A Tale of 3 Contractors, Episode 1: The Italian-Israeli

I had been wavering on whether or not to use a general contractor.  I certainly could hire my own subs, but the benefits of having a general to coordinate everything have tipped me in that direction.  Now that I had decided to go that route, I had to start interviewing contractors.  Yay!! (eyeroll).  I joined Angies List to get some ideas and looked up questions I was supposed to ask, things I was supposed to check for in order to be sure I found the right contractor.  I contacted three contractors from the list.

The first to stop by was the Italian-Israeli (this is how he described his background) from the big company.  He was a young guy, early 30s, who introduced himself not with a handshake, but with the presentation of his contractors licsense which he wore attached to his belt by a retractable cord.  He told me how I should be sure to check that the number on his business card was the same as the one on the license.  He would have many "tips" to "educate" me throughout the course of our hour together.  Class had begun.

His pitch was to sell himself and his trustworthiness.  He talked, through a moderate accent, of being with me every step, taking care of everything so I wouldn't have to.  He told me how his company only uses it's own people, no subs so I wouldn't "pay twice".  At this point in the class came the pop quiz.  Sorry, I forgot my number two pencil.  He wanted to know how much I would expect to pay down for a job that was $70 thousand.  Ten percent or less was my response.  He seemed a little surprised and slightly dissappointed when I answered correctly.  All he could say was "very good" when I stuck with my original answer when asked what I would say if they insisted on 20-30%.  I think I aced the quiz in more ways than one.

Another part of his pitch was showing me photos and video testimonials.  The pictures I understand, but the the testimonals were not as convincing.  At least one of them I would have thought twice about showing.  It was a black couple sitting at their dining room table with the Italian-Israeli talking from behind the camera.  It was a little ransom note hostage video for me.  I'm pretty sure I saw their hands, so I don't think the couple were actually tied to the chairs, but I might not be remembering it clearly.

He showed me these pictures and videos on his iPad, and he was very happy to say that they were having a special, giving away iPads for jobs over a certain amount.  I would definitely be spending enough, but the deal was supposed to end that day.  He could probably get it extended a bit since I was meeting with him then.  He would be able to do me this favor, but I would have to act quickly.  Not at all suspicious.  A subtle high-pressure sales pitch.  I liked the look on his face when I told him completely straight-face that I didn't care about the iPad, that it was in no way a selling feature for me.  He sort of stuttered for a minute.  I mean really, if I wanted an iPad, I'd go out and buy one for myself, not get it from my contractor.  Put that "$600 value" toward my house thank you very much.

Next he asked if maybe they could do a small job around the house so I could see how the company worked.  I suggested installing a new front door.  He told me it would be $3000.  Now it was my turn to stutter.  Oh wait, I had the hardware, so it would only be $2500.  For a front door?!  Standard size, basic design, seriously?  I told him I would wait to get it all done together.  The encounter also tipped me off that we might have different standards of finish, because I can not imagine myself spending $500 on hardware.

The whole time he was there he repeatedly told me how he wanted my business and the job.  He showed me a packet that had all the information I would need to research:  contractor license check, copy of the license, list of references, their BBB A+ rating and what the ratings meant, financing paperwork and their $2 million liability insurance coverage.  (This packet will become important in later episodes of the saga.)  He let me keep the folder if I promised not to give it to anyone.  You know, contractors might try to steal his information and pass it on as their own.  Usually, you don't get the folder until you signed, but he decided he trusted me.  Anyone missing the sarcasm here?

It was an interesting hour.  I showed him everything I wanted done and he talked about how I could trust him.  It didn't go unnoticed that he made no measurements and took almost no notes.  The only numbers I got from him were for the instillation of my solid gold front door by a small army of magical elves.  Ok, ok, I exaggerate.  It was solid silver installed by a couple leprechauns.  As for numbers, he only told me that he could beat anyone's price and that I should talk to other contractors and then meet back with him.  He wanted to be the last person I talked to.  I agreed to meet with him two weeks later.  I assumed that he would have some sort of numbers for me then.  You know what they say when you assume...

Burried Treasure

I went to the house the other day with the idea of doing some yard work.  I had noticed the area behind the shed was pretty overgrown, and I wanted to trim it back.

I had also noticed that there was some stuff back there that I wanted to dig out and throw away, and thus began my adventure.  Trimming the branches back was the easy part.

Then I had to go for all the stuff.

I found a bunch of random stuff in bins, old toys, papers, arts and crafts from one of the girls that used to live here.  The first exciting find was in the coupon expando-file.

Five bucks cash!  Sweet!  Now I would be looking at every little thing not just out of curiosity, but to look for more treasures.  I checked an old purse and found more money.  Just some old coins, but money is money.

In addition to the random toys and stuffed animals, I found bits and pieces of PO's life.  Actually, of his wife's life.  Yearbooks from Chula Vista from 1978-1983, old pictures, some craft projects from when she was a kid, info from the maternity wards of the hospital about pre-natal care then bringing the baby home.  I was able to put together a fairly interesting story, but don't have all the pieces.  It seems there were 4 kids (at least in the pictures) and the oldest, born in 1985, whose crafts and workbooks I have, was not PO's kid.  I have the paternity papers.  Yeah, there was a lot of stuff back there.

I looked through the photos.  There were quite a few of the cats, a few of the kids, and a couple of the house.  I pulled out the ones of the house, but may try to give PO the photos of the kids.  I'm not quite sure.  The ones of the house show it before they added the front planter (which will be going) and also before and during the installation of the front walk.  Those were informative, answering the question of why the front side of my yard is slightly raised above the neighbors' and lumpy:  it looks like that is where they dumped the dirt they excavated when they installed the walk.

By far the biggest find of the day were the 1976 Canadian Olympic coins, complete in their leather case.  I had to pry the case open pretty hard, but inside were 28 shiny, silver colored coins.  Each had a plastic cover over it, and only the one that had slid out of its spot showed any signs of wear.  I thought these might be worth something, but didn't want to get my hopes up.  They were uncirculated coins minted for the Olympics not too long ago, they might not be worth anything.  I packed them in the car and looked them up online when I got home.  There were quite a few coin sets minted, but they are sterling silver, so there is some value.  There are a few sets on eBay selling for around $800!  I have to say I was pretty excited.

It turned out to be a fairly productive day, even if the side of the shed I had gone there to clean turned out worse than when I started.