So, last night, the demo guy assures us that he’s almost done and that he’ll come back and finish up in the morning. Not a big deal, that sounds ok to me, but I go over to check on the job anyways, mostly because I’m the curious sort. Turns out that instead of using a scraper like any normal person would, he decided to pour an acid on the floor to remove the old glue that was underneath the linoleum. Hydrochloric Acid!

[singlepic=75,320,240,,center]

When I arrived I knew something was wrong. All the kitchen windows were open and I could smell the fumes from the street. This was also a big problem because it rained at 3:00 that afternoon and apparently the windows had been open long before that. Everything was soaked. That wasn’t the bad part. When I walked in it was pretty apparent what they had tried to do. They got lazy and didn’t want to scrape up glue anymore and decided to go get something to eat away at it. In theory this might not have been a bad idea. Too bad we don’t live in Theory, although I hear it’s nice there. No, they went out and found Muriatic Acid, a 30% solution of Hydrochloric Acid and something else.

All over the bottle it says “Do not use indoors”, “For exterior use only”, “Will react with woods, metals and other natural materials”, “Caution, fumes are corrosive”.

Apparently they can’t read.

When I walked into the kitchen I was floored. Actually, the floor was “floored”, I was in shock. There was super corrosive acid everywhere. The counters, the cabinets, and especially on the appliances.

[singlepic=73,320,240,,center]

The brand new, $1200 refrigerator that I just had installed on Sunday was covered in acid. I could hear it sizzling and eating through the metal. It was creating huge pits in the doors to the fridge, in the washer and dryer, in the back of our also brand new freezer, everywhere.

[singlepic=76,320,240,,center]

[singlepic=77,320,240,,center]

[singlepic=78,320,240,,center]

I freaked out. I took pictures, screamed a lot, and rushed home so that we could call him and have him explain himself (I would have called him directly, but didn’t have a phone with me).

He gave us some line of bullshit about how he had done it before and it would be fine and that it wasn’t a big deal. Then we told him how it had completely ruined the fridge and all he did was offer to replace the door.

[singlepic=81,320,240,,center]

[singlepic=82,320,240,,center]

Not good enough.

I wanted to be there when he got there this morning, so my wife and I got up early and hurried down there to meet him. He was supposed to be there at 6:00am. We got there just before 8:00 and he’s nowhere to be seen. I went inside again and not only had the acid completely ruined the fridge, it’s started ruining everything else. Anything metal in the kitchen is now covered in pits and rust. The fridge, the microwave, the other appliances, the KitchenAid mixer and it’s bowl, the toaster, everything.

[singlepic=83,320,240,,center]

[singlepic=84,320,240,,center]

[singlepic=85,320,240,,center]

[singlepic=86,320,240,,center]

This is a complete and total fucking tragedy. It’s completely ruined our entire kitchen, all the appliances and probably stuff further into the house that I haven’t even discovered yet.

When we called him this morning he said he was “on his way”, which is complete BS to begin with, but he said he called a “Kenmore Parts place” and would “make it right”. He’s got one shot to make this right, and by right I mean a complete new fridge, otherwise I’m taking his ass to court.

I’ve never been so angry in my entire life. We saved and worked and saved for these things and then, 3 days after they’re in the house, they’re completely ruined by some asshole who doesn’t know what he’s doing.

I don’t have proper words for my anger. I’m literally blinded by rage. The only words I want out of his mouth are “I’m sorry, I’m going to make it right, here’s a check”. Anything short of that and he’s going to hear from my attorney. There’s not really much else I can do. He’s ruined my house. I wish there was some form of punishment allowed by the courts that could result in him getting a beating, but there’s not. All I can do is try and recoup the cost of the damages.

I lost sleep last night because I was so mad. So did Lauren. We’re both so upset that we don’t want to talk about it.

I don’t know what else to say.

It’s like I bought a brand new car, parked it in my driveway and someone slammed into it with a garbage truck.

I. Am. Pissed.