Hick is not known for his tact. Especially where Val is concerned. He speaks without thinking, and then tries to justify his words. I'm hoping. The alternative is that he says these things WITH prior thinking!
Saturday evening, I asked about his meeting with his "roof guy" about Cheap House.
"So what's the price for a new roof?"
"I don't know yet. He looked at it, and said he'd give me the estimate by Monday. While I had him there, I asked him about tearing off the back porch. What he could do it for. I told him HOS [Hick's Oldest Son] and his buddy gave me a price of $1500. He said I should take that, because I wouldn't get it any cheaper."
"So you told him somebody else's estimate? That doesn't seem fair. Can HOS and his buddy even do that kind of work? I thought they might need a backhoe or bobcat to tear it down."
"Oh, yeah. They can do it. It's just pulling down lumber. They won't even need the dumpster. The city already said I could burn the wood in the back yard, as long as I don't burn any shingles. They'll finish with the dumpster in time. They just have the old drywall left to put in it."
"Well, I don't want them to get hurt trying to do something they're not used to."
"It HAS to come down, Val. You haven't seen that back porch. Not to be mean, but it looks like YOU built it!"
"That is NOT a very nice thing to say! So much for not being mean!"
"No. I just mean it looks like a kindergartener did it."
"You're not helping yourself..."
"Somebody who has no idea how to build! That's all I meant. It's falling off..."
"You could have just said that. And not put MY name into it! Did HOS and his buddy find anything they wanted when they cleaned out the house?"
"A few knick-knack kind of things. They sold $125 in junk metal. HOS took one of the dryers home to use. They had a buddy who wanted the refrigerator. HOS said they took it to the carwash and cleaned it, but it's still not a prize."
Good thing Hick didn't say that refrigerator looked like something I would have...
I remember days when I used to blurt out stuff without thinking and feeling stupid when someone said "what did you mean by that?" and I couldn't explain it. Usually it was just something I'd read and it seemed appopriate at the time. These days I just keep my mouth shut.
ReplyDeleteThat would never happen with Hick! I'm not sure his mouth knows how to shut.
DeleteI have said before that my husband must be your husband’s twin. Every story you tell could be coming out of my mouth. My husband often declares something to be a fact; but, when proven wrong, he starts arguing his point of view (the wrong one) and explaining how that is the way it SHOULD be.
ReplyDeleteMy husband is a retired business man. He was a master negotiator. When he sold the business and retired, that all went out the window. He recently hired a painter to paint a small shed. He started off with “do you think you can do it for $500?”.
The guy said he could. Why would you start with that? What if he would have done it for $250? We’ll never know because we paid him $500.
Heh, heh! He probably also negotiates by "split the difference, split the difference." That's Hick's oh-so-predictable tactic. Which I do not care for, in our buying/selling flip house dealings.
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