# Will the man of the house be there?



## Gimbler (Jan 29, 2010)

This has nothing to do with dogs and is my first post in the lounge but I am SO MAD right now!

I just got off the phone with a contractor who was supposed to come and give me an estimate tomorrow. I provided such specific information along with my online request that coming out here is really just a formality/courtesy. They could easily do the estimate with the info I gave up front but I understand they need to verify and get a chance to do an upsell. Okay.

I explained to the first joker I talked to this morning that he would be meeting with ME. Just ME. There will be no penis endowed quadruped available to appeal to. I thought when our conversation was over that he "got it". Nope! The owner just called - "Isn't there some way that we could meet with both of you together?" Uh, no... Unless you want to hold off till the next national holiday cause that's the only days of the year that we're both off at the same time.

I know they're afraid that one half of a couple will get sold and the other will put the kibosh on it but I am SO tired of explaining REPEATEDLY to contractors and service people WHENEVER I contract something out that this is MY HOUSE. Yes - I am a legal non-insane adult and I have the right to enter into legal contracts. Guess what??? I even have MONEY!!!

It's 2010 not 1910! I am the handy one around here. I'm the one who builds the decks, the fences, fixes the plumbing, cleans the gutters, scrapes the paint, changes the wax seal under the toilet. My husband is the one who brings me a beer and a burger when I'm done.

On the rare occasions that my husband tags along to Lowes or HomeDepot with me the salesmen fall all over themselves asking HIM about his project and offering assistance. I'm at these stores EVERY WEEK and I am all but freakin' invisible while I'm there!

I love my husband dearly and he is a terrific and generous and funny guy. He feeds me well and we have a lot in common. But, I'm not sure he can do anything more "handy" than change a light bulb. Once, pretty early on in our relationship he told me that he thought our back porch was sinking away from the house. I got all concerned and raced outside to look at the foundation. Solid. Plumb. Level. What's he talking about? He pointed up to the gutters and showed me how they were sloping ever so slightly towards the outside corners. Where the drainpipes were! I was like - are you serious? You know they get hung that way on purpose so that gravity helps the water drain, right? He was STILL skeptical. I caught him asking his brother about it a week later!

I love my husband and I am really, really sick of having to sound like a B-word by repeatedly explaining "He isn't interested, he doesn't care, he wouldn't know what you were talking about and the house is in my name." Why do I have to get nasty and in the process make my husband sound like some kind of wimp just cause he doesn't know or care about what they do for a living or how they do it?

If I wasn't getting too old to spend a week on a 40ft ladder I'd have told 'em to just go shove it and save myself some money and aggravation.


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## 9361 (Jun 25, 2009)

UGH! Sounds very irritating! It reminds me of when I go to a car lot to look at a car. And the one I am looking at is a stick shift. I have owned more stick shift cars in my life than I have automatics. And the sales guy always says "well this ones a stick shift" I always have some smart ass comment to answer back with. Last time I said "well the stick shift never stopped me from drag racing my old mustang" LMAO Um Hello! Women can drive stick shifts too....


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## Aczdreign (Jun 15, 2010)

Gimbler said:


> There will be no penis endowed quadruped available to appeal to.


Humans are bipeds...I assume he wasnt planning to appeal to a dog?


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## 9361 (Jun 25, 2009)

Aczdreign said:


> Humans are bipeds...I assume he wasnt planning to appeal to a dog?


meh... some men still drag their knuckles... so maybe it was appropriate. :hammer:


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## Aczdreign (Jun 15, 2010)

Dragging knuckles doesn't qualify one as a quadraped. You gotta use the palms.
Seriously!:roll:

See The Ulas Family.


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## 9361 (Jun 25, 2009)

Aczdreign said:


> Dragging knuckles doesn't qualify one as a quadraped. You gotta use the palms.
> Seriously!:roll:
> 
> See The Ulas Family.


I have been out smart @$$ed.... :flush:


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## meganc66 (Mar 6, 2009)

Tell them biznatches whats up!!! Just cuz we are women doesn't mean we don't run the show!


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## aimee235 (Apr 29, 2007)

Oh god that would be annoying. Every time sales people call I tell them I don't want what they are selling. After politely listening to their speech then they ask if they can talk to the adult in the household or my parents. I'm like click. I'm 24 if they want to talk to my parents they need to call their house.

lol. When I test drove a car they picked it out for me after asking what I drive and he put me in an automatic. I was like this is kinda weird. He's all bad weird? Yes. I have nothing to do with my other foot. lol. Everyone who test drove my car I sold a while back kept asking if it was an automatic or stick. I said stick and every time they came over they were all oh it's an stick I can't drive it. LMAO.


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## Aczdreign (Jun 15, 2010)

Shes Got Heart said:


> I have been out smart @$$ed.... :flush:


Eh, I got lucky.:rofl:


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## coppermare (Jun 25, 2010)

Just tellem "the hand that rocks the cradle rules the world" LOL
Been there done that. I married a city boy when I was young, he wouldn't listen when I said the barb wire goes on the inside. He put it on the outside, so guess who gets to chase horses, cows or mend fences? 
I will tell you though in my old age I've learned that it's sometimes not a good thing to learn it all. The more you learn, the more your expected to do!!!


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## smokey_joe (Oct 14, 2005)

Tell them your single & you're only remodeling to meet available contractors. Måybe they'll give you a discount.


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## Gimbler (Jan 29, 2010)

Aczdreign said:


> Humans are bipeds...I assume he wasnt planning to appeal to a dog?


LOL! I can't call it a typo, but that's not what I meant to type. Wow - I was on a rant. Thanks for making me laugh at myself!:hammer:


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## Gimbler (Jan 29, 2010)

coppermare said:


> Just tellem "the hand that rocks the cradle rules the world" LOL
> Been there done that. I married a city boy when I was young, he wouldn't listen when I said the barb wire goes on the inside. He put it on the outside, so guess who gets to chase horses, cows or mend fences?
> I will tell you though in my old age I've learned that it's sometimes not a good thing to learn it all. The more you learn, the more your expected to do!!!


I've entered old age myself. I'll get a free checking account (with perks!) and an AARP card in a couple of months. Woo Hoo! So, I can testify that you are RIGHT - I should have spent my youth batting my eyelashes and making big moony faces instead of learning how to do stuff for myself. I could have had some free labor back then and less responsibility now! LOL

And it sounds like we married the same kind of men - city boys! :roll:


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## FloorCandy (Feb 19, 2009)

That sucks, when we moved I dealt with all of our contractors and it went fine. I would tell them to take a hike and find someone willing to deal with you respectfully


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## Gimbler (Jan 29, 2010)

FloorCandy said:


> That sucks, when we moved I dealt with all of our contractors and it went fine. I would tell them to take a hike and find someone willing to deal with you respectfully


If the attitude continues during the face to face I will tell them to take a hike and why they're taking it. I used to work in the trades myself and if a contractor seems the least bit twitchy or uninterested in what I'm saying I want they get the boot! Ironically, another contractor I'm having do an estimate called after I posted this and we went through the same rig-a-ma-roll

This is the third house we've renovated in the last 10 years with me acting as the GC and I just don't have the patience I might have had when I was younger. Aw heck - who am I kidding? I've never been very patient! lol


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## Gimbler (Jan 29, 2010)

Shes Got Heart said:


> UGH! Sounds very irritating! It reminds me of when I go to a car lot to look at a car. And the one I am looking at is a stick shift. I have owned more stick shift cars in my life than I have automatics. And the sales guy always says "well this ones a stick shift" I always have some smart ass comment to answer back with. Last time I said "well the stick shift never stopped me from drag racing my old mustang" LMAO Um Hello! Women can drive stick shifts too....


OMG - I've had that happen too! Although I never had an old mustang to drag race. I'm jealous! It's not like I don't appreciate someone offering me advice or insight based on their own expertise but I hate when someone assumes they know what I want based on nothing more than my gender. Ask me about what I like or don't like - how I'm going to use it - before telling me what I should have.

And OMG - people who just flat out LIE to you thinking because you're a woman that you won't know any better. One roofer came here and quoted me a price for a roof with 30 squares of shingles! That's almost double the size of my roof! LOL When I called him on it he tried to convince me that I "had a lot of roof". It was so audacious that I laughed and mocked him all the way to his truck - asking him if he measured the right house. Did he know how many square feet were in a square? He had been highly rated on Angies List. I found Angies list to be pretty worthless too, btw.


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## Carriana (May 13, 2008)

You could juse respond with saying "well you could talk to my husband, OR you could talk to the person who makes the decisions". 

There was some new personal data website that gathers info from all over the web and puts it in one place (had to go on to remove myself from it because I don't need crazy folk cyber stalking me and/or stealing my identity) but it had info about the household and it had me listed at the "decision maker" lol, I laughed so hard when I saw that, I was like "how did they know?!"


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## Aczdreign (Jun 15, 2010)

Carriana said:


> You could juse respond with saying "well you could talk to my husband, OR you could talk to the person who makes the decisions".


Priceless.:rofl:


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