The Trash Debacle...

Ok, so we all know that this has been a huge learning experience for Julie and I. Lesson #139: if it's too cheap to believe, you might not want to believe it.

So we've had a huge pile of trash sitting in the backyard for a while now. Old lath, sheathing, flooring, linoleum, and the old back door. It made for some fun bonfires and the scrap wood came in handy as i built things.

But finally we near the end of the project and it's time to clean up the mess. The roofers were coming last Wednesday with a big dumpster so I wanted to get the trash hauled away on Tuesday. In retrospect, I should've just negotiated an additional cost to the roofers to haul it away. Their crew has been extremely motivated and efficient. And they already had a dumpster coming.

BUT we decided to keep our money even more local and hire one of the "We'll haul your trash" trucks which we see parked on the neighborhood streets all the time. These are pickup trucks with high plywood sides and spray paint to display the phone number. Sure, a little sketchy, but it seems simple enough. Couple of guys, a truck, take the trash to the dump... Right? Wrong!

Julie negotiated a price with the guy. They came to look at the pile and then brought the truck around. After loading the first truck load, the owner came by and renegotiated the price. I agreed with him that the original bid was ludicrously low and agreed to a higher price (still a good deal for me). Long story, short: It took 5 loads in the truck and he finished around 11PM. By the end, I felt pretty bad for the guy (who had bitten off more than he intended). But the reason I hire people is to use their experience to understand what a job entails.

So in the end I pay the guy and head to bed. The next day is when things get weird.

It turns out that the worker I paid, decided not to share this money with the owner. They had a confrontation later that night, and the worker pulls a gun. Thankfully nothing happened there, but when the cops show up at his house he makes a run for it! Predictably, this ended with a night in jail...

So I got to talk to Officer Cooper this afternoon to verify that a job had occurred. Crazy!

Next time, I may get a dumpster and hire some guys myself.

On the brighter side, I'm putting up the ceiling in the breakfast nook and praying that the rain stops soon. My basement flooded a few times this morning and I spent much of the day dealing with that. Also the roof work came to a standstill due to the downpour.

Also our cool new pendant lights came today. Exciting!



And we ordered the lights for the nook: