He Went on Holiday Mid-Reno. I Got Petty.

A few years ago, my wife and I finally scraped together enough money to renovate the kitchen and bathroom in our first flat. It wasn’t a small spend, we’d been saving for months. I wanted to hire an independent builder, someone with no emotional strings attached. But my wife insisted we use her brother-in-law’s building company. “He’ll do a good job, and it keeps it in the family,” she said. I caved. Mistake number one. #FamilyDrama #PettyWins #BurnoutDiaries #HomeWrecked The first few days, everything was ripped out, kitchen gone, bathroom gone, we’re basically camping in our own home. Then, out of nowhere, her brother-in-law disappears. Just ghosted us. No replies to messages, no updates, nothing. A few days later, we find out he’d gone on holiday. For two weeks. Without a single word of warning. So now our flat is unliveable. No kitchen, no bathroom. We had to couch surf with friends for almost two weeks.. Awesome. When he finally returns, the work resumes, but barely. He’s showing up for maybe an hour or two a day, clearly juggling other jobs. We’re about 5 weeks into a “2-to-3-week max” job and barely any progress has been made. The place still looks like a bomb site. Now, here’s the petty part. We had this freestanding IKEA butcher’s block in the kitchen, nothing fancy, but a decent solid wood surface I had used for years. He’d asked me if he could have it once the new kitchen went in, since it wouldn’t be needed anymore. I said sure, figuring the work would be done soon and we’d be rid of it anyway. Well, I came home one day to see the butcher’s block had been perfectly sanded down, oiled, polished, it looked brand new. He had clearly spent days working on this thing. Meanwhile, my kitchen was still a gutted shell, the bathroom half-installed. I snapped. I dragged the thing outside, took a hammer to it, and smashed it to bits. Straight into the wheelie bin. The next day he came in and noticed. Didn’t say a word, just looked kind of confused and disappointed. I didn’t say a word either. The job took another 4 weeks to finish, learnt not to use family in the future for stuff like this and glad he didn't get the new butchers block. We have never spoken about the butchers block since.