Posted by Bel. The time is 1.17pm here in Wellington NZ.
A letter to someone who has hurt you recently
Dear crappy, lazy, good-for-nothing tradesmen*,
*Please note this is not a diatribe against tradesmen as a whole. This is very specifically directed at the tradesmen who have been "working" on the house we moved into on the weekend.
Moving house is a difficult business. People say that it is one of life's most stressful events, up there with the death of a loved one and divorce. (In some cases, the three events are intrinsically linked, due to the stress levels.) Even when you prepare yourself for it, and plan ahead what you can, there is still an element of unpredictability to shifting house.
I've dealt with broken crockery, forgotten keys, wrong directions and losing the bolts for the beds before. If fact, I would even count these as the things I plan for now. (Remember people, 7 moves in 5 years - this is old hat.)
But I was not expecting to walk into a house with an unfinished kitchen, laundry and bathroom this Saturday.
I was not expecting piles of tools to be heaped on the floor in the dining room, and for access to the kitchen to be blocked by the disconnected fridge left across the doorway.
Nor was I expecting exposed wiring gaping from holes in the bathroom walls, or to be told that one of the bedrooms needed to have its carpet replaced because of water damage.
The unpainted walls in the hallway don't phase me at all really, not compared to the fact that I can't install our washing machine, that we had to scrub every surface in the kitchen to get rid of all the dust and debris, and that the bathroom floor is raw wood and has to be covered in towels every time to protect it from splashes.
The charming cherry on top was having to pick up your half drunk and grimy fingerprinted bottle of Bunderburg Ginger Beer from where you left it on the middle of the kitchen bench and tip it down the (filthy) sink and chuck it out for you.
Dear tradesmen fellows that will be returning to my new home this week, to supposedly finish off what was due to be done last week, please don't be offended that I have neglected to leave out chocolate bikkies and fresh milk for you. You have hurt my feelings, with your disregard for deadlines and inability to work to schedule. I am glad that I am not the ones paying you for all this, but I do feel sorry for my landlord, because he is going to have difficulty getting rent money out of us this week.
Regards,
The new (exhausted and angry) tenant of that place you haven't bothered working on over the last month
xxx
FUCKERS!
Sorry to hear that babe. Definitely DEFINITELY do not pay rent this week.
Let us know how it goes...
Chin up chica.
Oh. God. I think this tops all nightmares I have heard or experienced, even though it is not a competition, and all were validly traumatic in their own right. Yep, just gearing up for my next move (every January, it would seem)...
Has it resolved itself, or would you like me to do your washing?
Fuuuuuuuuck.
I think you can go well beyond the one week's rent and shoot for a month's free rent for having to put up with that...
The landlord MUST have known!!
Aawh thanks for the sympathy ladies!!
He knew in that he was aware it was unfinished - and we knew that too, but I don't think that we realised quite to what extent, and I don't think the landlord would have thought that the workers would leave the place so generally messy and dirty - considering they knew we were due to move in then!
Am headed up to the in-laws for a long weekend, so that resolves the washing problem ;) And hopefully by the time we return, all will be well... right? RIGHT?!
Riiiggggght! It bloody will be, what a shocker, at least one week unpaid rent,seriously, the land lord wouldn't have been able to get tenants in with a rubbish heap of a house. And the tradesmen would have used it as a go between job, when all other jobs were quiet. I wonder if your quiet anger would have hurried the slackers up a bit. PS, they need to clean up their OWN stuff, disgusting!