The Fence Saga - Part 2

I last wrote about our fence, and its absence on July 30, which was 2 1/2 weeks ago. There has been no progress since then, except maybe that the fence guy now refuses to answer his phone at all!

On July 31, I came home from work to see that our neighbour's car was in the driveway. This is rare for 5:00 in the afternoon, so I was hopeful for an opportunity to talk to him. I figured he would probably barbeque himself some dinner, and he did. As soon as I heard the squeak of the lid of his barbeque opening, I went outside immediately to talk to him. Our neighbour said he had been texting with the fence guy, and he was supposed to come "this weekend". (That was the August long weekend). I asked our neighbour for the fence guy's phone number, and my neighbour was able to provide it. Since the latest update was that he was going to come "this weekend", I decided to wait until after the weekend to phone him. Tuesday morning I called, explained who I was and asked when the fence would come. He told me that if our neighbour had co-ordinated the fence with us prior to the deck being built, he would have done everything all at once. Okay, fine, but our neighbour didn't, and it was now 5 weeks since the fence posts went in. He said he would come that afternoon if the weather held, or first thing tomorrow morning. He didn't come either time. I phoned and left him a few messages, he never returned my call. I continued to call quite regularly, sometimes leaving messages, but usually not. He didn't seem to return my calls anyways. Finally on Monday, August 11, he answered his phone again. This was at about 8:30 in the morning. He sounded half-asleep, and told me "I can't come today because my wife has jury duty but I'll come tomorrow". Jury duty! I have to give him credit - a very creative excuse. Of course, if he couldn't come Tuesday he could say his wife was still stuck in jury duty.

Needless to say, he didn't come on Monday or Tuesday. I continued to try to contact him, and Wednesday (Aug 13) around lunch time he answered his phone. This was a most amusing conversation. He had a long list of excuses, I don't even remember them all. His truck was acting up, the cabinet guys weren't coming for his current job, his sister had a baby, he was really busy with lots of big jobs and everybody clamouring for him to get them done, and on it went. He didn't say anything about jury duty either...and I refrained from asking him about that! He also told me it would only take about 3 hours to finish the job. My point exactly!! Come spend the 3 hours and I'll stop bugging you! Anyways, he "promised" me he would come do it by the end of the week or he would talk to our neighbour about giving him his deposit back. Although he said by the end of the week, he also said he was going to come "tomorrow" (that would be Thursday). I asked him what time he would come. He said it wouldn't be until 10:00 or 11:00 because he had to bring his kids to his inlaws. You know, I don't understand how this guy runs a business if he can't start work until 10:00 everyday. He doesn't seem to work late either.

Now, it is Saturday afternoon, there's no fence, and I doubt our neighbour has his money. Our hands are tied until our neighbour gets his money back, because I doubt our neighbour will want to pay for the same fence twice! My current theory is that the fence guy has spent our neighbour's deposit, and can't afford to buy the wood necessary to build the fence.

So, we continue to wait, and I'll continue to try to call him. I'll have to see if he answers again!Unfortunately, our neighbour has scarcely been home the last two weeks, so we haven't had a chance to talk to him anymore either - to see if he is even agreeable to getting his money back.

Rob and I have put our planting plans on hold, but while we were at Zehrs this morning, there was a huge display of mum's. We made a quick decision to buy 6, and we planted them this afternoon - so now we have three little splashes of colour. Not what we had originally hoped to have by August 16, and clearly we need more plants to fill the area in, but we're happy to have something.