Bad luck.

I seem to be somewhat cursed when it comes to having work done on my house. First there was the whole bathroom re-tiling/toilet debacle. And then, yesterday, I suffered a one-two punch of incompetence.

First, I decided to have my A/C vents cleaned. I just figured it would be a good thing to do considering the age of the house and the fact that The Geej seems to be sensitive to airborne allergens. It all went well and good except they messed with the HVAC unit while they were doing the cleaning and now the damn thing isn't working. When I got home yesterday, it was stuffy and warm in the house, and lo and behold, the A/C wouldn't come on. I called them and bitched, and they came out and "fixed" it. Well, not so much. The temperature plunged last night, so the A/C wasn't needed, but then I discovered that the damn heater wasn't working either. You could hear the compressor come on, but the fan wouldn't come on. Grrr... So I called them to bitch, again, and they told me at 8:30 that they would have someone out there to look at in "in an hour or so." Well, two phone calls and 5 hours later, there's finally someone at my house working on it. Pain in the ass much?

Second, I decided right when I moved in to my new house, that the #3 project I was going to tackle (after the repainting of the guest room and the tile in the master bath) was going to be to replace the back door that leads out to the deck. It was just this plain wooden door that was just so blah. It had been painted and repainted on the inside, and the outside of it was riddled with claw marks from the dog who used to live there. I knew I wanted to replace it with a glass paned door--one that had miniblinds in between the panes of glass. So, as soon as I could afford it, I went to Lowe's and made the arrangements. A warning to anyone considering having anything installed by Lowe's/Home Depot: Don't. Here's why--

1) Go to store. Pick out door or tile you want.
2) They order said door or tile if it's not in stock (which, both times, has been the case).
3) Meet a contractor at your house who measures for work; creates estimate for installation.
4) Go BACK to Lowe's to approve estimate, make purchase
5) Wait and wait and wait for items to come in
6) Installer calls you and makes appointment to come out to house to do work
7) Installer invariably arrives 30 minutes to an hour late for installation
8) Something always goes awry like maybe they ordered the goddamned wrong door in the wrong size because apparently their staff includes trained monkeys...and not very smart monkeys at that.
9) More waiting and frustration; meanwhile the money paying for the job has been in their bank account (as opposed to yours) for weeeeeeeeeks
10) Finally item you ordered comes in; make ANOTHER appointment for installer to come to house
11) Meet installer at house, again a good 45 minutes later than they say they'll be there
12) Finally, the job is complete.

Shouldn't it be more like:
1) Pick out/buy door.
2) Dude brings door to house. Installs it.

I know that, once it's all said and done, I'll be pleased as punch. But right now, I'm boiling.

My next project (which will only happen if I get a bonus at work and/or a tax refund) is to install plantation shutters in the front windows. But I'm going to a damn shutter store so I can deal directly with the people who do the ordering/installing. No more of this subcontracting bullshit.

Screw Lowe's.