In the ongoing saga of What To Do With Ken and Mo, we decided our first step should be to get quotes to build a full bathroom on the first floor, and turn the family room into a first floor master bedroom.
I contacted 3 contractors, and one called me back. He came out today to look at things. When he came to the door, I was wearing a mask, and I asked if he was vaccinated. He said no, and I said “Ok, would you mind wearing a mask, then?” He said he didn’t bring one because he doesn’t need one anymore. I said “I can give you one, it’s ok”. He said that he had covid and no longer needs to wear a mask.
I started at him. He stared back at me. I said “But my parents are old”. He said “So are mine”. More staring.
Under normal circumstances, this is where I would have gone Full Darcy – that can mean a variety of things, but usually it means I forgo any attempt to filter my words, and I say what I mean, and demand answers to uncomfortable questions. I do this a lot when interviewing potential employees at work.
I would have told him that if he’s not respectful enough of someone else’s home and life to put on a mask, I would not trust him to mess with my house in any fashion, and I no longer need a quote, thank you and goodbye.
But because he is the only one who called back, I said “Oh. Ok.” and he came in.
Had I asked him to take off his shoes, I am sure he would have had no problem because everyone understands that if a homeowner wants no shoes in their house, you take off your shoes.
I am hoping that I find more people to get quotes from, so that I can tell him I am not hiring him because of his lack of respect for my house and the people who live in it. You can go make your point elsewhere, sir, if I am going to hire you, it is not a favor you are doing for me. You are getting paid to do a job, and part of that job is respecting the house and the people in it. Who walks into another person’s house and basically says “Hi, I’m a guest and I’ll be establishing the rules today, so let me tell you what is going to happen”?
I have hired quite a few cleaning people, and I am very much the type of person who says “Help yourself to anything, let me know if you need something, is the temperature comfortable for you, can I buy you Starbucks” – I do not do the whole “You work for me” thing and get all snobby about it. BUT – one cleaning lady was INCREDIBLE and did an amazing job…but while she cleaned she liked to tell us about how we were going to hell because we aren’t properly religious. She was a Bible Beater to the extreme. To top it off, when I initially hired her she said she would take any type of payment but she prefers cash – when I paid her with a check (this was awhile ago, PayPal didn’t exist), she wouldn’t take it and said I had to pay her in cash. Between the preaching the very inaccurate language she chose, I was very done with her, no matter how well she cleaned the house.
I am really not sure what the point of all of this was, basically that I am mad that the Contractor Man was rude.
That is the end of this one.