I am an Idiot....

Well I posted this on another thread, then got to thinking, it didn't  belong.......................so I moved it here.... 

I want let everyone see what a few dumb decisions can do for you... 

And openly admit..........I'm an Idiot.


MY FRIDAY ?? ..............yesterday.  

 Friday began as what should have been a smooth day.  I should have been from the shop home early. 

 I should have netted about $1500.00........just on Friday...Yeah!!  
  
But................It  became a total disaster that is still not over as I type this.(I'm back at my Shop)   


In short, One of my builders is/was building a house for a very wealthy man from the Seattle Area.  

Well the relationship between the builder and the wealthy man has gone to pot........crap........whatever.

Now this guy is extra picky and lawyered up.

The job is a giant stress ball. Every sub is walking on egg shells.  The wealthy guy likes me and wanted us to stay on the job.  ( I am only 1/2 way thru the job.) 
(I knew something would go sour and should've stopped work immediatly) 

But I agreed to stay..................I'm an idiot.

   The job, is me supplying and installing 3- 3/8 thick custom shower doors...........for about $5000.00 
 
2 of the doors are complete and so far the wealthy guy likes us............. 

He likes how careful, clean and picky I've been with attention to detail............  


Well Friday we began the 3rd and final shower door which is the most difficult it is a large multi sided 3/8 frameless  Shower door. 
It will take me about 4.... 2-3 hour trips to complete. 

 Friday I begin phase 1 with my youngest son...........  
All is well,the first 2 panels are up looking good...........we begin cleaning up and prepping to mask calk the 1st phase....... 

 I notice one of the panels is mis-aligned by maybe 1/16th.  I know better, but I just wanted it perfect and decided to move the one glass panel...(I'm an Idiot) 
 
So.. I had my son hold the bottom of the panel in place..... at this time my oldest son shows up to help as he got his job done early. 

To save the strain on my neck I had him grab the top of he panel, to move it..........which was another  dumb idea..........I have 30 years in this trade........he has 2...........I should've moved it....  neck injury or not............so (I'm an Idiot)

  
 Move the panel.................dumb idea............my idea. ( I'm an Idiot)

 The panel..............popped..........blew out..........massive large chunks of 3/8 inch glass everywhere..........I mean everywhere 

 And guess what?

 Mr. Anal........the boss......................ME. 

 I had already picked up the paper and carpeting that I had down during the install........to protect the floor etc...............(I'm an Idiot)

The result.............100-200 square feet of hand polished Italian Marble dinged and scratched...........straight up ruined. 
 
All installed over a heated floor......not a cheap one..........you know the deluxe model with upgraded thermostat. 

 AND my youngest son......he had his glass gloves on, but had his sleeves rolled up..(which I should've been on him about)....the broken glass hit him.........resulting in a 3-4 " laceration on his forearm which required butterfly tape and 10-12 stitches.......... (I'm an Idiot)

 Yeah and if this sucks........that builder,he has owed me $300.00 for about 3 months for a job I did at his personal home,knowing I was starting that Custom Door Fri,he had come by the job and paid me cash.  
 
Well the job is literally 1/4 mile from the brand new Medical facility . I drove Seth up to get his arm taken care of.

 Of course the Seth is not on my company L&I, as he works somewhere else  and goes to Jr College, just helping me out,  for once..... 
 
And I didn't have my wallet.......with our new insurance card............(I'm an Idiot)  

The Med Facility is not or regular facility,so they had no info or account history.......  

So .....they wanted cash.................how much? 
$286.00........which is cheap considering everything. 
 
So much for the $300.00 

Well I went back to the job to assess the amount of possible damage....  
Seeing the damage...........knowing that I could've and should avoided the whole thing.....  I snapped .........slammed my cell phone down in the driveway.....so now I have no phone............and just lost about 150 business contacts...........half of which I have no other documentation on......................(I'm a double Idiot)  

 Anyway...............to summarize 

 The wealthy guy currently owes me about  $2500.00.. for the first 2 3/8 shower doors,and the door that broke was going to be another $2400.00 on its own......... plus tax. But we caused possibly $4500 in damages...........with the tile replacement and heated floor replacement.........etc. 

Probably won't see a penny.......... 

My son got cut.

I spent my long awaited $300.00 because I left my wallet at home. 

Lost my temper......, broke my cell phone and lost my contacts  All of my own doing...........  

Got home from all of this.................... 9:30 pm.

I'm an idiot............. 
  

I didn't say there is a down side.....

Just that I'm an Idiot........


I will have to confess my wife was extra,extra, nice when I finally got home..

That was a bad sequence of events Jason, and during my 23 years in the sign trade I experienced a few scenarios like that..you have my sympathy.

Only was is up now though.

Ouch!

Wow, OK, well honestly, I wouldn't have minded if you did put it in my thread :). I did ask after all.. and not all is rosey in the world. I have done similarly stupid stuff in my life, and I even have photos of say a guitar I broke just before a gig.. not on the same scale obviously.. but, I feel for you... OUCH indeed!!

Tony

Jason, we've all done it mate

We wouldn't be human if we didn't make a few ricks along the way.
 
 

Roight, roight.. bloody well roight.

If I may "horribly" paraphrase Senator Barry Goldwater...Extremeism in the pursuit of perfection is no vice...but it may come back to bite you in the arse!!