Lesson Learned

 Today I wanted to share a lesson I have learned lately. It was a hard pill to swallow. My expectations cause a great deal of disappointment, but I have slowly come around to realizing it was a truth I needed to learn. 

So since our tornado 4 months ago - we had some major jobs that needed to be done. And so, especially since it has been a hot, hot summer - we decided to pay companies to do the jobs. I had expected them to not only do a great job but also to do a reasonable amount of clean up after themselves.

After our roof was done my husband and I had to take quite a bit of time to pick up a whole lot of nails, trash. 

 This is just a part of what we picked up. And NO - no one in our family drink Pepsi - so certainly not our cans. There were other plastic trash and some more roofing pieces that were picked up and put in another trashcan. Plus a lot more nails. In fact when our 6 year old grandson came to visit use last week - he enjoyed using the magnet to hunt for nails. We wish we had have gotten him involved a lot sooner in the process. 

We also had our soffits and fascia replaced- well we had asked about having them all replaced - but we were told that what was needed was just spots here and there -and a price was given. Sadly - I expected for the price they charged for them to go around the entire house and replace any that needed replacing- but they did the worst and had to come out 2 times and still there are 2 -3 places on our house that I feel they should have replaced. I was so disappointed. 

Then we had the fence put in. My husband and I replaced a section of fencing by our driveway - because most of the metal poles were already there. Plus the amount that we were going to be charged for the south fence - we could NOT afford to have them do the other 2 sections we needed done. To this point we have replaced one of the areas and will wait till it gets cooler to work on the other section that needs to be replaced. Anyway SO we assumed that when we got out bid for the fence that they would be willing to take the old fencing that we had let. But we were told  - that is not included. And I am hoping that once they come to do the walk through to make sure everything is done nicely on the fence that they will pick up the remaining trash that is out there that they have left. 

So what lesson have I learned? Even if you pay a company to come do a job - you can not expect it to be done to your standards and you can't have expectations that they will clean up after themselves. And that it might just be better that my husband and I do the work - like we have in the past - it may not come out perfect- but apparently when you have it done "professionally" it doesn't always come out perfect then either. 

This lesson cost us A LOT of money. I am so glad these jobs are done. And hopefully it is a LONG time before those jobs have to be done again. 

Another lesson we learned was that if you have work done and pay them 1/2 before they do the work - you may want to wait to give them the last payment - after the clean up is done- that might encourage them to do that part of the job. Too bad we found that out too late. :(