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Home > A surprise success, and an unexpected bump in road

A surprise success, and an unexpected bump in road

June 16th, 2015 at 12:12 am

My day started at 7:30 a.m. with a phone call from Empire Today, telling me the carpet guys would be at the condo between 9 and 11 a.m.

It was 2 very young guys whose English was not so good. I told the lead guy I'd be working in the kitchen while they did their work. Before I knew it, they were throwing cut up sections of carpet out the window to the sidewalk below.

I had to tell them to STOP since someone lives in the unit below and what if they walked out and got hit in the head? Or they hit the planters/pots on his steps?

They worked very fast, and before I knew it, they had installed new padding in most of the condo. Without bothering to vaccuum, which was spelled out somewhere in something I read, about how Empire works. I mean, I could feel the grit on the floor with my hands. I may not be living there, but the idea of putting brand new carpeting down on dirt just turns me off.

I told them to vacuum and not take shortcuts.

Next thing I knew, he was on the phone with his boss and was telling him there wasn't enough space inside the condo to cut the carpet rolls and so he had to do it outside, and he couldn't because it was raining. So they left.

I have never heard of such a thing. The need to cut carpeting outside. I mean, the parking lot is filthy dirty. It's very upsetting to me. I spoke to his manager, and then his manager's manager; they gave me a$100 credit due to the inconvenience of having them come back again tomorrow, but frankly, I'm still feeling nervous about the way this will all turn out.

The other issue, apparently, was that the carpeting came in 2 big rolls and the lead guy told his boss it was too heavy for them to carry it up the stairs. Well, they knew there were stairs since they will be carpeting them, too, so why didn't they send 3 people then?

Unfortunately, to add to my carpet issues, there is a 2nd staircase leading down to the finished bonus room that I overlooked when I had the sales guy here initially to measure. I had called Empire last Friday to see if I could add this staircase on and the sales guy said he'd come over today, which he did. Price: $381, but if I don't have it done tomorrow, when the installers return, there'd be an extra $60 charge cus it's a small job.

That would be fine except that this staircase is a shared staircase also used by the owners of the adjacent unit which they use to get to their own finished basement room. The carpet on the stairs is filthy dirty and I'm sure they'd love to see it replaced, except i need them to open the 2 doors so installers can install it correctly. They work during the day but i left them a note in their mailbox tonight asking if they could make themselves available to permit access. I doubt they'd be able to but perhaps if they know the friendly other neighbor, Barry, who is retired, he could open the door for us? Only problem, I forgot to say in my note that I must have it done tomorrow if I'm to avoid the extra fee. I have a feeling that won't happen. I guess for now I'll let it go; this is all just too much for me to handle right now.

After the unexpected carpet job left undone (they just removed the old and put padding down partially until I complained about the no vaccuuming), they left around noon. I had already agreed to meet the salesguy at the condo for the estimate for the 2nd staircase, and he finally showed up around 2. In the meantime, I finished cleaning the rest of the kitchen floor. Looks SO much better, but I think I'd better wax it now before dirt gets into all those little pits again. I also cleaned the fridge, inside and out, and use a little toothbrush to get in the crevices along the seam of the countertops and backsplash. Tedious work, but looks better.

I hope to clean and polish the wood cabinets tomorrow and the countertops and then I'm done with the kitchen. Next stop: Bathrooms.

Once the sales guy left, though, I wanted to salvage the rest of my day and get some other stuff done.

I ran over to the AAA office to renew my driver's license, something that would be difficult to once I'm back to work. I regret not being able to get a "verified" license but I didn't have time to grab my birth certificate when I headed out the door.

After that I drove 30 minutes in the other direction to return my mother's pool key to condo management. They had said I could mail it to them, but since there's a $200 fee for "lost" keys, I didn't want to chance losing it in the mail, so I dropped it off in person and got a receipt.

After that I came home and finally had time to make a simple lunch around 3:30 p.m.

Immediately after that, I checked my email and happily found an email from someone who lives in PA but who very much wants to buy my mother's large loom, for $200. She's a longtime weaver and is comfortable dismantling it, and her husband will be with her to help. We agreed on a date 2 weeks from now and I should have the day off as it's the Friday before July 4.

I'm sure she's excited becus the price is very low, and I know my mother paid over $3,000 for it35 years ago. However, I went with the advice given to me my the retired doctor who said the larger tapestry looms are hard to sell becus they're not portable and not many weavers are doing tapestries these days. (The smaller portable loom of my mother's, on the other hand, sold for $700.)

I'm happy to be able to dispose of it so quickly. I had considered the possibility of not being able to sell it at all and having to get it out of the condo quickly if the condo sells.

I also needed to address 3 emails from this doctor who volunteers with the CT hand weavers guild, thru which both of these looms were sold. She will also post another ad for me with all the miscellaneous weaving supplies and yarns, so we've been trading lots of emails. I've needed her help to identify most of these parts since they are all very specialized, and we've both been checking weaving websites for ideas on pricing, generally pricing my used stuff for half what they go for new. And I haven't had to pay anything for the ads as this same woman was here last weekend to pick out a bag of yarns as payment.

Now my day is winding down and I am wiped out, as usual. I was very frustrated about the unexpected aborted carpet install and do hope they get it done tomorrow. There will be thunderstorms around 1 p.m., so she they should be able to cut the carpet outside before then. I hope to god they don't drag in dirt with it.

I plan to take photos of the guy when he cuts it outside and quite possibly using them in a complaint to the company. I shouldn't have to be worrying now about a dirty brand new carpet and i also didn't like him throwing carpeting out the window like some construction job site nor did i appreciate him skipping the vaccuuming, which he can only do partially now since the padding is down. With all these issues, it is doubly frustrating having a language barrier.

3 Responses to “A surprise success, and an unexpected bump in road”

  1. FrugalTexan75 Says:
    1434416006

    Wow! Those carpet guys don't sound like a very good company. I hope they do a better job tomorrow!

    That's great the loom sold!!

  2. VS_ozgirl Says:
    1434451974

    It should be obvious that you would lay a brand new carpet on a flat surface??? What's the world coming to honestly....

  3. My English Castle Says:
    1434596445

    yikes. Did they work for Empire or were they subcontractors? You've been through a lot with this. Wishing you some easier days.

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