Dear Family,
After
5 appointments we finally chose someone to re-floor our entire house. I’ll
bring you along our journey simply because one day – you Salem friends might
want to choose a flooring company as well.
Here’s
some background on my history with flooring companies. I have secret shopped
one company about 5 times in the past. (I cannot remember the name of that
company sadly). I know their training, what makes a good salesman and their
technique. I do not secret shop anymore. Now that I have a full-time job I do
not have time for that. On to the story.
Tuesday
of the second week of June I made three phone calls around 7:30 AM and made
three appointments to meet with people who install flooring for a living. The
next Monday the first person showed up on time. He took the time to establish a
relationship with us (about ½ an hour) measured our house and gave us websites
to pick out what colors we might want. He said he would need to order samples
of things we liked so wasn’t able to give us a quote that night. I was
disappointed that there was no quote.
A
couple of hours later our second appointment didn’t call or show. A couple of
hours after that someone came, looked around a little and said the job was
going to be too big for him. He had a recommendation and we thanked him for his
time. It looked like out of three appointments we had our man – the only guy
who wanted the job.
We
looked at the websites, picked 5 things we liked and told him to please order
the flooring samples. He did and a couple of days later brought over a 2 ft x 2
ft x 2” square. I’m sure the actual flooring wouldn’t be that thick, but it was
very impressive. He said the other samples were on their way.
Three
weeks later they still hadn’t come, and it was now July – a whole month had
passed in my mind. After talking to a friend, “The slow pace he’s taking is
indicative of how the entire job is going to go.” Yikes! So, I waited for her
friend group to recommend someone so I could make another appointment or two
because, in all reality, it’s good to have three quotes, not just three
appointments for a job this big.
While
I was waiting for my friend’s group to give me a recommendation, I received a
cold call from a nationwide company about, “Do you need any work done on your
house?” I said yes and made an appointment for that company in the first or first
week of July. How exciting. When this person came over, he spent about an hour
and a half establishing a relationship. He played with our cat, listened to our
stories and talked up his company highly. He said, “This is what we are going
to do. We will move all your furniture, put tarps over it. Move it back and
after we are done, we will do a deep clean of the entire house.” They would
also even our floors up, replace up to 5 boards if they were damaged. Ahh, how
refreshing. He then measured our house and prepared a quote that day. For only
$28,000 we could have everything done for us.
This
is the most scared I have ever seen Bobby. Our guy called his manager and got
the price down to $24, 000. Bobby went to get the mail and seemed to be in a
bit of a panic. Our friend called his manager again and got the price down even
more, to $22,000. Of course, the lower prices were only if we ordered today. I
was grinning ear to ear. This is the treatment I expected. This was a great
salesman. It would all get done in 2 weeks tops.
We
didn’t go with our first bid. We let the deal go and that was OK. We really did
need three bids.
My
friend got a recommendation, and I made an appointment with JK Carpet center.
They had done a good job for someone she knew. This person did not come on
time. I called and he mentioned that he had got distracted on the sales floor, but
he would be there in 10 minutes.
When
he arrived, he shook my hand, talked for less than 10 minutes, measured the
house and was done 20 minutes later. He had brought several samples but none of
them appealed to us. By now we had become somewhat attached to the one sample
we had so asked for a quote on that for our floors. He said he would go back to
the sales floor and make a quote for us. His way of doing things was, “You guys
just put everything in the garage, we will pull your baseboards and put them
back in, but we will cut out the wall so you will want to get someone to paint
after we are done. Also, legally installers can replace toilets so you would
have to hire a plumber to reinstall our toilets. He could do this job in 2-3
days tops. Goodness. He was in and out in 20 minutes. And he would have left
our house in great need! Get a plumber, get painters ☹. He
said it would be done in 2-3 days.
When
we received his quote a couple of days later (because he came July 3rd)
it was $12,000. But he would have left our house a wreck. We would have jumped
on this offer if they had been opened after 4 PM on the 3rd. We
would have gone down to their store and picked something out, but God was
saying no. We had to wait. And I did e-mail our initial guy (who was still
waiting on more samples) to ask him a quote on the one sample he had left. A
couple of days later he came back with $14,000. Bobby was at camp at that time,
so I had to sit on it. Either way Willamette Vally Floorcovering Inc. would get
his plumber friend to reinstall our toilets and wouldn’t leave our house
needing to be painted.
Bobby
came home for a couple of days, and we signed the quote from the Willamette
company.
Meanwhile
Seth and I packed up our personal belongings and put them in the garage. Seth
has helped with boxes. The furniture can be moved by Tony and his team.
That
journey culminated in something I don’t blame the builders for necessarily, but
this has been hard. I have no clue what I expected but here’s what happened.
Day 1 Tony and his team took out all flooring. Boom, it was done fast. Day 2 they
had to bring in underlayment because the upstairs bathrooms were ¾ an inch
taller than the rest of the upstairs (due to carpet vs. laminate). Dust was
flying. The house was a jumble of furniture, but things were happening. Day 3
some of the flooring was being laid in a couple of rooms. Saturday and Sunday
they took off and that is good. Monday our master bathroom became full of
furniture and closet doors. Some flooring was laid in all bedrooms. My bedroom
door also came off. By Thursday I had come home, cleaned and dusted, only to
come home to a dusty house once again every single day. I asked if he wouldn’t
mind trying the windows closed and the AC on to see if we could have less dust
(because I am allergic to dust mites). I also asked if they could prioritize
putting my bedroom door back on because the cat was happily sleeping with me
and I’m allergic to her. He gladly complied.
When
I mentioned my requests to Adriel she called me a Karen!
Thursday
and Friday the house was still dusty but at least it was colder. By Friday I
had a terrible cold and took Saturday and Sunday off from volunteering. I have
been sleeping more and may even take tomorrow off from work. The project is
almost done.
Just
the stairs are left. They were back ordered.
But
It’s taken a toll on my body. I’m not OK and I cried in Bobby’s arms because I
couldn’t find our vacuum cleaner. He told me how nice our house looks and I said,
“I don’t want it anymore. I’m tired of the dust.” He just laughed. It will be
over soon.
And
now I know why people don’t buy fixer uppers. I can not handle the sawing,
hammering and man sounds. I’m not good at coming home to a dusty house.
Yet
I know this is a blessing to. I’ll heal. This cold will not end in death. The
house will be finished – just the stairs and some caulking are left. Sigh I
have first world problems. In other countries people have war, famine and earth
quakes. It’s good to read things from Voice of the Martyrs, Open Doors, and
Samaritan’s purse to put things into perspective. I just hate feeling so wimpy.
And
I have been trying to hold off on sending this out till the project is done but
I haven’t written in a while and it’s time.
May
God be praised in hard times and easy. May His glory shine even when I do not.
May our cracked jars pour forth even when we are at our whit’s end.
Meanwhile
I did get to visit my sister two Fridays ago and the Leng family last weekend.
Those were good times filled with love, laughter and fun. I enjoy family very
much and was glad to see everyone. I’ve just been too flustered to write about
it. Thank you for your patience and understanding.
Hugs,
Cristy
Actually, this brings up how she
reacted to the floors being redone. It
was traumatizing to our cat. She was totally spooked by all the furniture being
moved. I brought her inside to show her where her food was that first
night. She looked at it, thought about going under some furniture the beelined
for the cat door. She was shaking
By morning she was inside.
Possibly the thunderstorm was worse than a rearranged house. Seth said that
when she came in, she was drenched. Poor thing.
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