We've been taken

We haven't been posting much, as things have been pretty stressful around our place. Brian hasn't had a day off in about 6 weeks or so, and Sherry's been working very late nights (Between 2 and 4:30 a.m. or so).

One bright light was that we had hired a painter to paint our house and we're looking forward to that major project getting done. Well, we hired him on 8/7 and it is now 8/31, and our house is not painted. In fact, we gave him half of the money up front ($3,700), and he cashed the check, but our house isn't even close to half-painted. It's maybe 10% painted. Maybe. He's given us every excuse in the book about why he isn't there, and we've been more than understanding. Then, he told us he needed $2,000 to make his rent or he was going to have to go back to his "regular" job. We declined. Things erupted today in a pretty nasty phone call and we're starting to believe we've been taken for about $2,700 or more. And, our house still needs to be painted. It was the one big job we'd really saved up for in advance because if the shingles don't get stained soon, the house will have to be resided. (Can you say, $30,000?) So, it still has to be done. What's more, he *has* done the prep work, so our house has big giant splotches all over it and looks worse than ever. So, we're probably going to have to hire someone else. And lest you think suing this person is going to make a difference, we assure you he is judgment proof. That money is long gone. The best we could do is probably change our locks (since he has a key) and report him to the police. And re-configure our finances. As in, cancel our upcoming vacation plans. Just like our last ones. Sorry to be such a downer today, but that's how we feel.

One bright spot: Our friend Karen is coming in for a night tomorrow. It will be wonderful to see her! That's her to the left! We miss her so much!