Numbers and Anger

OK, so the numbers came in: Lowe's while we were at a doctor's appointment, and Herman's just a few minutes ago.

Lowe's number was 412K. The man sat in my dining room in March and told us that 250 was in the ballpark. And now 412. Fuck. I don't know about anybody else, but 300 MIGHT be in the ballpark of 250. 412 isn't even in the same fucking zip code. Suddenly, Coastline's 330-380 isn't looking so bad.

So I'm pissed. And Lisa's pissed at me. [She stands over my shoulder and says she's not. OK]

Regardless. Not a happy camper. A couple of minutes have passed, during which we made the bed and I popped a sublingual (only kinda sorta maybe joking when I said to Lisa I was going to chase it with some rum).

OK, after Lowe's bombshell... I wanted to call him up and let him know we got the bid, but then ask, "What the fuck? How is 412 the same ballpark as 250? 300 I could understand... that's 20% over... but 412? That's over 60% beyond the ball park." But Lisa didn't want me to call because I was angry.

And she says she doesn't want to get angry. Says it serves no purpose to have both of us angry. FUCK THAT. We should both be pissed. The guy sat in our dining room and lied to us. And if he didn't lie, he's inept. Now Lisa, in her forgive-anyone-anything personality, would rather believe him to be inept than a liar. Either way, no way we're doing business with him. If he's a liar, we'd be stupid to sign a contract with him. If he's inept, we're going to trust him with our house? To what order of magnitude of incorrect-ness would his 4-6 month timeline estimate (OOOOOH, and that's another story I'll get to in a minute) be? Another 60%? So then we're out for 10 months instead?

NO WAY.

Anyway...

In the midst of our bordering-on-argument over anger (righteous or destructive? Discuss in a 3 to 5 page paper, single spaced with a margin of a quarter inch), Herman's guy shows up with his bid. Didn't recognize him. Didn't matter, he said who he represented and handed me the sealed envelope.

So I took it inside and with GIDDY ANTICIPATION, oh, I'm sorry, that would be DREAD and LOATHING, I opened up the docs. 383K. Wow. Under 400. Whoopifuckingdoo. Let's do a jig.

Great. So Coastline looks like it's going to the lowest bid. Coastline. The out of town contractor. We said we wouldn't go with an out-of-towner. Mom and Dad used an out-of-towner... and it was a disaster... not an unmitigated one, but not anywhere near a pleasant experience. And so I'm a little leery. Fred picked up his questionaire before Lisa's doctor's appointment... and tried to convince Lisa to go with hardwood floors instead of the laminate we've been talking about... and tile in the kitchen (as opposed to laminate over the entire first floor... except for the bathrooms... we like the idea of tile, but we think that doing the only the kitchen in tile would define the space too much).

My chest is tight, even with the sublingual, and I feel like throwing up. No lie.

[by the way, according to a email last night, David the architect will be bringing over the resubmittable plans tonight... like I want to talk to ANYone about ANY of this... in fact, what I'd really like to do is hit the road... get the hell out of Dodge for the night... alone or with fam, I don't care... just escape... Lisa may think that I'm more Fight than Flight... but right about now fleeing sounds like the ticket... a ticket cheaper than fourfuckingtwelvethousand dollars (that we do not have)]