Member-only story
“Because You’re Nice to Me”
While Manipulative Misogynist the handyman was going around the house and gradually caulking all the wood siding — something that according to him is a standard home improvement, though I’d never heard of that practice before — he sometimes stopped to work on a different project. He trimmed branches from trees and created a huge pile of branches (which remains on my property).
His original explanation for these extra, unplanned projects was he has ADD. That made sense to me. He also said it was easier to move around without branches in the way, and he said branches touching the house can damage the siding and shingles. I think he said he wouldn’t charge me for trimming the trees and such.
I believed he was an expert, since he said he’s been building houses for decades. His job description on Angi’s List was “framer.” He has a history of constructing new houses, but he seemed to know about home improvements in general and talked a lot about this job and that job. I didn’t think it weird that he worked on other jobs despite how long it was taking him to do the caulking.
On at least two occasions, when he talked about and/or showed me one of the extra projects he did — like trimming trees or replacing rotten wood on a lean-to — he’d say he was doing an extra task for free “because you’re nice to me.” Nice to him? I was paying him to work on my…