Renovation nightmare Journal – episode 13.

A few things you should know, that I didn’t before you begin renovating your apartment. Read until the end, don’t say I didn’t warn you 🙌

It seems that there are silent rules that are known only to the contractor and his crew. They probably assume that everybody knows about them, but in fact, they invented these rules, and the people that are renovating stumble upon them along the way, and they have no idea why these contractors think that it is ok to work by these rules.

In addition, this will answer all my friends that are constantly asking me why it takes so long to renovate a small apartment…🙈

I will list the rules here and if you have never heard about them, I suggest you will remember them in case you are intending to renovate any time soon or in the future.

1. Dates – Working dates will be given to you, but you should never rely on them. What do I mean by that? For example – your contractor will say that they will come to work at your house on a certain day, but they will not be there on that day. When you call and ask where are the workers, if you are lucky and he will answer you, he will say, oh.. no they couldn’t come today, or he will say, I tried to call them but they said they had to go to another site, they will come tomorrow.
2. Time – When you are renovating your time means nothing to everyone related to the project. What is that mean? They don’t have a problem keeping you home all day long with no explanation. And they will continue doing so, regardless of how many times you complain or get upset. For example – They will schedule a time with you to be at your place at 9 am. At 10 am you will call to check why no one has come already. If you are lucky you will get an answer at 11 am saying, oh yes sure they are coming but they will be at your place at 12 pm, they just went to Home Depot to buy materials (BTW Home Depot excuse is very popular with the contractors – Home Depot is a cause for delaying a job a day or more). When no one showed up at 1 pm you will start calling and texting if you are lucky you will get an answer at 3 pm saying, oh they couldn’t come today, they got stock at Home Depot, traffic was terrible, etc… When you demand an answer they will say, oh, there was a change of plan and furthermore your place needed a plumber again because they need to replace a pipe so there was no point sending the man without the plumber… Was there a point in letting you know that no one is coming? Was there a point in keeping you home until 4 pm for nothing… 🙈?
3. This Rule Is One Of The Most Important Ones! Beware of complaining too much – Do not complain too much as I found out the hard way that when you do you might upset the contractor and then he will punish you by not answering your calls for a few days and getting your project set back a week if you are lucky. It’s ok if you are upset, but never make the contractor or his workers upset!
4. When the workers finally get to your house and work, don’t let them go anywhere, especially!! Never let them go to Home Depot, and don’t let them out of your site. If they will go to buy something in the middle of the workday, they will never come back on the same day 🤦‍♀️
5. If your contractor needs to submit a permit/application/paperwork to the city, don’t expect that to be done in a day or 2. Whenever they need to submit something it takes them a week to deliver the papers. I can’t even begin to imagine why it takes a week to do that. When they finally submit the paperwork, you should pray that they submitted everything and nothing is missing. If they miss something, add another week to that schedule…🙈
6. Don’t give them your house keys. You might want to do that thinking they will be able to come and work if you are not home or if god forbid you had to leave for a few days… They will not! They will not use your key to work when you are not there and they will probably lose your key anyway. and say that they couldn’t go in becouse they didn’t have the key.

So, if you didn’t know these rules you should, I spoke to a few people renovating their places, and these rules apply to all.

Please keep this in mind. If you are renovating that means you don’t have a life!

Have a wonderful week everybody. I would love to have your comments here 😎