And the punchline...

[akujunkan]

...Drumroll, please...

The landmom called me to make sure the house wasn't flooding. I mentioned that my kitchen had been inundated, but that the water had since disappeared and there didn't seem to be any lasting damage. She then asked me to go and check out the Upper Levels.

Which I had done, and said I would do again, albeit with the caveat that I couldn't reach a lot of locations thanks to the mess.

"What mess?" spoke she.

"The mess the painters have made."

There was a long, pregnant pause.

"What painters?"

So, yeah. Turns out that she hadn't neglected to tell me about the work being done on the house; she hadn't known about it either.

Funny, yeah?

Landmom thinks that one of her nephews hired the painters to come in as a surprise.

And yeah, it sure was

A PRETTY FUCKING BIG SURPRISE,

all right.

Spake landmom, "I would never have anyone over to work on the house without telling you first."

Which makes me feel worlds better on that count, but over all, I'm pretty effing enraged by this whole business. Because when you get down to it, I'm still a single female who's been trapped alone for hours each day with 2-5 illegal immigrants (Do you know of any legit contractors who don't stick a gazillion signs up on the houses where they're working? Who don't have their logo and company info on their van? Whose workers come in at 6:45 every morning for 7-8 hour shifts, no lunchbreaks, including Saturdays and Sundays?) whose language I can't speak, and who are just a thin, unlockable particle-board door away from me at all times.

I don't feel comfortable sleeping while they're here. I don't feel comfortable leaving while they're here. I don't feel comfortable having the shades and blinds open while they're here. I don't feel comfortable taking a shower while they're here.

They have obviously been given keys to the house, because they get in and out without anyone from the family letting them in, let alone supervising while they're here. They may have made copies. They certainly have forgotten to lock the front door after them when they've left, on at least two separate occassions.

Which is just a long-winded way of saying, Not. Fucking. COOL.

I hope landmom tells dear nephew exactly where to get off. I have a few indications that she might. I certainly will be, even if it means I'm banished from the Upper Levels forever.

Because, jesus...

That will be all.

Comments

[fragilistikal.livejournal.com]

Ugh, that sucks. That is NOT a good way to chillax around the house.

Growing up where I have, though, my first instinct is to go, well of course they're illegal immigrants who know ten words of English between the team of them and depending on how old they are, 3 profane Korean words each; offer them water. To let them know you're there, at least. *shrug* I grew up with it though. It must feel like such an invasion of privacy for you--hope they're done soon.

But OH: remember group project guy? I sent off an email in response, so civil, with an added note that it's extremely stressful to be greeted with confrontational emails when all I want to do was raise points that pertains to the everyone in the group (AND WOULD YOU JUST KNOCK IT OFF)--and that I wished people would just take it less personally and concentrate on the work. I was DREADING going in to meet them today--and get really kind of weirded out because the guy was acting subdued--but more like WHIPPED. No more taking the reins but looking to me for confirmation, asking what the next step was going to be.... There was also a moment when the other group members were afraid the computer export wouldn't work, and I just said kind of grimly, "Oh, it'll work. I'll make it work." --and the guy kind of looks at me and says something about once getting something between my teeth....

HA. TAKE THAT ANITA BLAKE. I'M SO ALPHA.

[akujunkan.livejournal.com]

I think it's a number of factors for me: that I was told I'd be alone in the house, and then suddenly and emphatically found I was not under extremely suspicious circumstances; that I don't speak Spanish but recognize lots of sexual slurs an innuendo, so I can tell when I'm being talked about but can't enforce respect; that adults in my family are always present when we're having the house worked on, but no one is in this case; and that I really have no way to secure my living space or escape if the situation goes bad. They're probably not bad people up there, but the situation has played out in a way that makes me severely uncomfortable regardless.

AWESOME on GPG! You always hear about the people with the nastiest dispositions like that being the most insecure; guess this proves that adage correct! Still, I'd be weirded out too. It's as if you can either be enemies or alpha dog/runting, but never just coworkers on something that needs to be finished. *sigh*

That said, anyone who kicks Anita Blake's ass is awesome in my book!

[metal-dog5.livejournal.com]

If my family organised something like this, regardless of how well intentioned they might be, I'd let 'em have it both barrels.

Also, how big is the house? That's a lot of man-hours for a crew if it's a simple paint job.

[akujunkan.livejournal.com]

It is a simple paint job, but juding by the sounds emanating from the Upper Levels yesterday, they came over and watched four or so hours of telanovellas on the landparents' set; not a hole lot of work got done. Not having any idea what the typical house size is on your island, I can't make any reasonable comparisons, but I'd say it's a typical turn-of-the-nineteenth century East Coast residential building...if that helps at all.

Today they're jamming to music (Beck, Muse, RHCP). At least they have good taste. I'm considering matching their tracks from my own CD collection if they keep this up tomorrow, just to mess with them.

My Gods!

[bran420-7.livejournal.com]

I think that you should DEFINITELY break off on thier nephew. And if you need a translator, call my husband. Who is, by the way, totally stoked tonight: see post for the bragging rights.

Re: My Gods!

[akujunkan.livejournal.com]

I saw you your post, and you are indeed all kinds of AWESOME! (And will probably get something coughcoughnicecoughcough when he gets back in;-)

You guys really need to teach me Spanish. No pressure or nothing. *eg*