How to handle grace under pressure
Today was vacation day but not – had a special project to call in for at work and then the LaLa became overwhelmingly demanding. C, the tile setter, called at the last minute to say that he had a job cancel and now had a month and a half ahead of him that he was free and could do my tile. He came over and Steve met us there and basically he’s ready to go but I got to get the plumber to come put the rubber pan in. So he gives me a quote. Steve whispers he thinks it is going to be $4500 or $5000 for the whole job – but C comes back and says $10,000 for just the two bathrooms and Steve almost passes out. I was a little faint myself. I talked him down to $7500 and told him to start and gave him a check as a down payment.
Now here’s the deal – he is quoting $25/sf – Steve says the going rate is $4/sf – but that is for that cheap ass tile you buy from Home Depot – this is expensive glass tile and I have seen it installed incorrectly and it looks bad. I’ve seen C’s work uptown and it is perfect. My friends L&M live uptown – their quote to do glass tile in a bathroom equal to the size of both of mine was $10K pre-Katrina three years ago. So I took a deep breath and decided this just is what it is.