My family and I had moved into this house a few months ago after leaving Detroit. It was a spacious place with four bedrooms and a large drawing room which was large enough to host about two dozen guests. The only problem was the kitchen, because it had no natural light and the most abundant colour was black.
It had been a week since my kitchen cupboard’s doors had loosened at the hinges and were dangling like they would fall off any minute. I couldn’t tell, if it would require minor repairs or new cupboard doors. To find out what to do, I took a photograph with my mobile phone and headed to the hardware store a couple of blocks away.
At the hardware store an assistant pointed me in the direction of the manager. I held out the photograph on my mobile phone in front of him and asked for his advice. He responded that I’d need wood, hinges and a new lamination sheet.
Twenty minutes later, I was climbing into my SUV with a bag full of supplies from the hardware store and a visiting card for a reliable handyman. An appointment was set with the handyman for the next morning. In the meantime, after dinner I removed the jars and bottles from the cupboard to ensure he didn’t waste time on clearing up before starting.
When the doorbell rang, I made a mental note of the time and let the handyman into my house. A few seconds later we were standing in front of the kitchen cupboard. The handyman was frowning and playing with the pen in his hand. He informed me that the doors had been damaged by termites and that if we didn’t use insecticide soon they would spread to other furniture. I showed him the supplies from the hardware store, but, there was no insecticide for the termites. Luckily, he had a bottle in his car parked outside. The kitchen cupboard’s doors could not be salvaged, the handyman would make new ones in his workshop using the wood I had bought from the hardware store.
The handyman took the measurements he required for the new kitchen cupboard doors and sprayed insecticide before leaving. I informed him that we were interested in changing the lamination sheet on the entire cupboard too and pointed out the exact colour on the hardware store’s catalogue. The following morning he was back with two cupboard doors stuck under one arm and a rolled lamination sheet under the other.
By lunch the handyman’s work was complete, I now had a termite-free kitchen cupboard with new doors and a new lamination sheet. The kitchen was looking more spacious after using a lighter shade of laminate for the cupboard.
Everyone was happy with the speed at which the handyman had worked, so we decided to assign him more work. My wife and I had a large collection of books and CDs for which we needed shelves in the study and living room. We had shortlisted some designs in a magazine and shared those with him. Also, we wanted a new window in the kitchen with the hope of letting some sunlight into the room. The handyman agreed to undertake this work and chalked out the supplies he would need for the job.
Eight days later the assigned work was complete, we could display our collection of several hundred CDs and books. The light in the kitchen was brighter with the new window which would also reduce the chances of another termite infestation or similar.We were expecting a huge bill with extra charges for the materials purchased by the handyman, but we were wrong – the bill was lower than we had calculated and there were no hidden charges.