Handyman... Ahkenaten

I posted the employment ad for handymen on Craigslist just before Naresh moved out. I took Sam’s advice and made it simple: handyman wanted, $10 to $15 an hour, send your resume. The responses came, and I only gave a callback to those who sent resumes.

I had just the week of July 4th to hire a handyman and get the work done, so I knew I had to find someone quick. I called the first guy and set up an appointment to meet me at the apartment. He never showed. That was Tuesday. I called another handyman for a Wednesday appointment. No-show again. The third prospective handyman gave me hope, as he was very excited to get my call. His exact words were, “I’ve been waiting for this call.” But, just like the others, his ass didn’t show up. At that point it was Thursday morning, 2 days before the new tenants would be moving in. With no handyman, I had to go with the only option available: Handyman Ahkenaten.

I decided to sneak out of work for the next two days and do as much of the handywork as possible. I had watched YouTube videos on how to paint and stuff. That Thursday morning, I bought paint and supplies. I spent four hours cutting corners and preparing the walls to be painted. By the time it was 3:00pm I was wiped out and ended the day. On Friday I applied one coat of paint to all the rooms during bank job work hours. After work, I went to Home Depot, rented a floor sander, and then sanded the worst areas. I returned it the same day, and then came back to paint the kitchen and bathroom. On Saturday morning I applied the polyurethane to the floors, and the new tenants moved in Sunday morning.

Forgot to paint this corner

Painting a white wall white in a dimmed room makes it very difficult to see where I've already painted.

Looks good from this picture, but a closer look shows that it needed another coat of polyurethane, just like the paint.

Even though I did a really shitty job, I like the fact that I did it myself. Alfonso giving me that bullshit $1,500 labor price inspired me, and now I want to do more of my own repairs. Tyrell’s apartment will need some renovation next month, and I plan to do it myself. I dunno, maybe my inner Ron Swanson is waking up. I’ve always preferred that someone else does work for me because I am very lazy. But I like the way it felt to do it on my own. Now I wanna know how I'll feel when it's done right.

P.S.: Remember how I said that I don’t hold it against Handyman Alfonso for giving me that estimate? Well I was right. He came by to look at my work and said it was good, but that it needed another coat. He also gave me pointers by showing me his different methods for painting. He had no resentment for losing out on the job. His prices even came down, charging me just $10 to install 4 locks. Maybe knowing that I can do things on my own has forced him to see me differently, and therefore charge me differently. I like this. That $1500 estimate has the potential to be the best thing that has ever happened to me as a property manager.