Builders: Classic or Dud?

But my just recently current builder nightmare was more the fault of my landlord than the actual builders. (I gave notice that I was moving out of my flat at the end of June, and since they had been talking about doing rennovations, I asked them to wait until after I moved out before starting work, thinking, oh, they would wait until the last week of June, I could move out a few days early, and everyone would be happy. They started work the FIRST WEEK of June. Meaning, basically, I had 2 days notice to remove or store the entire contents of my flat. Even the stuff that was stored was all wrecked, as I found out when I cleared out the last of it yesterday. I am still smarting over this!)

However, I am glad that I have moved out now. Not only have they moved the door to the flat, and put it at a strange angle so that it no longer closes, let alone locks, but they have put in a kitchenette next to a window, and done it so cackhandedly that the window no longer closes. And the undersink cupboard and a drawer are no longer openable, because of where they have placed it. A lot of the errors are really quite laughable, because I am not going to have to deal with them!

Builders were in and out of my apartment (one single room, too, so nowhere at home for me to lie low) for more than a month just recently, replacing my kitchen entirely, and also putting in new bathroom plumbing (toilet still to be done). They were nice guys but it was annoying having the building water off at times I wanted to shower, not having a kitchen at all for a couple weeks (just a big hole), etc. etc. That wasn't the workers' fault, though. If the building owners had let them do one kitchen at a time, they could've been done with each in a short amount of time. And they cleaned up after themselves, mostly, and also didn't fuck up any of the stuff it's almost impossible to avoid in my tiny apartment, like the huge stacks of CDs.

omg this guy pitching for this job my block needs doing is INSANELY PUSHY not to say borderline rude

(i'm guessing he's just never had to deal with what's in effect a housing co op before -- viz that literally every decision takes months not seconds and that the spendable amount available can vary a LOT between flat-owners -- but he's treating getting a properly itemised quote out of him, so we can actually talk it through collectively, as a major imposition: dude either you want this work or you don't)

(anyway it's my job to herd cats liaise not to tell him to fuck off, he just lost a sale by needlessly being a prick -- but i am REALLY having to stand on my tongue at the minute)

(his quote is twice as high as anyone else's so far also -- tho the others did seem a bit flaky)