Hi there,
Since we painted the gate, another of the things we decided to do on our own, we noticed that one of the gates had become hard. When it started to get hot, there were times when you had to force it open because it was kind of stuck.
We thought it was because, having painted it, it now rubbed when closing and expanding with the sun, that is why it was so difficult to open it. Diego sanded where we thought the sticking point was, but the problem continued.
When it was cold it worked perfectly but when it was hot, the gate had to be pushed open.
On April 25 and 26, Andrea lent me her car to go hiking in the Senhora do Salto area. Those were two perfect days despite the fact that Luna, who had also come those two days, had not let us sleep either of the two nights.
On the 26th we returned at noon super happy because we had done a beautiful hiking trail and when we got home, the gate would not open. We spent about 20 minutes pushing and Diego even kicked it a couple of times. I finally gave it a push, and it opened.
We had left it open, but then when I was cleaning, I closed it.
In the afternoon we wanted to go to Leroy Merlin taking advantage of the fact that we had the car, then I had to go to the dentist and finally, at night we would deliver the car and Luna to Andrea.
In the afternoon, when we went out and I’m going to close the gate, I see that it doesn’t close, and that the door had moved almost 2 centimeters. One of the hinges had broken.
There despair invaded us because the gate was not going to be able to close until someone fixed it and the house could not be left alone. I wrote to my neighbor to see if by chance he could watch the house, but he didn’t reply; so, I stayed home and canceled the dentist’s appointment. Diego went with Luna to return the car and then Andrea brought him home.
I was fed up. Every time we took a breath and managed to distract ourselves from all the bad experiences we’d had so far, something happened.
While Diego was going to return the car, I went crazy looking for someone who could fix the gate as soon as possible.
I got into fixando and found the company Portas e Portões do Norte. Rui Almeida called me immediately and told me that he could come to fix it the next day at 11 in the morning and that the price was 80 euros plus VAT.
When Diego arrived at the house, he immediately told me that with all the experiences we had had, the guy would surely arrive the next day and make up some story to charge more or not to fix it.
That night we locked the gate with the bicycle chain.
The next day, Rui wrote to me at 9:30 am to see if he could come earlier because he had finished another job faster than planned.
The guy arrived, explained what he was going to do and immediately started working. I was crossing my fingers that everything went well.
In less than an hour he had fixed the gate and even sprayed an anti-rust paint where he had scraped/sanded it so it wouldn’t look ugly.
I thought that if Nicolas Scavone had been the one who had fixed the gate, he would have left everything bare with any excuse.
Since Nicolas from Porto Pladur had poorly tuned and painted the interior doors, the handles had been left making noise and separated from the door.
I told Rui about it because I thought the handles must be changed. Within 5 minutes, he had them positioned correctly and oiled them. They stopped making noise. For this he did not charge me anything.
As I saw that he worked well, I asked him for an estimate to install the bathroom door and to paint what was left of the house.
Before leaving, he asked me for the tax information and immediately sent me the invoice by email. We made the transfer as soon as he sent us the account number.
He gave me the budget to paint what was left of the house, and it was 1150 euros plus VAT and he would install the bathroom door for free. With VAT, it was almost 1500 euros.
It was so expensive because he had to rent the scaffolding, it was a two-person job and, in addition, he had to request a license from the Municipal Chamber, which took 10 days.
Since we were going on a trip to the Azores and the painting was going to have to be done after the trip, I told him to install the bathroom door and change the lock on the post box (which we had to break since they didn’t give us the key when we bought the house). We paid 145 euros plus VAT.
That day I asked him for an estimate to put blinds in the windows facing the street and I asked him about the doors.
As Nico had told me that my interior doors were of poor quality and that it was not normal for them to have rubber around the edges, I told Rui to make a budget for changing the doors.
He told me that they weren’t solid wood doors but that they were perfect and that it didn’t make sense to spend 1200 euros to put 2 new doors. He told me that he had recently bought a new renovated house and that the doors were just like mine; that now a rubber strip is placed on the doors so that they do not slam and to insulate better.
In other words, what Nicolas from Porto Pladur had told me was a lie.
I told him that I had paid to have the doors tuned and that it was poorly done and that the doors could not be locked. As I was thinking of changing the handles, I told him about it so that he could put it in the budget.
Rui immediately began to tune the doors and in 5 minutes he did what Nicolas from Porto Pladur could not do in a week of work.
Another job well done with invoice sent immediately.
He also did not charge me to tune the doors. Although it’s something that takes 5 minutes of work, nobody does that for free.
At that time, my friend Andrea needed someone to fix an electrical problem and I recommended Rui to her. She spoke with him on a Friday and on Monday morning Rui had already fixed their electricity problem. She was also very happy with his work.
Finishing painting the house was a great dilemma because, on the one hand, we wanted a professional to do it and avoid problems, but, on the other hand, paying almost 1,500 euros for so little hurt my soul.
Clearly here the expensive thing was the scaffolding, the work of a second person and the license from the Municipal Chamber of Porto. This was the right way to do things, not the mediocre job that Nicolas from Porto Pladur was going to do for 295 euros.
We decided to try to paint ourselves what was left before we went on a trip. We bought a 4-meter extension handle and the weekend before the holidays, we started painting. There were 12 hours of work on Saturday and another 3 hours on Sunday to refine details.
We did it and we are super proud.
Thus, 9 months later, we finished all the renovation works on the house.
I agreed with Rui to send me the budget for the handles and blinds.
Placing the blinds outside was something I wanted to do in the future, especially to isolate the noise from the street.
Here I must highlight some important things. The guy from Portas e Portões do Norte is young, in good physical condition, always impeccably dressed and always has his tools perfectly organized and clean.
Before him, what had come to my house were dirty overweight gentlemen, dressed as beggars and who had filthy and messy tools. In addition, with the WhatsApp photo with girlfriends who were 20 years younger than them (grooming).
If a person does not take care of their presence or their work tools, that already tells you how they are going to do the job.
In addition, Rui from Portas e Portões do Norte sent the invoice immediately without having to be behind him.
I keep his contact as one of the most precious things I have here in Porto and even more so when finding someone normal who works well has cost me 9 months and hundreds of displeasures, anxiety, and sleepless nights.
Here is the link to my YouTube channel so you can see the final result of the house: