Odourless Glue Isn't Always Odourless

This week I have again been battling with a tradesman, and finally I got him to do what I wanted. Thank goodness.

Back in mid-December it was decided that we'd rip up the carpet in the two offices at the centre and put down some new stuff. The old carpet had had a pretty good run, lasting about ten years. Apparently it lasted so long because it was a heavy duty nylon and also because it had been glued straight onto the cement. It was decided that we'd try and get something similar so that it'd last the same amount of time.

I rang a few places and got some dudes out to get a quote, but because it was fairly close to Christmas a few places had shut down for the holidays. That's okay though because Frank could come out measure us up and give us a price. We were also looking at getting some new blinds installed, so he did the figures for those too. So Frank came out, did his thing, spoke about his grandkids and their centre, showed us a few different patterns, and went off in his van. The next day the quote came back and the price for the carpet seemed pretty reasonable, but the quote for the blinds seemed a little exorbitant. He also put a bit of pressure on me to try and get it done before Christmas, I didn't appreciate this so told him that we needed to get some other quotes. I don't appreciate the hard word, especially when it's dressed up as something else.

Anyways, time passes. Christmas, New Years, everywhere starts re-opening for business. I get a few more quotes done, but none of them are really any good. Then, out of the blue, Frank rings back and says that he's been going through his paperwork and came across our job sheet. He wonders whether we still want any work done. I ask him what price for the carpet, because I ended up just getting the blinds cleaned. He gives me the reasonable price, and I ask him when he can get it done. He says next week. I say okay, let's do it.

I ring them up on the Friday to find out when they can do it, they tell me Monday lunch time. This is cool, I can handle that, all I have to do is empty out those two rooms. It'll take about an hour and a half to do the job, and then the furniture can go back in so that it's not blocking the foyer. Monday lunch time is great because there's not a whole lot of traffic at that time. This is going to work out great.

The two carpet layers arrive and rip up the old carpet in the space of two minutes, then bring in the new stuff. I'm having a bite to eat outside when the Director comes and grabs me and tells me there is something wrong with the new carpet. It's orange. For those of you not in the know, the centre's colour scheme is a blue and creamy yellow. Orange doesn't really fit into the scheme at all. Especially not the orangey brown puke coloured mess they've brought in. I can't envisage that carpet fitting in anywhere. Anyways, I tell them it's the wrong type, call the office, tell them it's the wrong one. They tell me that I must be wrong as colour 48 is what is written over all the paperwork, so that must have been what we were after. I say no, why would we do that? So, back and forth it goes a little bit, until finally he says that he'll come out and see us.

He comes out, apparently we want colour 47 or something. He still talks about his grandkids. Says that they'll be back out to lay the new stuff when they can. So we wait. We leave most of the furniture in the foyer because some of it is too heavy to be moving too often. 3 days pass, and finally today it happened. Thank goodness. Unfortunately the furniture can't go back onto it for 24 hours though.

Something fun I got to do today though was invent some children. I did a little bit of mystery shopping with the other local centres to find out prices and things like that. I had a boy who was 18 months, his name was Russell. I also had a little girl in pre-school. I didn't have to name her in the end, but I think that I was going to go for Matilda. I don't mind that one.