wait time would be six weeks. The plumber is coming on Tuesday. Don’t ask me how much, but at least the one I scheduled gave me a price. One company said, “There’s a $65 charge to come out and then we’ll tell you how much it is.” I didn’t just fall off of the turnip truck yesterday.
Many people give up and learn how to do the work themselves. Well, since I’m soon to put this old house on the market, I don’t have time to begin a crash course on home repair--I'm in the middle of a paint marathon this week. And heck, I don’t even have time to be checking my email or writing this; but you see, I’m waiting for a man to come.
6 comments:
Handyman tip #37: The only way to be sure that a handyman is worth his salt is to look at his wrists. If there isn't watch on either of them, he is a true handyman, and therefore has no concept of time, when he'll be on the job, or how long it will take.
We are fortunate that we have a handyman that lives in our development. They are good to have around.
I thought that a few weeks back you were singing the praises of your handyman. What happened?
Yes, Eric, I think you have a point about time. And Jay, Stan hurt his back and still has a project he's going to do for me. He did finish the column work, but it took him longer than he'd thought it would. These guys (and i'm not intentionally being sexist but I have yet to see a handywoman for hire in this area) are especially talented in my book. Just not enough of them.
When I moved to this old house, I was so thankful that Gray is a journeyman carpenter! With the housing boom, trades are very difficult to come by...we are still waiting for the roofer to arrive!
We hired him last June...
It's the same in England Sheila, getting reliable tradesman to come out is very difficult. When some of them do show up, I think a lot of them make up charges as they go along!
In all fairness to the man who was supposed to come, I thought I needed to post an update. Well, on the second day he was supposed to come, it was raining. Then he did come today and the source of the problem was determined. They'll be back tomorrow to fix it. I'm learning to be patience. The end is in sight.
On another note, the plumbers did show up as scheduled. Plumbers are pretty good about showing up. Guess there are more of them than handymen and contractors.
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