Have you ever felt like the Lord is really trying to teach you something? Have you felt Him clearly speak to you about something in your life? It is the neatest thing in the world to know it is the Lord speaking to you...urging you to do something, speak to someone or help someone. Whatever it is, it can also be a bit scary as well.
This week I have been reading the "Sermon on the Mount" (Matthew 5, 6 and 7) and the Lord has very much convicted me about some things. He has used that scripture in a powerful way in my life this week. Isn't it crazy how you could have read a verse or passage of scripture before and it not really speak to you and then you read it at a different time in your life and it hits you in the face? I love it...but I am not going to lie that it can be scary. Since starting my reading on Monday and continuing it throughout the week and also attending THRIVE with the women from our church the Lord has made something very clear to me. It is like he is using different things to work in this one area of my life/heart. Seriously....He has even used Josiah talking about something that he has never even mentioned to me in the past to get me to realize that yes, in fact it is the Lord's calling. I experienced something in Walmart today and immediately called Josh when I got to the car to tell him what happened. He and I both agree that it is clearly the Lord...teaching me and maturing me in this area of my life. Part of me is scared but my heart KNOWS without a doubt it is God. I am beyond grateful to have a husband who loves me, listens to me, guides/leads me and encourages me!!! Although he is not physically here with us right now due to work, I am so grateful he was able to talk through some things with me this morning and help me sort out these emotions and feelings in my heart...and then the Walmart thing happened and I was thinking to myself "OK GOD...I HEAR YOU!" What can I say...I am a little stubborn and need to be coaxed for certain things...I need to make sure it isn't my mind playing tricks on me...that it is God and He knows I need that. Thankful for a Lord who knows me, knows my insecurities and will protect me when I feel vulnerable. (Maybe when I obey the Lord's tugging on my heart about this my killer headache will go away. just kidding)
Saturday, January 14, 2012
Wednesday, January 4, 2012
Shady Patio Guy
I am writing this to vent my frustrations about doing business with a Shady Guy...who owned Nature's Best Landscaping...so if you live in the Clarksville, TN area DO NOT use him. Let me make it clear that Josh and I are not the type of people to take someone to court. Neither one of us have ever done it and I hope to never do it again! Not that our court situation has been a horrible experience, but that I know that we have learned on doing background checks, etc on someone we want to hire to do work at or on our home! Anyone we ever hire in the future better be ready for me to ask them a million questions before giving them our business or money. I have learned my lesson for sure.
Last March we hired a guy to dig up under our deck and place weed control down with rocks to help with landscaping and rabbits. We were finding dead bunnies under our deck daily (sometimes 5 a day) and that does not go well with me or our dogs. Our dogs were playing with them and the last straw was when I was in the back with our 2 year old at the time playing when a dead bunny appeared. I screamed and in turn scared Josiah to death. Originally we hired Don to do the under part of the deck. Well, he came up with this plan (an idea we had been thinking about doing for a while). We have an area in our back yard that would be great for a patio and the people who owned the house before us just put some flag stones down and allowed the grass to grow in between. We had been wanting to concrete it in for a while and make it more useful. Well, Don said he could do it. Very long story short, he did a shady job using brick mortar instead of concrete...the foundation moves under your feet...our 40lb dog's foot went through it after it was completed and you can pick up the flag stones because they are not cemented in. It was overall the worst job I have ever seen. He was supposed to dig up the foundation, make it level and take care of the grass and weeds so that they would be gone forever. Almost immediately we had grass growing up through the concrete!! It is done so terribly that our 2 year old (now 3 year old) could pick up the concrete. Surely that is not supposed to be able to be done...let alone by a toddler.
After talking with some other workers in that field of work and having them come out to give us an estimate of fixing it, we decided to take Don to small claims court without a lawyer. We had pictures, phone records of times that he never called us back, his contract stating he would complete the job, etc. we had our act together. (by the way, the day he "finished" the job he said he would be back to check on the foundation that weekend to make sure it was drying correctly...did he ever come? NOPE...did he return any of our phone calls? NO....did he cash our check immediately?...YES! We pay our court fees (taking him to court originally was to make sure he didn't do this to someone else in town) and show up to represent ourselves because we didn't want to pay for a lawyer. Don never shows, but had hired a lawyer the day before our court date. The lawyer he hired knew nothing of the situation and came in saying that they only thing Don told him was that he would come back to our property and fix it. NO WAY...are you kidding me? We gave you more than an opportunity to fix what you had done wrong and we didn't want him back in our yard. His "lawyer" saw our pictures, our phone records and all that we had come prepared with and said "clearly, I am representing the wrong party here." lol So, we then had to set a court date for a trial that involved us needing a lawyer. We got an excellent lawyer and our court date came. Guess what? Shady Don did't show up and didn't have a lawyer to represent him either. The judge obviously found us to be correct in our story and in the state of TN you can get extra for Lying and Deceptive Work. We didn't want more..in fact what the judge came to is far more than we would ever expect someone to pay. We just want it fixed..so we want the amount of money it would take to fix it. We aren't doing this to make money on the guy. We aren't trying to screw him over - we just want it made right.
I just want it over with...I feel stressed because we are moving soon and so it has to be fixed and that costs money. When the guy claims to have nothing, I feel bad for saying this, but I don't believe him! Maybe he is having a hard time in life, and I am sorry for that, but he fed me so many stories during his job that I just want him to pay us what we deserve. I have definitely learned from this...and this will be a great example to use for Josiah (and/or future children we have) to teach that life just isn't fair sometimes. Guess I am going to use my anger toward Good Ole Don on the patio when Josh and I are the ones ripping it up with sledge hammers!!!
(I have even more pictures of us being able to lift the flag stones out of the middle and the giant hole in the middle of it, but they are on a different computer that isn't working.)
Last March we hired a guy to dig up under our deck and place weed control down with rocks to help with landscaping and rabbits. We were finding dead bunnies under our deck daily (sometimes 5 a day) and that does not go well with me or our dogs. Our dogs were playing with them and the last straw was when I was in the back with our 2 year old at the time playing when a dead bunny appeared. I screamed and in turn scared Josiah to death. Originally we hired Don to do the under part of the deck. Well, he came up with this plan (an idea we had been thinking about doing for a while). We have an area in our back yard that would be great for a patio and the people who owned the house before us just put some flag stones down and allowed the grass to grow in between. We had been wanting to concrete it in for a while and make it more useful. Well, Don said he could do it. Very long story short, he did a shady job using brick mortar instead of concrete...the foundation moves under your feet...our 40lb dog's foot went through it after it was completed and you can pick up the flag stones because they are not cemented in. It was overall the worst job I have ever seen. He was supposed to dig up the foundation, make it level and take care of the grass and weeds so that they would be gone forever. Almost immediately we had grass growing up through the concrete!! It is done so terribly that our 2 year old (now 3 year old) could pick up the concrete. Surely that is not supposed to be able to be done...let alone by a toddler.
After talking with some other workers in that field of work and having them come out to give us an estimate of fixing it, we decided to take Don to small claims court without a lawyer. We had pictures, phone records of times that he never called us back, his contract stating he would complete the job, etc. we had our act together. (by the way, the day he "finished" the job he said he would be back to check on the foundation that weekend to make sure it was drying correctly...did he ever come? NOPE...did he return any of our phone calls? NO....did he cash our check immediately?...YES! We pay our court fees (taking him to court originally was to make sure he didn't do this to someone else in town) and show up to represent ourselves because we didn't want to pay for a lawyer. Don never shows, but had hired a lawyer the day before our court date. The lawyer he hired knew nothing of the situation and came in saying that they only thing Don told him was that he would come back to our property and fix it. NO WAY...are you kidding me? We gave you more than an opportunity to fix what you had done wrong and we didn't want him back in our yard. His "lawyer" saw our pictures, our phone records and all that we had come prepared with and said "clearly, I am representing the wrong party here." lol So, we then had to set a court date for a trial that involved us needing a lawyer. We got an excellent lawyer and our court date came. Guess what? Shady Don did't show up and didn't have a lawyer to represent him either. The judge obviously found us to be correct in our story and in the state of TN you can get extra for Lying and Deceptive Work. We didn't want more..in fact what the judge came to is far more than we would ever expect someone to pay. We just want it fixed..so we want the amount of money it would take to fix it. We aren't doing this to make money on the guy. We aren't trying to screw him over - we just want it made right.
(I have even more pictures of us being able to lift the flag stones out of the middle and the giant hole in the middle of it, but they are on a different computer that isn't working.)
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)