Wanna Bet? Will they Show Up?

Rick has built 5 decks. Family, friends, neighbors, and our own.

This is one he built for a neighbor in NoVa and her dog Mattie who was almost as much our dog to be honest. She traveled so we got Mattie most weeks. It was perfection!

We have a tiny deck off our kitchen between the house and garage.

Here it is right after we moved - I'm standing at the back door in the kitchen.

Well, Rick wanted to build a bigger deck. 

I wanted new floors in the house this year. 

Rick wins, of course.

The weather here is so nice all year long I know we'll use it. We loved our deck at home and lived on it spring, summer and fall.

He decided to begin measuring. He calculates how much wood and accessories he will need.

The wood was delivered yesterday (Monday)

Last week he dug holes for the footers or whatever they are called.

Because this will be seen from the road and the neighbors across the street Rick is also putting up a fence for privacy across the back in cedar.

Now, usually, a deck would take Rick a weekend.

This one will take a month at the least. :-)

Rick was putting those cement footers in the ground. He was carrying them from the car to the yard. He drove the car onto the yard so he didn't have to carry them so far. After he was done putting those in he came in the house for some more water and proclaimed, "This is my last deck I've got in me"

I knew that but it was nice that he knew it as well. He told me that this was easier in his 40s compared to 68. I told him he has 8 weeks before he is 68. He said, my body doesn't know that!

But he loves this shit. He is out there this morning singing his little heart out to some rock 'n roll on his headset. I opened the back door and asked if he needed anything. I brought him some water. He said he was fine. I asked if he was cold. He said it is the perfect weather to work outside. (61)

Okay then. 

To me, it's a bit chilly but I'm sure busting your butt doing this physical labor keeps you warm. 

Lowes delivered the wood and the cedar for the fence yesterday. 

But they didn't bring the fence posts and some other big posts. 

Rick was livid. He called them and they said they could have them there in a few days, hopefully, this week. He told them he needed them for his contractor to get started today. So with that big fat lie he is having them delivered today sometime. He was so angry because he said he went over this order so many times. He went to the store. He felt he did everything right but got the wrong things. 

He can only work so far until these big posts arrive. He may not be singing for long.

In other news. 

We have this big mound on the corner of our property. It has a sign saying, South Ridge. It is our neighborhood.  Last year we weeded, planted, and mulched all year long to keep this looking good. It was such high maintenance. The guy across from us has the same sign but he let his juniper grow up above the sign. When we first moved here we heard comments from other neighbors about that. They were happy we were keeping our sign visible to visitors. 

Here are some pics I got off google -  This is the neighbor across the street. See the sign under that mound of snake-filled brush? yes, the neighborhood has sent him a letter asking him to fix it. We shall see.

Here is my mess below in the dead of winter. I should have taken photos in summer/spring when everything was lush. But you get the idea. It's maintenance I don't wish to have so we are leveling it and leaving the sign that will be lit. I bought solar lights for it. 

It's time because we've I've had enough. I was always out there weeding, watering, and pruning. Remember Rick wanted land. I'd have been happy in a condo. But if it's messy and looks awful you know I'm gonna clean it up and he wouldn't. Aargh!

We contacted 4 landscaping companies. All worse than the one before them. No one shows up. Or when they do show up they do so days later than your appointment. They won't give a price in writing. We accepted one offer to never have him show up or hear from him again.

He said it's a small job I'll do this at the end of my day if that works for you. Sure. He said he'd call that evening when he got home to get us on the schedule. But he didn't call. He never showed up. We tried him by phone and text but he has vanished. What the hell? I guess only $1500 isn't enough to entice them to work. 

Now we are on our 4th one & we hope it is the charm. They are going to remove the big mound and level it with our yard. Seed the area so it grows grass and put the sign back. This needs a big ole piece of machinery that we just don't have. We considered renting one but I said to Rick have you ever driven one? Nope. Do you think you can? Oh, sure I can. No, just because you think you're Bob The Builder does not mean you are.  Well, that was all I needed to hear. He's not doing it. Besides the cost to rent was several hundred dollars, (almost 600) just suck it up and let some young buck do it for the money. I could only see forking out the money for this and then Rick messing it up, hitting something he shouldn't, getting hurt. All costing us far more than 1,500. 

We signed off on the project today. We'll see if they show up!

When we were in business we showed up and we showed up on time. That was our most often comment in a review. We showed up at the time of the appointment and the men were professional. Imagine that. If the boys were running late they'd let me know and I'd call the customer for them. Sometimes they just did it on their own if only running 15 minutes late or sitting in traffic on the beltway. 

I guess everyone has too much money and just doesn't care about making any more. I wish I had that problem. I get it, it's a small job. But like Rick used to say a small job can lead to a far bigger one. It always did for us. 

I recall a guy who only had a chip repair ($200) He was so blown away we ended up doing their kitchen and bath. So that little $200 ended up being a 5 figure job. We showed up. We were professional and we did good work. Is that out there anymore?

I'm taking bets. Will they show up? Will they set an appointment after I sent them my signed contract? We shall see. Odds are not in my favor.

Anyone wanna bet if they show up?