DAY OF WRECKING

In the beginning, On August 18th, I gave Schmidt the benefit of the doubt. I thought he wasn't bright, but he knew how to apply brute force to tear things apart. The very first day he was here, he caused about $3500 in damage to the hardwood floors. The picture at right shows a small area of the floor that he damaged by putting down wet carpeting to "protect" the floor. I discovered the carpeting was wet the morning after he started the job when I stepped on it barefoot. I immediately lifted it to see of there were black water stains, and there were.

Schmidt was a new type of creature to me. I didn't conceive of a man who claimed to have expertise in remodeling who didn't take pride in doing good work. Schmidt was even less than an amateur. At first, I thought when I gave him a suggestion about how to do something, he would go home and Goggle it to find out how people did do things. Now I doubt if he has even a clue about how to use a computer. He never submitted his work to the review of knowledgeable practitioners, but thought he was perfectly competent. The people who commented on his work and he seemed to hear were his mother and wife. Consequently, he didn't believe that his incompetence could lead to damage.

I immediately tossed the 3 carpet pieces outside. He had to stumble over them to get into the house when he showed up to continue his wrecking day, which he happily did. I told him the carpeting he put down had caused the damage I pointed out. He had no comment, but carried on with the demolition. I thought that he would do whatever it would take to fix the floor when the bathroom was finished--in another five or six days.

It is difficult to see in the photos, but the dark marks are mostly damage from water, which also destroyed the floor finish.

It was an inauspicious was to begin.