Still not done
::sigh::
At least one more day of folks in my basement. They're coming back on Saturday.
Last night, I walked through and inspected their work. It looked very good. Wherever there were gaps or holes or staples, I pointed them out, and they cheerfully fixed them. I notice everything, so I was very particular. But they generally did very good work. The space will look quite good when it's painted and has a new floor.
The last job I am having them do is custom-fit a doggy-door for Gidget in the sliding glass door. The ones you buy at pet stores aren't terribly secure, so Carlos is building an adapter that will allow us to fasten the door to the frame of the doorway and latch the sliding glass door. He's building it in such a way that we should easily be able to pop the doggy-door out and secure the sliding glass door when we need to. Fingers crossed that it comes out how I envision it. Then cross your fingers again that Gidget will learn how to use it!
After we discussed the door, Carlos told me that he needs the balance on the job to pay his helper. The problem is that my banks are all out-of-state, and his bank holds the check for a week to clear (presumably because he doesn't have enough cash in the account to cover the check). When this issue came up before, SM wrote him a check off of his personal (local) account. Well, SM is out of town, so I told Carlos that the only way I could pay him would be with the out-of-state check. He wasn't happy, but what can you do? SM will be back on Sunday, so I offered to pay him them. Then he told me that he'd need $100 to buy the materials for the door. I had zero cash on me, literally. Not a dollar in my wallet. Again, he was not happy. I asked him if he had any credit cards that he could charge the materials on, and he said that he hadn't worked in the past three months so he had maxed them all out. Basically, he told me that he needed the money for living expenses. He and his assistant were living paycheck to paycheck, as it were.
Well, my laziness about going to the bank seemed a poor excuse to load more hardship on these guys, so I told him I'd drive to an ATM and get some cash. They could follow me. And off we went. I pulled out $500 for them, which wasn't the full balance we owed them, but was more than the $100 he has asked for. I gave him the cash there in the middle of the parking lot.
Imagine this: here I am in my sweats, standing in front of my not-exactly-new car (it's a 1988) and looking scrubby counting out $500 in 20s to a (South American) guy who looks even scruffier (dirty from working all day), standing in front of a van with out-of-state plates and another scruffy-looking guy in the passenger seat. Now, handing over that much cash to anyone is kinda suspicious. Doing it in a parking lot, at night, in our neighborhood looks downright illegal. D'oh.
And in other news: Gidget did not pee in the basement yesterday, but she did dig a hole and escape the yard. Joy. Ya' see, there are dogs on the other side of two of the sides of the fence, so she was sniffing and barking at them -- and wanting to get out. So she found a place where the ground had been dug away from the fence and was pawing at it. So I put a few bricks there to keep her in. Despite plugging a few holes with bricks and putting up some boards to "Gidget-proof" the fence, I still didn't trust her to be alone in the yard, so while Carlos and I were discussing the door, I kept one eye out for her, to make sure she didn't run off. But Carlos reassured me that he had left her out all day without a problem, so I wasn't terribly vigilant.
Yeah, mistake.
The next thing we know, she's barking. I thought she was on the other side of the yard. Turns out that she had escaped and come around to the front door. She was sitting in front of the front door, barking to be let back in! How did she get out? She managed to pull the bricks away from the fence and dig the hold big enough for her to squeeze under.
Darn dog! But not so dumb after all, even if she doesn't get the concept of a doggy-door.
At least one more day of folks in my basement. They're coming back on Saturday.
Last night, I walked through and inspected their work. It looked very good. Wherever there were gaps or holes or staples, I pointed them out, and they cheerfully fixed them. I notice everything, so I was very particular. But they generally did very good work. The space will look quite good when it's painted and has a new floor.
The last job I am having them do is custom-fit a doggy-door for Gidget in the sliding glass door. The ones you buy at pet stores aren't terribly secure, so Carlos is building an adapter that will allow us to fasten the door to the frame of the doorway and latch the sliding glass door. He's building it in such a way that we should easily be able to pop the doggy-door out and secure the sliding glass door when we need to. Fingers crossed that it comes out how I envision it. Then cross your fingers again that Gidget will learn how to use it!
After we discussed the door, Carlos told me that he needs the balance on the job to pay his helper. The problem is that my banks are all out-of-state, and his bank holds the check for a week to clear (presumably because he doesn't have enough cash in the account to cover the check). When this issue came up before, SM wrote him a check off of his personal (local) account. Well, SM is out of town, so I told Carlos that the only way I could pay him would be with the out-of-state check. He wasn't happy, but what can you do? SM will be back on Sunday, so I offered to pay him them. Then he told me that he'd need $100 to buy the materials for the door. I had zero cash on me, literally. Not a dollar in my wallet. Again, he was not happy. I asked him if he had any credit cards that he could charge the materials on, and he said that he hadn't worked in the past three months so he had maxed them all out. Basically, he told me that he needed the money for living expenses. He and his assistant were living paycheck to paycheck, as it were.
Well, my laziness about going to the bank seemed a poor excuse to load more hardship on these guys, so I told him I'd drive to an ATM and get some cash. They could follow me. And off we went. I pulled out $500 for them, which wasn't the full balance we owed them, but was more than the $100 he has asked for. I gave him the cash there in the middle of the parking lot.
Imagine this: here I am in my sweats, standing in front of my not-exactly-new car (it's a 1988) and looking scrubby counting out $500 in 20s to a (South American) guy who looks even scruffier (dirty from working all day), standing in front of a van with out-of-state plates and another scruffy-looking guy in the passenger seat. Now, handing over that much cash to anyone is kinda suspicious. Doing it in a parking lot, at night, in our neighborhood looks downright illegal. D'oh.
And in other news: Gidget did not pee in the basement yesterday, but she did dig a hole and escape the yard. Joy. Ya' see, there are dogs on the other side of two of the sides of the fence, so she was sniffing and barking at them -- and wanting to get out. So she found a place where the ground had been dug away from the fence and was pawing at it. So I put a few bricks there to keep her in. Despite plugging a few holes with bricks and putting up some boards to "Gidget-proof" the fence, I still didn't trust her to be alone in the yard, so while Carlos and I were discussing the door, I kept one eye out for her, to make sure she didn't run off. But Carlos reassured me that he had left her out all day without a problem, so I wasn't terribly vigilant.
Yeah, mistake.
The next thing we know, she's barking. I thought she was on the other side of the yard. Turns out that she had escaped and come around to the front door. She was sitting in front of the front door, barking to be let back in! How did she get out? She managed to pull the bricks away from the fence and dig the hold big enough for her to squeeze under.
Darn dog! But not so dumb after all, even if she doesn't get the concept of a doggy-door.
Labels: Gidget, home stuff
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