Is It Just Me...

...or do you find that no one does anything right anymore? What ever happened to responsibility and accountability? Is there such a thing as a job well done? I was always told that if you want something done right, do it yourself. And most of the time, I do. It might take a little longer, but at least when it is finished, I know it was done right the first time. It's a good thing, too. Because having been a nurse for 16 years, if I hadn't done my job correctly, there would have been a long line at the door to the morgue. Of course, that is the extreme, but it would be really nice of people took a little bit of pride in their work once in awhile.

But, today it seems that the standard is just to do the very least amount of work to get by. It doesn't matter if the job is done well or done right. Just collect the ole' paycheck (and charge double) for a lousy job and pass the buck. Let somebody else worry about the mess you left behind. It's not your problem, right?

It started with the carpet cleaner guy. He worked for a company that allows contractors to compete for business. He tried to charge $250 to clean the carpets, and that's without moving any furniture! When I told him that I was not interested in him robbing me blind, he lowered his price to $120. When he arrived, he gave me a song and a dance about how great his "Kirby" was to clean the carpet with "foam, not water". The last time I checked, a "Kirby" was a vacuum cleaner, no? It seems that it has a carpet cleaner attachment. Unfortunately, it doesn't do a very good job, and the carpeting looks the same as it did before he started. And, no thank you, I do not want to buy a "Kirby", even if you pour half of a container of salt on my rug and show me how great it works.

Next, it was the PPL energy saving contractors. They replaced the thermostats with newer ones to help decrease consumption of energy usage. Too bad that they rewired one of them incorrectly, and I spent 3 weeks in a hot house because the heat was still coming up even though the thermostat was set at the "off" position. That's not to even mention the electric bill that I will get for all the unwanted heat. I guess it was unrealistic of me to think that the electrician could actually properly rewire electric wires.

So, the electrical work led to the need for a plumber. He needed to replace the hot water heater. Now, I know that my standards can be set too high sometimes, but would it have been unreasonable to expect that when the plumber left, he would have actually turned the water back on in the house? No, I must have been asking for too much because he didn't. And that was after I specifically asked him if all the pipes were turned back on prior to his departure. I must be too demanding to think a plumber would know to actually think for himself.

On to the handyman who installed the closet doors. This is a fairly easy task. It does require a couple of power tools, but it is a basic handyman kind of thing to do. It's not rocket science. All that is required here is for 2 doors to hang at the same level with equal spacing. But nooooooooo. The doors are off center, uneven and with a huge gap of space on one side. Oh, that will be 50 bucks, he said. Hmmm.

But the best one of all was the painter. He was called upon to paint a small ceiling, which turned out to be a job of monumental proportions. Now, let me just say that I told him the idea of placing a drop cloth over the top of a whirlpool tub was a bad one because you can't see where the edge of the tub begins and ends. It was a safety hazard. In other words, an accident waiting to happen. In only a matter of minutes, sure enough, the painter fell into the tub. Subsequently, the gallon of paint tipped over onto the tongue and groove wood wall. This in turn caused the painter to drop the paint roller onto the carpet which was NOT covered by the drop cloth because that was in the TUB!

So, tell me now, is it just me or what?