Last night I realized it has been almost two months since I did anything related to my niche stores.  Almost three weeks ago I thought I was ready to get back to it, but then found out there was a LOT more work for me to do at my house.  I have spent almost every day of the last three weeks working my butt off getting it cleaned.  I had no idea how dirty a house is behind the drywall…

I do look forward to bringing this blog back to its purpose: focusing on niche store strategies.  Within the next few weeks I expect to be able to do that.  For now, I fear I still have work that needs to be done.

Fortunately, I am just about finished working with the insurance company.  We got the estimates last night of what they will pay us to repair/replace damaged property.  My husband has been expecting them to screw us over, while I’ve been willing to see what they do before I go looking for an attorney.  I’m happy to say that they have treated us extremely fairly.  The one issue I was ready to dig my heels in over was the floor tiles, but I handled it well (instead of telling them they HAD to pay to replace them) and they are now going to replace them.  (For those who care, our tiles had fabric under it, which is apparently an upgrade feature, that wicked water under the tiles and kept it there - I was able to prove that there was water there, which could become a mold problem, and the insurance company agreed to replace the tiles.)

Right now, I need to finish spraying the house, which currently has no drywall up yet, to kill any mold or yucky things.  I should finish that today.  Then we will have the air quality tested to make sure there is no mold.  Once we get a passing test we will be able to put the drywall back up, install new cabinets, carpet, and tile, and paint.  Not necessarily in that order.

Since our house is torn up we decided to do some remodeling.  We are removing a wall between our kitchen and dining room, making it much more open and inviting.  We are also going to add a LOT more cabinets in the kitchen, which was previously hurting for storage.  I’m really excited about how this will turn out.

In addition to the above, I also fired the contractor I had initially hired to do the drywall work.  Three weeks ago I visited the house and found a beer can left in there.  No one but the contractors had been there, which told me they were drinking on the job.  That doesn’t fly with me.

When I spoke to the contractor and told him I was no longer using him, he pretty much didn’t believe me.  I asked for him to give me a final bill for the work his people had done.  His bill came to $2,100.00, which was ridiculously high.  In addition to overcharging me for work that was done, it charged me for work that was not yet done (he wanted me to pay for drywall being put up, which was not done).  I said I was willing to pay $350, not $2,100 (which included materials that I wanted him to remove, instead of me paying for and keeping).  I’m happy to say he accepted this.

So, to all who may have to deal with contractors for whatever reason, don’t think you have to accept their bills at face value.  Question things that deserve to be questioned.  If you are unsure if a fee is fair, talk to another contractor, which is what I did, to learn what the fair value really is.

That’s all for now.  I look forward to getting back to my niche stores, as they have been badly neglected lately.

Rochelle