Just Say NO

2. Contractor works up estimate after considering scope of job, schedule, and costs. (If at any time during installation, scope of job changes due to unforeseen complexities—very common with remodeling—contractor shall review issues with client, and if necessary, revise estimate.)
3. Contractor submits formal estimate to client.
4. Client agrees and signs estimate.
5. Client purchases doors.
6. Doors are delivered.
7. Contractor installs doors.
8. Client pays contractor.
9. Client is happy, contractor is happy, and therefore, I am happy.

It really did seem that simple. I was wrong.

This is how it actually went down:

1. Client convinces contractor that the doors she has already ordered are the correct size.
2. Contractor gives a verbal estimate for the project based on similar jobs he’s done, neglecting to include any calculation of time and materials involved.
3. Client thinks job includes finishing trim work. Contractor does not.
4. Client receives a delivery charge for the doors that she was not expecting to pay (increasing the overall cost of the project).
5. Upon beginning installation of doors, contractor determines that the opening for the doors is sub-standard, making the project much more complex than anticipated, and increasing the installation time involved (see #2 above).
6. Client agrees that any additional labor required should be compensated.
7. Contractor requests that all furniture be covered for the second phase of installation, in order to prevent sawdust from covering everything.
8. Client apparently forgets this request.
9. Client expects to find doors neatly installed, trim work finished on her return. She definitely didn’t expect to find sawdust all over her new couch.
10. Client actually finds doors installed, trim unfinished, and sawdust all over her new couch—and everything else.
11. Client decides she will not pay for any extra time due to the unfinished trim.
12. Client calls me and asks me to intervene.
13. I do—consumed with guilt and believing I can solve the issues at hand.
14. I was wrong.

The main problems were a serious lack of communication between the two parties, and a failure on both sides to set clear expectations. This became crystal clear to me, after four rounds of separate conversations with my brother and my friend. The whole event strained my relationship with my friend, and brought me to the point of yelling at my brother and unnecessarily interfering in his professional life.