Before moving to my new home, there were a few things that I wanted to accomplish before moving my possessions into the home. This included painting, carpeting, replacing switches & receptacles,  and ozone treatment.

The painters were great, even though my significant other was on a spree of picking out a dozen or so colors. Their crew worked for 3-4 days in patching walls, removing wall paper, and repainting. They even came back to touch-up the work after the carpet installers and movers had rolled through the house.

The carpet that was picked had a 2-3 week lead time before it was available at the house. Per the sales person, the installers would be installing the carpet the day after it arrived at the store. Truth be told, the carpet arrived on a Wednesday, and they scheduled the install work to begin on the following Tuesday. When Tuesday arrived, I didn’t see any workers on-site. It was later explained to me that the company ran into an issue with having to re-carpet a church prior to Easter Sunday. I know I’m not the highest priority on everyone’s list, but a simple phone call to let me know the situation would have relieved the frustration of having to chase down contractors. Overall, I did get a good price on the carpet, but waiting for workers to get around to installing the product can be a little hectic.

I’ve managed to complete replacing switches and receptacles on my own. The joy of doing the work yourself can be rewarding that you save a little money and know the job was done correctly (if you actually did it correctly). The down-side is that doing the work yourself does take time and being able to set aside 2 days to perform your own work can be a chore if you’re on a tight schedule and have other tasks in progress.

The ozone treatment person was scheduled 4 days in advance. Due to the slack on the carpet installer, he was delayed a day. Most folks are willing to work with you provided you can give them adequate notice. The interactions with the ozone treatment personnel was pleasant and I’m thankful for their patience.

In summary, it’s very rare to depend on the story that the salesperson will tell you. Always figure on a few “hiccups” in your estimated schedule as you’re held hostage by your contractor’s agenda.

-M