The Saga Continues

All I wanted was a new air conditioner and a new furnace with a humidifier. And I did get a new air conditioner and a new furnace with a humidifier. But the story just won't end.

As reported earlier, there was a mishap. The result of the mishap was a broken attic ladder. The contractors said they would replace it. And they did. But, silly me, I assumed I would end up with something close to what I had before.

What I had before was nothing special, just one of those folding attic ladders you find in some houses. There was a string on a trapdoor that you pulled to reveal the ladder. The ladder was easy to reach and unfold, easy to refold, and with a little push, the door holding the ladder and covering the hole to the attic would return to its rightful place with a nice, neat fit.

Now I have this lovely example of drywalling:



And here I am, standing on tippy toe, trying to get the ladder down:



And here I am, trying to get the ladder up, but - huh - it doesn't quite fit without some near impossible gymnastics:



And this is how the door fits in the hole:



You are probably wondering how I let this happened. I did peek out in the garage a time or two, enough to gather that things weren't going well. But I'm a trusting soul. I believed everything would be okay in the end. But apparently the end occurred at 4:55pm, when the worker bees took off like it was quittin' time.

And that's not all. Because the room with the gas furnace and gas hot water heater is actually a large closet off my bedroom, the building inspector told the contractor I would need a new door, one that would seal off any smoke were there a fire, one with a "closer". A closer is something that automatically closes the door so you can't accidently bypass the smoke seals. But guess what? My door does not close unless I push it and bang it shut a few times, and it won't latch without some fiddling with the door knob.

And that's not all. The contractor's scheduler called to set a follow-up appointment, to check on the air conditioner and furnace. Since nothing had been said about this before, I was a little perplexed. And suspicious. You read about contractors concealing cameras behind vents so they can record people doing private things. Or maybe one of the installers was fired for cause and now they were checking up on his handiwork.

So I had a few things to discuss with the sales guy after the fact. And I did my best to state my case in a reasonable and sane manner. Afterwards, though, I did get a bit hysterical over the whole thing, venting to friends and family. Today I am calm, though. And I still have a new air conditioner and a new furnace with a humidifier.

But they have my money.

But I have butterflies.