Hi, hello, how are you?! It’s been almost a whole month since I’ve made an update and I’m going to warn you now…this will be a super long post. The first part of this post will be to catch everyone up on my life and the second will be my financials for the month of September. Because this explanation will be long (the post is 14 mins long to be exact), I’ll be posting photos to break up the monotony a bit. Now that that disclaimer is out the way, grab yourself a snack and something to drink, preferably tea because it is currently piping hot and we’ll get started!
So where exactly did I go? If you remember my post from Money Moves Month End – August, I started some renovations at my home! I was planning on painting and having carpet installed in my guest and master bedroom. The goal was to make every room the same color and get rid of the million-year-old carpet I have covering this entire place. The carpet installation occurred on September 21st and was AMAZING! Quick, efficient and I was able to get things back to where they belonged. Beforehand, I had the painting done and that experience was…well, let’s just start with the beginning for this.
So…I hired, a family friend to paint my home. This person let me know they didn’t do carpet ahead of time which was no big deal but from my understanding, they did several other home improvements. I myself know how to paint. I painted both of my bathrooms and my bedroom. When I finally painted my bedroom, I had my method down. Patch, prime, paint the ceiling, paint the walls, paint the doors & baseboards. I love a good clean line because I’m an artist. What I was hiring for was to get the work off my shoulders but the person had to do equal to or a better job than I did. (I painted the baseboards and trim at a later date.)
To not leave anyone a cliff hanger, I did not get either of those things. First, this person was not timely with their responses. They said they’d come by on 9/4 – Labor Day…Which would’ve been great…if they remembered. I text at 9:45 in the morning…this person didn’t respond until after 3 and when they did, they said they were just not up for it that day. I got a 2-in-1 for red flags that day. We rescheduled for Tuesday after I got off work and red flag number 2, this person didn’t have transportation at the time so I picked them up and drop them off through this whole ordeal. That really wasn’t a major problem for me because remember…they’re a family friend. I brought this person to my home and they measured for the hard flooring that isn’t going to be a thing until 2024 because the carpet was very expensive. I didn’t skimp on the details. I wanted to make this paint job worth their while so I kind of said what I wanted and they convinced me to not only do my bedrooms but to also do the living space that is an open floor plan including the kitchen. It’s half of my house and is a significant space. This person said they could finish everything over the weekend because they had a sprayer. I got “quoted” $800, the equivalent of $200 for each bedroom and $400 for my living room/kitchen. Then red flag number 3 came up. This person suggested I buy 10 gallons for paint for the walls, and then 5-6 more gallons for the ceiling, baseboards and trim. We’re talking 16 gallons of paint for my 900 sq ft home…16 effing gallons of paint. I stopped this person and said it only took a gallon and a half to paint my bedroom but they insisted. We were going to start the prep that Friday. I did a quick bit of research and nothing said what was exactly needed so I went ahead along with the original suggestion of 16 effing gallons of paint.
Wednesday & Thursday I started packing things up and made my purchase for paint on Thursday 9/7…It cost me $818.67. A face palm moment because…what?! I bitched about it for a while because the carpet was already $2,200 for materials and installation and this paint job was starting to get equally as expensive. On Friday I paid a deposit when I went to pick the person up and we headed to my house to begin the prep. This person said they weren’t doing the sprayer anymore because they needed more practice with it. At this time, I only had my living room packed and figured I could pack the other two rooms once the project began. They moved what they could into my guest bedroom and moved all the big furniture into the center of the living room, removed the outlet covers, and patched the walls. Afterwards, I thought it would be nice to buy everyone dinner…mostly because my kitchen was deconstructed. There wasn’t a place to do much if it consisted of pots or pans.
Saturday – Things got interesting this day. I went to pick them up…Our first stop was Ace Hardware where I bought $100 more of stuff for the paint job that I could’ve grabbed on Thursday. Then this person asked me to stop at the grocery store, said they were going to only be 5 mins. It took them about 15-mins to grab the items. I bought breakfast for us and was asked to go back to their house to drop off the groceries they just purchased. I’m a gopher at this point. We finally get to my house and eat and now it’s 11:30 and the paint job begins. I pulled out all my paint supplies so things are ready to go and there are options. They take my blinds for my sliding glass doors down and put them outside on the balcony, I start cleaning heat registers and they start to paint the ceiling. I noticed then that I might’ve made a mistake because the paint strokes were so heavy I could see lines. I’m a makeup artist and I know the value of blending properly which can also be done when you’re doing interior painting. Shortly after the real work started, it started POURING rain because there was a hurricane or tropical storm passing…keep in mind…my blinds are outside. I grab lunch and come back and part of the ceiling is “done” and I help this person put the ceiling fan back up. I then decide to go take a nap because I don’t have to do any of the work! Yay me right? Wrong…I napped a bit talked to a friend who was super impressed I hired someone and almost at 6 PM, I get a knock on my door. I come out. And see the smallest wall in my living room is painted and this person is wrapping it up for the day…I thought that was a bit odd but tomorrow is a new day. They put the now debris covered blinds back up and get a few things “organized” and we head back to their house. On our way, they ask me to stop off at the gas station because I’m back to my fee-free, guilt-free Ubering. When I drop them off, I stay awhile because again…they’re family friends.
When I get home, I’m HIGHLY disappointed. The one wall that was done was done sloppily. No tape was used, there was no precision at all even though I provided the supplies. The wall color was on the white ceiling and the ceiling is EXTREMELY streaky. There’s an old patch job that I purchased supplies to correct that was painted around and not fixed. There was paint on my light fixtures. So, I reached out to the person who referred me who doesn’t exactly have an eye for this type of thing. They thought things were moving along well until I pointed out the issues. I complained to them about how frustrated I was but tried my best to stay optimistic.
Sunday – I pick this person up and what’s the first thing we do? Go to the effing hardware store again where I spent $33. I again buy breakfast and I’m starting to feel a certain way about this whole thing. We get to my house and the work gets started at 10:15 or 10:30, but this time I get involved in the process. I first bust out the sander because this dude just doesn’t believe in sanding which is crazy because you don’t patch a wall without sanding it. It also removes any debris, lumps, and bumps that may be present. Then I painted a few areas. I look over to their work…more mistakes. We left for lunch and they chose the place, didn’t offer to pay for ANYTHING or say thank you and I’m now realizing I’m not crazy but this is expected of me and it’s a pattern. Back at my house, I got a call from my family and come back…a lot A LOT more mistakes. Not a single attempt at correcting the issue in the kitchen. This person AGAIN starts wrapping up before 6. They say…”Oh…I counted the ceiling when I suggested you get 10 gallons of paint. Hahaha.” Mind you, I got 2, 5-gallon buckets of specialty paint that cost me $249 + tax for each and YOU CAN’T RETURN SPECIALTY PAINT. I didn’t find that funny at all. I was ready for them to leave my house at this point. I was trying to vacuum behind everything before my items were put back in place but everything was put back before I could. This person also proclaims they’re taking Monday off. I’m assuming because they think they worked so hard they deserved it…
I head to take this person back home and get to play Uber again waiting for them to grab groceries once again. They like to tell me to make a pit stop at the last effing minute. They come back, I drop them off, and don’t go in this time because I’m tired and I’m pissed.
When I get home this is when reality set in on how much of a sh*tty job they did. They ruined my entry way rug, got paint on my couch and one of the cushions, broke some of the magnets on my fridge, left sh*t and paint splatter all over my balcony (the dirty grill and leaves are my fault if you see the pic below), there are several spots where too much paint was used and there are drippings all over the place, they tracked paint all over my million-year-old carpet, there are a ton of spots all over my ceiling where the roller tapped it with the specialty color, they left my guest bedroom a mess, never replaced the outlet covers, a small wall was missed above my kitchen sink which isn’t surprising because my kitchen was a catastrophe. The counters were covered and they put all the dirty rollers and paint brushes in the sink. I can’t cook, I can’t do ANYTHING in the kitchen except bitch some more about it. I had a video chat with the person who offered the referral and they too were appalled. I have to be on video for work the next day and I’m just trying to figure out what the hell I’m supposed to do.
Ultimately, everything worked out. My event was cancelled that day and I took the afternoon off at work to put my house back together. I was frustrated to tears nearly which is saying a lot because I am not a big crier except with it comes to mushy or sad movies. Monday night I fired them. I got a response of “mmhhhmmmm” when I told them I would finish the project myself. I couldn’t bare to spend another dime for subpar work.
Everyone knows I’m a perfectionist. I’ve had to talk myself out of believing it’s not that bad on multiple occasions. My problem is having to clean up after all this sh*t left for me. I also painted the guest bedroom that was still unpainted when I expected everything to be completed that weekend. There’s still so much left to be done. I gave them a total of $400…for this.
Be sure to properly vet the people you’ll have doing work for you. Even if it’s this simple. People can be dishonest and we should do everything we can to protect ourselves, even if it’s a family friend. Scratch that, especially if it’s a family friend. This person has no insurance, no real business, I let them into my home for an opportunity and they capitalized on it leaving me ass out. Sure…I could take them to small claims court but that would be like squeezing a blood from a turnip.
This definitely had a financial impact but surprisingly not too bad. Even better news, we’re going to pivot to my financial updates now. RANT OVER.
Income – September
This month was pretty average but a good one. Besides my regular pay I killed it in cash back from Ibotta! I bought some household items that really paid me in cash back. Those are the items that I plan to focus on going forward. Next I got $17 in cash back from Citi Card which was a great time. The last bit I got from Rewards was my Discover card for $9.54. I got $109 from my friend for the storage unit. I decided this was going to be my last month in the storage unit because they’re raising the rent from $216.50 a month to $275.50 which is ridiculous. I decided to just scale back and put that extra $108 towards debt. It’s been a nice long run. The last contribution to my income was the dividends I accrued in my checking and money market which was a total of $10.50.
Debt Totals – September
My debt went up a bit and went down in other areas. I’m more than likely going to need to have one more thing done to correct the disaster of a paint job in my house and I’m trying to do that before November. Hopefully it won’t cost too much but we’ll see. I’ve made another call to Care Credit because my last call didn’t do the trick. I keep getting charged interest even though they said the issue should be fixed. The person who I last spoke too was not a good agent. She kept speaking over me and took very little time to understand what was happening. While you should never assume someone knows how a credit card works, at least gauge the person’s knowledge before making an ASSumption if you work in a service based industry.
Payment Breakdown – September
I still made great progress this month! This month my Shop Your Way credit card balance should be so close to being paid off that I’d just pay off in October if it weren’t for having to pay car taxes and registration. Yay me! Next up is Care Credit.
My Net Worth
September was not a kind month and at the end, the stock market tanked a bit and my 401k balance, home value, car value, and Fundrise value all went down but my net worth is holding steady over $100k. I’m hoping this month will be kinder. I shouldn’t have any really major additions in debt now that the great paint debacle is over, but I can’t put anything past my life.
Pro-Makeup Artist Tip
Let’s talk about covering imperfections. Should you have a bruise, hyperpigmented spot, or dark under eye, a red/orange color corrector beneath your concealer will help with coverage. This will help balance out the coloring to prevent it from peeking through once the concealer is applied. Give this one a try if you’ve been trying to cover up dark spots and haven’t had much luck.
That’s all I have for today! Don’t forget to like, comment, subscribe to see more content from me and to share my page with someone who you think may benefit from the makeup tips or financial advice.
Until Next Time!
Photo by John Cameron on Unsplash
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