Gently Fired

We let our carpenter go this morning.  He was just doing shoddy work.  It's not like it was earth shatteringly awful, but why pay someone to do shoddy work? 

It's little things like this...

and this.  I mean, why not cut the casings to the proper length so that it all flows nicely, fits tight against the floor or the adjoining board and doesn't have to be caulked?  The carpenter's solution is to caulk these places that don't match up.  My thought is, why not do it right the first time?  What is so hard about measuring the board to fit correctly?

And, sure, all of the boards are not straight, but if they aren't straight and don't lie flat against the wall, why not be a little creative and find a way to make them as much as possible?

There are a few corners like this one where the baseboards aren't flat up against the wall, which leaves a gap both against the wall and a V-shaped gap against the adjoining baseboard.  Yes, these gaps can be filled with caulk, but why?

Tom went in and used screws instead of nails to screw the wood to the stud.  That pulls the wood tight against the wall, even if the wood is warped.  The carpenter should have taken the time to do this.  Since, he didn't and he already cut all the wood to fit with gaps, when Tom made the adjustment, it left an even bigger gap.  The choice is to take the whole other piece of baseboard out, go buy more and replace it with a longer piece, or put this little sliver of wood to fill the gap.  We're going with the sliver.  We can't afford to replace all the boards that would need to be replaced, so we're going to fix what we can and remind ourselves that "this is a barn, it doesn't have to be perfect".

So, it's a whole bunch of little things, of which the above are just a sampling, that have added up to "fired".  Now, either we have to find another carpenter or Tom is going to have to finish the trim work.  I'm feeling a bit overwhelmed at the  moment and Tom must be, too.  There are just so  many things that need to be done NOW, that it's hard to know what to do first.

We have to get the entry gate up now to stop Harry from leaving the property and chasing cars before he gets killed.  We have to get the greenhouse up now so that I can get my seeds started for the spring garden.  We need to fence off the back yard now so that when the plants start coming up in the flower bed, the chickens won't scratch them all up and destroy everything.  We need to get the barn cleaned up now so that when the baby goats arrive at the beginning of March, we'll be able to keep them in the barn.

I  haven't even cleaned up the garden from last summer.  There are still dead plants in there and lots of winter weeds have sprouted up, so it will have to be tilled.

Ack!