Back in August my roommate* [*name withheld to protect my rent from increasing], who happens to be my landlord, decided to have the house painted.
Learning of his plans, I quickly stepped in, volunteering my Angie’s List membership to help locate a good painter. I pulled three names from the List, all highly rated of course, and gave their contact information to my roommate. But he decided against using any of them. The result? The painter started in September and just finished last week.
I’m not knocking Billy** the painter [**name changed to protect his self-worth] as a person. I just think he should find another profession. My roommate is a commercial real estate agent, and Billy worked on some of his properties in the past. The main reason he rolled with Billy was the price. Billy came cheap.
But Billy completely underestimated the job. He didn’t know how to deal with dry rot, failed to scrape or control a power washer properly and was just physically unable to perform the job in a timely manner.
Warning: If you ever hire a painter and he shows up limping with a cane, find someone else.
Billy: I feel bad telling you this, but you need to find another profession. Physical labor isn’t for you. Plus you smoke, play loud music and my yard looks like you took a cheese grater to the outside. Not only does it look like you failed to clean up, it looks like your goal was to leave the exterior paint in bacon bits across my front and back yards. Plus, you should consider covering up some of those drug-related tattoos. Now that I’ve lambasted Billy, I have something for my roommate.
Roommate: Please listen to people! Now what’s the point of having the List as a resource if you don’t use it? It stinks that I don’t own this home. I would’ve used the List to get this job done in a three days rather than two months. And don’t ever go with the lowest estimate! Lowest estimate typically means the lowest quality. I’m sure he was the cheap choice, but I’m convinced Billy brought down the neighborhood property values at least $100,000.
Look for this report on Angie’s List Indianapolis.
Conor is an associate editor for
Angie's List magazine. He has a cat named Kanye and a puppy named Sherman, his favorite movie is
Back to the Future, he loves playing basketball and his favorite place is his couch.
I’ve lived in my house for nearly two years, and haven’t managed to get much done … as far as gardening goes. The front yard is in decent condition, but the back is lacking. We had fantastic weather last weekend, so I decided to grab the trowel and some gloves and give it a go.
I started in the backyard, which, as you know, is in pretty bad shape due to my large herd of dogs. I bought some lovely ferns to hang in the back, some trellises to mask the unsightly garbage-can area and ground cover to surround our birdbath. After a few hours of backbreaking work, I was able to revel in my accomplishments. Then it hit me … Continue reading ‘Garden of heathens’
Jackie is editor of
Quality + Design, the
Angie's List newsletter.
She's currently owned by three Great Danes named Silas, Eppie and Augustus Merriweather as well as two angry tabby cats, Bob and Polly. Her favorite album is anything by Radiohead.
I was thinking about writing something else today, but my free time over the past week has been consumed by yard work, and with the spring weather, I’m sure it’s been the same with many Angie’s List members and contractors, hence this post about yard work (containing a rather long intro sentence.)
Like Kristy, Staci, Jackie, and “Flipper,” I’ve been having issues with my lawn lately. When my wife and I moved into our house about a year and a half ago, we had a blank canvas to work with: the front yard had some taller-than-me fire bushes concealing half of our house, there was a small rosebush on the side of the porch, and the backyard had a mass of flowering vines climbing along one side of the fence, but that was about it. There was some grass in the backyard, too, but overall our landscape wasn’t much to look at. We’re hoping to change that, one small step at a time. Continue reading ‘Grass, grass, please go away, I don’t want to mow you another day’
Tristan Schmid is host and producer of
List-en up!, the Angie's List podcast. When he's not sitting in front of a computer, working on websites, audio or video production, he stays occupied by taking his dogs for walks, helping
homeless animals find families, and skiing.
With so much talk about green living and green building, can I confess something? The only thing I’d like to be green right now is my yard. It may not be the most environment-friendly thing in the world to wish for, but I can’t help it. What can I say? I like yard work. And every year at this time I can’t help but think that maybe this will be the year that I’m able to conquer the crabgrass and bare patches that inevitably plague my landscape. Continue reading ‘The elusive perfect lawn’
Staci is an associate editor at
Angie's List magazine. Her favorite foods are sushi and chocolate (but not together). Staci enjoys mowing the lawn, and she can also make a mean s'more.
