Every day of the house preparation brought new challenges. First it was the cleaning lady that wouldn’t clean and next it was the painter who didn’t really want to paint.
He was a friend who had painted for me before. He used to do entire rooms for me and would only charge me $50. Well, friend or not, apparently when they know you’re under pressure, things suddenly get much more expensive.
Not only that but I was constantly being reminded about the great deal he was giving me and how it would’ve cost me thousands to have these few walls painted.
I ended up paying him over $1,100 for not a whole lot of work. Yes, that did include the supplies but for something that I normally would’ve done myself, that was a project that really hurt the pocket book and it also hurt our friendship.
The most important thing was finished and that’s really what mattered the most. It was the basement stairway and it was in horrible condition. The roof had leaked a few years ago and so there was water damage all down the wall. Lots of cracks and other damage that needed to be fixed.
He also painted my entire upstairs hallway and then another wall in the upstairs office area.
Maybe it was the way he kept asking for more money and then not showing up that was so stressful. One day he got called into work, another day he got the covid vaccine and got sick from it, another day he got called in again and they offered him a bonus. I was on a tight schedule and things had to get done.
My lack of time wasn’t the painter’s fault of course but sometimes you just need things to go smoothly and they weren’t.
Once the painting was finished, he was supposed to come back one more day and do some yardwork. He had asked for an additional $60. I gave him the money and guess what.. he didn’t come back the next day. In fact, he left his tarp at my house that he told me he’d had for over 20 years. It was another thing that I had to clean up. I still have it. Maybe I can sell it back to him for $60.
The moral of this story is that if I had done the basement stairs a long time ago when the water leaked in the first place, I wouldn’t have been dealing with this painter friend in the middle of trying to sell the house.
Don’t put maintenance off. Take care of damage to your home right away. It will save you from surefire stress in the future.
Also, if you have painter friends who are willing to help you, make sure that all expectations are set up front. Maybe I shouldn’t have added on extra jobs and focused only on the important one. That might’ve helped.
