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| They really should have done thumbs down. |
I called Duncan and he couldn't get home so I made an emergency call to Allen. I was certain I was going to have to be critical and although they had both been polite during their time there, I was cognizant of the fact that it was just me and the kids in my home alone with two men and I knew I would feel awkward pointing out their less than stellar work. Thankfully Allen was available (his mother was at his house so he could leave the kids with her) and we arrived back at the house at the same time. The guys were just packing up and he's like, "Okay, we're done. Here's the amount left to pay." No offer to go room to room to check things out or anything. So I tell him that I would like to tour around the place and of course, as soon as we start touring, I see all kinds of places where they got paint on the roof in the bathroom, paint on the floorboards, white still shining through from where they painted green, etc. I mean, it was just pathetic. I'm still baffled to think that he thought I was just going to pay him right then and there and not even look around. As I pointed these things out, he was all agreeable about fixing them as if he had never noticed them himself. I went into a room with the kids and Allen pointed out some things to them and got a little stern and I think a few cross words were shared but they got the point. We were not settling for subpar work!
I would say they worked for another hour or so and by this time, I was just ready to have them out of there. I was going to be happy for them to just knock an amount off the balance and we would just take care of it ourselves. The primary portion remaining was part of our foyer where we could see the green needed to be retouched. It seemed manageable. So the guy finally says to me that he has a terrible headache and just can't do any more. He offered to come back and finish (but not for a week!) but if we didn't want to do that, he would take off $100. I said fine. I wrote a check and they were gone. A few minutes later, Duncan comes home and as he walks around, we find way more stuff messed up then we thought. The main problem was that it was stuff WAY up high in our two story foyer that we couldn't get to ourselves. Then we found a part of our bathroom that he completely missed painting (I actually hadn't noticed it either when I had looked things over). It was just really shoddy work, that's all I can say. I sent him an email and a text saying how unhappy we were and that we wanted a bigger refund. He didn't respond after several hours so I did a stop pay on the check.. He responded late that night and agreed to take another $125 off ($225 was the amount to paint the foyer so we essentially got that all reimbursed) although obviously he wasn't happy about the stop pay. At any rate, so ends the horrible experience of having painters. The sad thing is that we now have to hire someone else to come clean up their mess. The final chapter will be my writing a review on Angie's List. I really hate to bash someone with their own business but it seems wrong for future customers not to share my dissatisfaction.
So yes, the painting was the downside of our week but there was plenty of upside. Last Sunday we attended the fall festival at FLEC. It was a mix of the usual festival activities: bounce house, face painting, pony rides, etc. In other words, all the stuff we enjoy! The girls both got their faces painted as tigers (that was not the original plan but alas, the shortest line was a girl that could only do tigers or Spiderman so tigers it was) and I was curious to see if Brady would be freaked out. Indeed, he was not and in fact, after a time or two of looking at them, he starting doing a "r-r-o-a-r-r" every time he would look at them. Of course, his '"roar" is more like a "rah" but it was so cute seeing him do it each time without anyone instigating it. It was all him. Aubree had been excited about doing the pony ride and the girls both waited in line for our last activity before leaving. There were three different size ponies and they placed Aubree in the line with the smallest pony and then Calleigh had the next size up. Well, it got to to be their turns and Aubree started crying and refused to get on her pony. Very odd since she's ridden ponies before. I could not convince her to get on it so only Calleigh ended up getting a ride. Later at home, Aubree came over to me and confided that she didn't want to ride the pony because her pony had been too small. She wanted a bigger one like Calleigh. I don't know why I didn't think of that.
Monday, while the painters were probably taking some long smoke breaks, we visited our new mall for the first time. There are a bunch of stores that have closed down but it's still a pretty decent mall. The nice thing is that they have a great little children's play area which was a big hit for the kids. They also have an actual full size carousel in the food court. I was hoping they wouldn't notice it but at the last second, Calleigh spotted it. I was waiting for the begging to begin but then she says to me "We can just save that for next time." Wow. Kids DO mature!
Wednesday, aka, Halloween, found us at Truck or Treat at the church. It was an interesting time getting there though. As I was loading into the car I noticed that there were helicopters flying over head which is strange out here because there's no traffic to speak of. I called Allen and he said they had been at Publix and there were like 10 cop cars there and they told him it was an ongoing police investigation. Of course, this got my curiosity up so I turned torwards Publix instead of the church only to get stuck in a big line of traffic. Quick, u-turn. Eventually I did find out on my phone that some guy had barricaded himself in his house across from Publix and was threatening to commit suicide. They were in a stand-off for a few hours with a SWAT team and everything but they finally found him underneath his house. Anyway, I guess all is well that ends well.
Trunk or Treat went well. Last year we had done the "trunk" part which is where you do a game out of your trunk, so to speak. This year I decided to forego that since it was a lot of work last year and I knew I would have Brady Brother to chase around this time. The girls had a blast going from car to car doing the games and yes, getting some candy. So far they've each eaten a total of one piece. Mostly they like to just play with it and organize it all in their room. I pray they end up being candy haters like me.
Thursday was our day to depart for Leadership weekend up in Ponte Vedra Beach outside of Jacksonville. We wanted to see Ron and Elaine before leaving for the weekend so we decided to meet there for lunch and have Duncan leave his truck. The cool weather last week forced me to look through the kids' winter stuff and come to the realization that I needed more clothes particularly for Calleigh so I decided to hit up a few consignment stores over on that side of town. One was good, two was pushing it, and three was a disaster. I was afraid we were going to be kicked out of the last one because Brady was all over the place (our van was packed for the weekend and I didn't have the umbrella stroller). I lost sight of him for a moment and the next thing I know, he's sitting in a baby swing with a Cheshire grin on his face. Look at me, Mom! Boy, was he proud of himself.
After a nice lunch at the Gregorys, off we were to the Sawgrass Marriott. It's about a two hour trip so not bad. We checked into our one room and then went off to find some supper. Yes, we're in one room. We're thinking next year we may ask for something with a little more space since five people in one hotel room is getting a bit crowded but really, it's not that bad. It's always interesting to see how three nights of us in one room will work out since the girls are obviously awake later than Brady is on a given night. But, things just have a way of working out and it was fine. He maybe stayed up a little later than usual but he was able to fall asleep with us still talking quietly in the room.
Duncan had meetings on Friday morning and we were on our own then but that afternoon we had free time so we decided to go to the Jacksonville Museum of Science and History, about a 30 minute drive away. It's a pretty small museum, smaller than the Science Center here in Orlando, but it was enough to occupy our time for a few hours. We almost left but at the last minute decided to go to a science show they were putting on. Well, we ended up being the only ones there which was awesome! A guy did a bunch of experiments and the girls got to take part in all of them. I'll talk about them some more in the pictures.
The whole weekend was gorgeous weatherwise, unlike last year when it was freezing, and Sabbath afternoon we headed out to the beach. The beach is completely different terrain than it is at Daytona. Everywhere you looked you could millions of shells and you really had to wear your shoes to get around. There were patches of sand, though, and the kids had their usual good time playing in it. There were a bunch of friends around too which made it even more fun.
Saturday night we had more fun with bounce houses, face painting, games, etc in one one of the ballrooms. Duncan stayed for awhile and then left to put Brady to bed. I got to hang with my girls. Aubree had made friends with a girl named Isabella Poloche (whose Dad I work with in Finance) who is four and the two of them must have gone through the bounce house like 50 times (it had a slide in it so you would keep going in and out). She just LOVED Isabella. Even after Isabella left, she would go in jump around, go down the slide, come out and tell me "Just ONE more time" and put up her finger. It was 10:15 at night and she was still doing that. Meanwhile, Calleigh was busy doing bigger girl things like riding a mechanical surfboard (which replaced the mechanical bull from last year) which she was actually quite good at and then this other bouncey house thing where you have to attach yourself to these bungee cords. The highlight for me of the night though was almost walking into Loghann Hilliard while she was vomitting. That was fun. Apparently the bouncing around didn't sit well with her. Her parents took her off to get cleaned up and I volunteered to make sure nobody walked in it. Well, you wouldn't believe how many people walk around without paying attention to where they are going because I was literally tackling people to keep them from walking through it. I wasn't quick enough with a few kids who ran through in their socks. Yikes!
By the time the girls got to bed it was after 10:30 which really actually ended up working out nicely because of the time change. They all slept in later than usual so I did sort of in a way get an extra hour of sleep. Duncan had meetings this morning and then we took off just after noon. Brady was already asleep when I put him in his car seat and the girls quickly followed suit. So did I, in fact! It was a tiring but very fun weekend.
So...I'm having a problem with my pictures so I think I'll just post them tomorrow. Right now it is almost 1:00 am based on the old time so I'm going to call it a night. Have a great week!
