What I Did This Morning

I moved the podium, organized the refreshments, took photos at and acted as invisible public event coordinator for this announcement. Now I am exhausted, but it was for a very good cause. I also feel like I desperately need to improve my French language skills.

McGuinty Government Boosts Support To Sexual Assault Centres: First Funding Increase In 13 Years

As an unrelated aside, I want to learn more about self-leveling paint with urethane built in, so that I can eventually look into refinishing the kitchen floor a la Debbie Travis. Maybe with a pretty varnish overcoat for ease of cleaning! Has anyone reading my journal tried this before?

And boo! Our brand spanking new upstairs shower is broken, such that the pipe connecting the water to the shower head, located cunningly behind my VERY EXPENSIVE lovely slate tile which must now be broken to effect repairs, is leaking profusely and causing torrents of water to run down the inside of the wall, through to the floor below. It’s causing the wood floor to warp and the wall to disintegrate. The shitty plumber who took eleventy-billion years to *not* complete our upstairs bathroom reno (wall still unpainted, door frame still unfinished, cupboards not built, etc) was apparently not only slow but also incompetent. I really want to write in to Mike Holmes or something, but I fear this will have to be resolved through legal action. Except I’m concerned that I’d be laughed out of court due to our TOTAL LACK of a signed contract. Dammit. Ah well, live and learn I guess.

8 thoughts on “What I Did This Morning

  1. Totally write Mike Holmes! And then, invite me to come over and drool over his arms pipes.

    hee!

  2. Take his laptop, and refuse to give it back until your bathroom is done!

    It worked last time!!!

  3. is my home improvement boyfriend. I totally drooool over him every Sunday when I watch Holmes on Homes.

    *loves*

  4. Um, he doesn’t have a laptop.

    He does have a van full of tools, but dude, grand theft auto isn’t going to get me *anywhere* with the already dubious credibility of my verbal contract case in Small Claims Court.

  5. Verbal contracts are absolutely enforceable. The only trick is proving that the contract existed in the first place. So while you might not be able to prove that he agreed to do all the things he didn’t do (painting the wall, building the cupboards, etc), it would strain credibility for him to claim that although he agreed to do the plumbing for the shower, he didn’t agree to do it competently. In other words, as long as you can prove that he was the plumber who put the pipes in, it’s assumed that he agreed not to fuck them up. So all you should need to prove is:

    1) He’s the guy who installed the pipes
    2) The pipes are leaky
    3) The leakiness of said pipes is his fault (either because he used substandard materials, or because he did a substandard job, or what have you).

    This all needs to be proven on a balance of probabilities — i.e. it need only be more likely than not. You’ve got a good case.

  6. I forgot to include the standard “obnoxious lawyer disclaimer,” which is as follows: since I’m just a law student and technically don’t know what I’m talking about, the above advice is not my professional opinion and should not be relied upon.

    (Otherwise, if you relied on the advice and it ended up going sour, you could sue me. Not that you would, but this is what a year and a half of law school reduces people to.)

  7. Paul, I just talked about jacking this guy’s van. I can understand your experiencing some paranoia regarding giving me potentially self-incriminating legal advice. 😉

    Also, sorry I didn’t get in touch with you about yesterday. I needed to go home and get some sleeeeep after a long day at work. Not a day to stay downtown, alas.

    Maybe next week? Maybe Tuesday? I will email.

    ps – In small claims court, which is what this would be since the job can be fixed by an independent contractor for less than $10,000, anyone can be my representative. There’s no need to bring a full-fledged lawyer to your defence; small claims is all about dealing with it yourself, or even with a legal student, for the sake of economy. So there, you are qualified to give advice in this instance.

  8. Well, let’s not get ahead of ourselves. I’m legally allowed to represent you in Small Claims Court, but that doesn’t mean I’m qualified to represent you. 😉

    No worries about getting together — I’ve been pretty scrambled due to school anyway. Let me know when you’re free next week (I’m downtown on Tuesday and Thursday) and we’ll hook up.

    Cheers!

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