Part Two: The Confrontation

The contractor *did* call me back the next day (which would’ve been last Tuesday, the 18th)... at 9:30pm... and told me he had new doors for me. I know he was lying because he showed me a receipt from the home improvement store dated May 19th. But, I digress.


We made plans for him to deliver the doors Saturday morning. He arrived 30 minutes late. He had a bunch of oldddd scrap lumber in the back of his truck in addition to the trim pieces he took (without asking) from my house when he left on Monday, plus a small table saw and power mitre saw. He unloaded the saws and then unloaded the doors, setting them up against the house. He almost dropped the main door on the concrete! Later, my neighbor told me he saw the guy almost drop the door. The box to the storm door was all smashed up, and the main door looked like it had been sitting outside for months. This is why I asked him if he had a receipt.

I watched the contractor walk around for about 15 seconds before finally saying (which I thought I made it pretty clear on Monday) “You do know I don’t want you finishing this, don’t you?” He looked at me and said, “Uh, no.”

I thought to myself, “You’ve got to be kidding me!” He started to say things like, “I’ve got $450 invested in these doors, and the time...” I cut him off and told him it was NOT my fault this happened. He agreed and proceeded to DRAG the main door to the garage. Drag it! I asked if he wanted help, he didn’t answer and continued to drag. Finally, I just picked up the opposite end and helped him put it in the garage.

He took a notebook out of his truck and went into the garage and started writing. After 5 minutes, I went in and asked what he was doing. He was a writing a receipt for delivery of the doors. I told him I wasn’t about to sign anything without knowing if the storm door was OK (since it was covered in a cardboard box. I looked at the main door closely and saw indentations on the window trim and the brick moulding had been scraped against something. What, I have no idea. He was none too happy with me, but he wouldn’t leave! He just stood in the doorway of the garage staring off into the sky. He also told me he wanted the old doors so he could recoup some of his cost, which I said I was fine with. What am I going to do with two doors, one of which is majorly damaged?

He got out a reciprocating saw and I watched as he cut the spike he used to nail the door frame to the house. One spike! Dad thinks he couldn’t get the door plumb enough so he used the spike to try and pound in place. I told him I had another contractor coming to finish the job, so he wanted to cut the nail so as the “other guy doesn’t make scrap lumber out of the doors.” I said, “He wouldn’t do that.” He said, “Well, I don’t know that.” I thought it was ironic he’d say something like that after what he did to MY doors.