The Starting Over House

When we bought this house we cleaned and cleaned for days on end in an effort to scrub away the grime left by the previous owners.

Then we had the floors upstairs refinished and although the workers did a really good job of keeping the dust to a minimum, we had to wipe everything down again when they were finished.

Then we had new windows put in, and although the installers took all of the various old window pieces with them, they left behind a trail of dust and footprints throughout the house. Needless to say, it took a few days to clean up after them.

The house was looking good and we were unpacking at a steady rate when we had the new furnace installed. The new furnace's blower packs a more serious punch than the old furnace and blew a lot of dust, debris, and soot all over the house, causing us to have to clean it top-to-bottom yet again. This was when we realized that we probably should have had the ducts cleaned before installing the new furnace. Live and learn, right?

We finally got someone in to clean our ductwork yesterday. And today? I will be spending today cleaning 1/4 inch of soot, dust, bits of plaster, someone else's dog's hair, and more off of every surface of our home, including curtains, bedding, sofas, area rugs, etc. Does anyone else see a pattern here? Are we just stupid, or is the universe mocking us?

And this is where I need to say that I am trying to remain level-headed about all of this because I know this is not a real tragedy. No one died, no got hurt, and we weren't robbed or anything, but what happened yesterday goes down as a disaster in my book. I am not going to go into minute detail of yesterday's events, but I will sum up:

• At least five vents were not cleaned on the first floor, such that they still contain pennies, lollipop sticks, piles of sand, etc. It is harder to tell on the second floor because the vents all come in through the walls, but I will venture to say that if the first floor was not thoroughly cleaned the second floor cleaning was probably spotty as well.
  
• Three large vent covers on the first floor were left off, leaving an open space with jagged metal edges that our kids' and pets' feet could have easily slipped into, casuing injury.
  
• The items removed by hand from the vents and returns were left on the floor next to the vents, rather than being cleaned up.
  
• In the process of cleaning out vents (using a high powered air hose) dust, soot, chunks of plaster, and pet hair from the previous owners' pets were blown all over our bedrooms, curtains, the quilts my grandmothers made me, etc. We were given no warning that this could potentially occur.
  
• The worker, Alex (his real name), spent a lot of time telling me about his college degree and how he hates his current job, and then stared inappropriately at my sister for some time.
  
• When in the basement blowing out the cold air returns, Alex somehow managed to blow all of the contents of the returns into my house rather than into his vacuum device. My living room, foyer, dining rooms, and kitchen are covered, and I do mean covered, in soot, dirt, dust, pet hair, etc., making my house nearly unliveable at the moment. The compensation offered to me at the time? $20.00 off the cost of sanitizing the ducts and a lame excuse about how my ductwork and returns were not properly installed. Funny how the guys who installed our furnace never mentioned that last week after a thorough check of our system!
  
• When the work was done I was not given an adequate amount of time to check the work completed, nor did Alex try to show me any of the work. He told me he needed to get to another job so I (stupidly) signed the receipt and paid him.
  
• More than once how he had never gotten so dirty from a house before, how he hates old houses, etc. He repeatedly told me how things in our basement are "bad", assumed a lecturing and patronizing tone when "explaining" to me that there are wiring issues, some of the vent work looks old, etc. I already knew about all of the things he pointed out, having attended and paid attention to our home inspection. I have been in many, many basements of old homes and ours is not anything I would label as "bad".

After Alex left I had a chance to look around at the house and see what had actually been done. That's when I found much of the unfinished work, opened vents, and lack of clean-up. I called the company and told them what had happened and the manager on the phone said that Alex was supposed to have covered every vent except for the one he was working on so that nothing blew out the other connected vents. That didn't happen. They said he should have cleaned up any visible mess left by the duct cleaning. That didn't happen. They said he should have replaced all vent and return covers because not doing so is a violation of their safety procedures. That didn't happen. They said the worker should have maintained a professional attitude at all times. That, obviously, didn't happen. I demanded a full refund, spent a significant amount of time on the phone with the company getting nowhere, and finally told them I was cancelling the check. They stated that we would certainly be getting a ful refund, but that if we felt it necessary to cancel the check that would be fine with them. I am still waiting to hear if we will be receiving any compensation for the massive amounts of cleaning that are now required.

We're back at square one, starting over, the house once again covered with the grime and ick of the former owners. If this weren't my house it would almost - almost! - be funny. Right now nothing seems funny at all. I am angry and frustrated and feeling allergic. Worst of all, our duct work still is not clean. We decided last night that we will clean it ourselves. Google, I'm headed your way.