Friday, November 20, 2009

And We Have a Winner.

The good news is: I'm happy to report that the work on the house was (supposedly) finished yesterday. November 19th. This, of course, makes me look like a liar since I was sure it would take at least twice as long as the estimate predicted. They are out of my house and I am thrilled to have them gone.

Our winner is: my good (and very optimistic, guessing November 18) friend Lizzy Lou, who used to live here but who now lives in China. So, Lizzy, email me to let me know how to get your Havaianas to you (and size and preferred color scheme :) ). And since you probably already have lots of flip-flops, if there is something else you would prefer-either from here or from the States, just let me know.

The bad news is: They are *done*, but I'm pretty sure they didn't do what we paid them to do (fix the leaks). I think we just got a really expensive paint job. Even so, they were out of here in 20 working days which is a miracle.

This was due to several factors:

1) My maid was on them like white on rice. You don't want to mess with her-she's not afraid of confrontation like I am. She had no qualms about yelling at them when they were just chilling up on the deck instead of working (which happened frequently), or when they arrived late (again, happened very frequently). So she was the bad cop and I was the good cop which I prefer to be.

2) I told them (in one of my more assertive interactions with them) that if they didn't finish this week, they would have to clean up their mess and stop what they were doing for the next ten days as my sister, her husband and baby arrive here on Monday for a visit. They didn't really like that idea (and I'm sure their boss didn't either).

3) I think they knew they didn't fix the leaks and so they wanted to high tail it out of here before the next big rain hits, ruining their paint job and taking them back to square 1.

So. New contest. How long until the ceiling falls in again? Maybe I'm being pessimistic and it will remain solid until we leave here, but I have a feeling the next big rain storm hits and it's coming down again.

Any guesses? You too, like Lizzy, could be the proud owner of a new pair of flip-flops. :)

5 comments:

Janice said...

I lost? I don't believe it.

lizzy-loo said...

yeah!! nothing like a little high quality carioca workmanship. can't believe i won. sorry janice. if i had your rooftop deck i would be hanging out aswell. it is a great space.

Awesome Mom said...

My woes with trying to get our handyman to actually show up and install our new dishwasher reminded me of your even worse situations and made me feel a tiny bit better even though we still do not have an installed dishwasher and have fired the handyman.

I am going to be optimistic and hope that the ceiling does not fall in at all.

Fabiola said...

I hope they did all the job.... I truly hope. And if they didn't, I hope you didn't get the same rain that we got here in São Paulo today :)

Fabiola

Kari said...

They are gone already??? I can't believe it! Ha. I, too, will send good vibes your way and hope the ceiling stays put!