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Location: Longview, Washington, United States

I live in a small town in Washington State, USA, with my wife, two sons, two dogs, a cat, and family nearby. I work at the local community college as an I.T. Specialist. In March of '02, we bought a 70-some year old house that needed a lot of work. When I'm not working on the house, I like to throw pots, be outside, and read a lot.

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Wednesday, September 22, 2004

Slow Weekend II

Last weekend was another non-productive one as far as home improvement went. Anyone who checks this blog on a semi-regular basis probably also readings the Chateau Mold blog. Ann and Lori only live a couple of hours from us. On Sunday we were up in their area and had the pleasure of seeing their house/project and then having a nice brunch. It was a lot of fun to walk around, looking at things you've seen posted to a blog and being able to tap them with your knuckle. It is also fun to see how different people tackle problems and projects differently. One thing is for sure: Ann and Lori are doing a great job with their place.

One topic of debate that came up was how to, or even if you should, deal with rude or obnoxious contractors. Brit and I have found with people we have hired to do work on our house (and car too), that sometimes the men will be polite and courteous to me, but then be rude, aggressive, or condescending to Brit. How much of this is chauvinism and how much is them wanting to deal only with the person they initially made contact with (being me)? The issue is not totally limited to males. We had a female telephone repair person come out to the house who was polite and courteous to me, but who I observed talking down to the female babysitter (whom she assumed was my wife) while I was in the other room. If it does turn out that a contractor is rude to one spouse but not the other, how much of that should be tolerated? If there is major price difference between Mr. Polite and Mr. A-hole should you suck it up and get the better price?

posted by Scott in Washington at 10:26 AM |

3 comment(s):

  • Tell Brit that I completely sympathize. I'm the project manager for our restoration and I have to frequently call in my 6'7" husband to get something out of a sub (anything from the answer to a question to follow-through on a commitment). It can become very frustrating and downright insulting at times. I don't know why this happens. This can actually be an issue, even with the really "nice" subs. I actually had one say to me, "I want to make sure I finish this so Aaron isn't angry at me." Hmmm. Obviously they have never seen me angry :) After almost 2 years and trying to change folks subs view of me, I haven't gotten very far. Even when I can pull out my engineering background and explain to a sub why I want "this" versus "that" in their terms. They still discount me a lot of the time. And try to get service from Home Depot, Lowe's or a local lumberyard when you have to go from work in a skirt directly to try to find a new bit for drilling through stucco or pick up a load of 2 x 8's. You can stand there, invisible, in the place for an hour.

    If subs would realize (as Saturn did as a car dealer in the 90's) that women carry an awful lot of weight in decision making and that they aren't completely helpless, they would become more popular than they could ever realize.

    Take care--Nice pics!

    jm from House in Progress

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 10/10/2004 10:35:00 AM  

  • Thanks to JM for your support. I know Lori and Ann can relate to my angst about the contracters and I think Scott is supportive but it is hard when it isn't happening directly to you. Of course Punching the Contractors in the nose doesn't get the job done either.
    Thanks.

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 10/11/2004 11:12:00 AM  

  • -- Something that happened at work today reminded me of this issue when I reported to the group that I had told someone on campus that their plan, involving the use of a certain technology in a certain way, wouldn't work because of A, B, and C. It turned out that two of my female coworkers had told the man the same thing - both before he got to me. It was widely agreed by the others in the meeting, including other men that there had been a gender veracity issue in the past with this particular professional. I don't get it? Where is the malfunction??

    By Blogger Scott in Washington, at 10/20/2004 10:42:00 AM  

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