Tuesday, May 29, 2007

Living Arrangements

This weekend I got a little taste of how my life is going to be for the next few months and boy is it going to be hard.

I knew from the beginning that LD had planned on employing a family friend to be a caretaker for his farm and animals. This man, I'll call him Joe, would take care of doing the physical jobs that LD is incapable of doing and he would be in charge of the animals if we went out of town.

I know many people that have this type of arrangement and it works great. Unfortunately there are a few down falls to this. At least I think so.

Part of the deal with Joe is that we provide a small house for him on the land, which was fine with me until I found out where LD planned on building it. The house will be built so close to ours, that I can yell from my back porch and they can hear me from theirs. I voiced my concerns on this and LD explained why he wanted it this way. After our discussion he made me realize that his choice was best even if I still didn't like it. Besides if I lived in the suburbs I would have a neighbor even closer.

The other downfall and the one that affects me most is Joe is married. I had no problems with this until my encounter this weekend with Mrs. Joe. Thus is my story..........

I arrive at my future house with my sister for Memorial weekend. I was rather excited about showing off my house since she is my first family member to visit. Shortly after saying my Hellos I started the house tour. Midway through Mrs. Joe interrupts me to point out what she has done. She cleaned the bathroom, she scrubbed the carpet, she rearranged LD's closet and drawer space.

She basically made it sound as if I was incapable of keeping up on the household chores. Um, hello, I don't live there yet. Oh and believe me I know how sloppy these boys are. I have had to clean the house when it was at its worse.

I try to move to the next room, which will be Munchkins, and again she stops me. She explains that she will be hanging some pictures, the ones that I bought to decorate Munchkin's room. I told her not to because it would just cause more work since we still have to paint and figure out the furniture lay-out. Hanging the pictures now would just cause us to have to take them down and cover holes that were put there unnecessarily. She blew me off and said she would do it because it would make Munchkin feel more at home.

Oh if looks could kill she would have been toast. I know what is best for my son and if I thought that some pictures on a wall would make the transition easier than I would hang them myself, but it won't so just step the hell down lady. (I know this is long, but it gets better.)

I then proceeded to show Sister my kitchen and again was interrupted. Mrs. Joe has to show me how she has rearranged the whole damn kitchen. Personally, I think it takes some nerve to go into someones house and rearrange their things. The cleaning I didn't mind since she was trying to make my weekend fun, but the rearranging is my job and I have been looking forward to moving into this house and making it feel like home. Plus now when I move everything back I will look like an ungrateful bitch. UGH.

Now for the best part, Mrs. Joe then turns to me and says that she will clean the house, but that doesn't mean that we can be slobs and leave stuff laying around thinking that she is the maid. Excuse me?? I never said you were gonna clean my house and believe me you will not be in the future.

By this point I was so angry. LD noticed the change in me and cornered me in the bedroom to talk about it. I explained everything that happened. He was upset by the rearranging of things, but she had done that all on her own while he was gone. He told me that it is for me to do and he would tell her not to do it anymore.

I also questioned him about her thinking she was gonna be paid to clean the house in the future. He explained that when the arrangements with the Joes had been made I was not in the picture, so yes she was supposed to be cleaning and also do the paperwork/bookkeeping for the farm. I told him that I won't allow her to clean and that we had discussed me taking a course to learn Microsoft Excel, so that I could do the paperwork. He agreed and said that he would have to go over everything again and we would work it out. That made me feel better.

However there is one more problem. The final contract and house building for the Joes has been put on hold with my moving and the wedding plans, so that means when the contract is finalized this summer the Joes will be living in my basement. I will have to deal with this woman everyday. I have already warned LD that she is gonna cause me alot of stress and that I will most likely take it out on him. He understands and will try to get this whole situation taken care of as quickly as possible.

9 comments:

Anonymous said...

Good gawd. It's warm out now; tell them to pitch a tent.

I would tell the woman exactly what you already said here: "I have been looking forward to moving into this house and making it feel like home." Thank her for her work in the house and tell her that with you here now, you won't be needing her help.

tiffany said...

what. a. nightmare.

the only thing i can say is that it's good that you've already talked about it.
(you and ld)
these things can really blow up, when we bottle up angers and such.

good for you guys, for trying to deal with it right away...and good luck. it seems like it's going to be trying, but you're headed in the right direction, at least.

Anonymous said...

Ugh..

You're in a sticky situation. I mean, she's probably been cleaning the house and doing the books for awhile now. She'll resent you pretty much.

Yuck.....

"Better you than me girl"

Linlee said...

OMG you poor girl. I can't imagine someone living in our house with us. Good luck!

Jaelithe said...

Yikes! That sounds . . . challenging.

Even if she WERE your housekeeper, that wouldn't give her the right to be your interior decorator.

If she does hang those pictures, maybe you should tell her that Munchkin wants to help decorate his own room when he moves in, and will be HEARTBROKEN that someone has stolen his opportunity . . .

Sometimes when people have no empathy for fellow adults, they do manage to muster it for kids.

Mike Minzes said...

I enjoyed reading this blog. I will be back for more

-0-0-

Anonymous said...

On second thought, tell her that if she hangs another picture in your son's room, you'll nail it to her forehead. She seems like one of those "give it to me straight" sort-of girls. Sometimes you have to use visual aids to get points across to those people.

Rebecca said...

Dana-Could I borrow your Hercules Hooks?

Lisa said...

Yes, I agree with Dana. Have them pitch a tent.

Looks like you're going to have a plethora of blogging material, girlie. But it is good that you and the honey are getting all of this stuff out in the open.

Good luck!