Thursday, July 19, 2012

The Housekeeping Chronicles - Transitions

"Les Raboteurs de Parquet,"  Gustave Caillebot, 1875, Musee d'Orsay
Before telling more about our travels, I'll report a recent transition in our domestic life.

We arrived home yesterday evening to discover than in our absence, our housekeeping couple committed what we determined was a "fire-able" offense.

Actually, to be fair, it was probably just Eigh, not Oeuf who was responsible for the act. When we left town, Eigh begged us not to suspend their services during our vacation, citing financial difficulties. So we left with a list of minor tasks, some of which were busy work, like watering potted plants.

I won't go into the gory details, but after a 15 hour international journey, we walked into an aftermath of disorder, dirt, and damage, created by Eigh's rash decision to perform an unrequested major home "repair", for which he lacked both the knowledge and craftsmanship.

This morning we called to inform him their services were no longer required. Insurance claim to follow.

He responded to the call with the usually hedging and argument and passive-aggressive guilt tripping we've come to expect from him, and since he needed to come by and pick up some tools he'd been storing here, we prepared ourselves for a drama-filled personal encounter. So we agreed to an appointed time, put put the tools on the porch, and waited to hear the doorbell

The time came and went, and we looked outside - the tools were gone and the house key was properly returned.

"Looks like he knows how to do this. He's probably done it before," commented [The Man I Love.]


12 comments:

  1. What possesses people to DO stuff like this?? I can't even imagine the thought process that ends with "this is a Good Idea."

    So sorry you had to return to dealing with this hassle.

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  2. *gasp*

    How terrible! I'm so sorry you came home to find this disaster.

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  3. You've had quite an experience with them. Eigh reminds me so much of one of my uncles. He would always try to fix things when he visited my mother, but they never came out right. The last straw was when he spray painted the roof of my mother's car because it was rusty. A blue car, he painted the roof green.

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  4. So sorry that you had to return to problems. Whenever I complain about my cleaning lady or the gardner, my husband always reminds me that's why the clean houses and rake lawns.

    I stop complaining because of the things they do well - that I don't want to do.

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  5. Those aren't their real names, right?
    sheila

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  6. nope, those aren't their real names, Shelia.

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  7. Nooooooooo! Ugh, so sorry you came home form your lovely trip to find a disaster.

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  8. They are probably older and from some other country and do not have the same thought processes as most of us here.

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  9. I HAD to go back to read your previous posts about your couple, and I saw the picture of your Roseville vase. I have a couple like that. Lovely!
    Jenny

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  10. It was meant to be.
    I've never had anyone clean my house let alone be in my house while I'm gone. I'm sure you'll bounce back all the better.

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  11. oh, no!!!!!

    I imagine that besides the hassle and damage, you also feel incredible frustration and anger -- at him for doing such a thing and even at yourselves for giving him chance after chance. I know I would feel violated, plus all of the above.
    *sigh*

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  12. Oh, Aunt Snow - that sounds SO frustrating! When you come home from a long trip, you want to relax, not gear up for a law suit! I wondered when you wrote that there were "complications." Hah!

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