Men And Between Men

~ Bitchy After 60

No I am not having an affair. Nor am I between affairs. And no this blog isn’t about sex or getting excited over the physically attractive attributes of men in general. I have publically confessed in the past that any sex drive I may have possessed is long gone thanks to a hysterectomy in my forties. Mind you, I can still appreciate a nice looking man, or person for that matter, from a distance. The same way I appreciate a nice sunset or nice scenery. When it comes to men up close, I am more interested in a good conversation.

This is also not a blog about the long-term men in my life. The guys I love dearly. The guys who can frustrate the by geesus out of me by doing things like handling a greasy package of bacon then touching every damn cupboard handle and every bloody appliance in the kitchen. Then only cleaning up the frying pan. Nope this is not a rant about that. Just a small mention to make my point. The point that I am not going to open that can of worms any further.

So what other men are there? What kind of men are taking up too much space in my over-active brain?

Tradesmen. Construction men. Moving men. Project-managing men. That’s who.

You may recall that we had a leaky pipe between the walls that did quite a bit of damage to the lower level of our home. You can read about that at Drip, Drip, Drip, Drip, Drip!

It has been eleven weeks since we called our insurance company. Almost three months! They sent in the project management-man, who quickly arranged to have the leak fixed. Next came the pack-up men, or to be specific the pack-up man and women. These two were very nice and very careful with our stuff while packing every thing up to be put into storage. Arriving after these two were the moving men, who took all the furniture and packed-up items away, and we haven’t seen them since. We were excited. Things seemed to be moving at a good pace.

Then came the tear-out men, who ripped out floors and parts of walls but not the bathroom, which still needs tons of work. These men set up and turned on five industrial-strength fans and a monster-sized dehumidifier before leaving.

For the first two weeks the fans and dehumidifier ran day and night. It was like living in a factory. I can only imagine how high our next power bill will be. By the third week we decided to turn the equipment off at night so we could sleep better. After the third week, we turned all the equipment off and waited …and waited …and waited. After four weeks, we had yet to hear back from the project-management man or anyone else.

The Doc began sending emails. He began leaving voice mails. He began sending text messages. We felt ignored. Rejected. Not important to the men. Finally contact and a break through. A man came to pick up the fans. And then, two weeks ago, a couple of construction men came to put in some subfloor and put up some drywall. Then they left. And we waited …and waited …and waited some more. Waiting time—the time between men—is exhausting.

Once again The Doc sent emails, left voice mails, sent text messages. He called the insurance broker, who answered. This resulted with a phone call from the project-management man who apologized profusely. Sure… Sure… Sure… We know the project-management man is busy, we know that he has over 200 claims that he is working on; but not responding is not an option. It’s rude. It’s bad business. It’s poor customer service. I am not as nice as The Doc, but I wasn’t the one hearing the apology. The Doc accepted the apology. Probably the right response. I, on the other hand, was ranting and raging in my head.

That very afternoon, which happened to be Monday of this week, another construction man came and mucked the seams of the drywall. He came back the next day and the next. He did a nice job… thank heavens. A plumber also came and disconnected all the stuff in the bathroom so it could be taken out, and the big work can begin. 

Lets hope we don’t have to wait, and wait and wait some more before something else is done. There is still so much work to do down there. Out of the approximately 80 days since this adventure began, there may, if we stretch it, have been men working here for 10 of those days. Yup, only 10 days.

So excuse me if I get a little excited to see men arrive, because in between men, the days are long as we are waiting and hoping and missing some stuff in storage. And longing for our home to return to normal.

Thank you for reading. 

Photos: Yulia Matvienko, Unsplash

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29 thoughts on “Men And Between Men”

    1. Glad to know you found it funny. Also glad to know I still have a sense of humour. Humour was my goal this week. I know the trades are stretched pretty thin these days. We didn’t expect things to be really fast, but we did expect responses to our inquiries and some communication. Anyway things could be a lot worse. I was just looking for an entertaining way to tell the story.

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  5. I don’t want to lump any profession into some huge stereotypical generalization, but I’ve had trouble with more contractors operating this same way. They all seem to have more work than they need (An excellent problem for them to have), but the problem is it takes forever to get them out to our house. Much like you have experienced, I reach out multiple times through multiple means (email, text, website, phone) and then nothing. Just hearing something like, “We’re booked solid for the next two months, Mr. Springer,” would be helpful. This week we finally got some specialized windows installed after waiting 11 months. Part of that was a manufacturing issue and then Covid, but come on. A phone call with an occasional update would have been appropriate.

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  6. I hear you and feel your pain. But I’m afraid it’s like this everywhere with everyone. I’ve been trying to entice a HVAC guy to our house for some furnace maintenance for 6 months. I can’t even get a call back. If I was younger I’d be tempted to send nude photos as a sweetener. We need our driveway torn up and replaced this year as well… I think a large bribe will be necessary for that. It’s crazy, understaffing everywhere.
    😩

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          1. Here in Ontario with the multitudes of lockdowns and the halt in all business for so long the renovation and construction industry is backlogged something horrible. Now that all is back to semi normalish, they can’t find workers. When they find workers they have to wait for supplies stuck in the chain of events in recent months. Multiple houses in my orbit sit there week after week in semi-completion mode because x can’t progress because y hasn’t done their thing, and delivery by z is delayed.

            I’m glad we’re not doing major renos now. Watching the construction rotting in the elements (snow, wind, rain, ice) is giving me heart palpitations.

            Good luck!! I hope things are easier out by you and you finally get this stuff completed! It’s so disruptive, I know…. Been through most of what your describing when my kids were young… 🙄

            Liked by 1 person

  7. I have to say I know exactly what you mean about workmen (tradesmen) – they’re the same here. And I absolutely HATE that they can’t be bothered to communicate about all the delays either. No matter what the trade, they all seem to be the same – it drives me mad!

    Amusingly written post as always though…

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  9. Sorry you’re going through this, Jennifer, but I enjoyed your entertaining post. Getting contractors to show up is a universal complaint and is getting worse. I can schedule a heart transplant faster than a drywall repair.

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