Imagine buying a home that needs a lot of renovations. If you had a family member who used to work in construction who offered to help for free, you’d probably think that was good news.

In this story, one person is in that situation, and it is good news, mostly. The disconnect is how the family member who is a construction pro treats everyone else in the family who has not worked in construction.

Let’s read all about it.

You want me to mark every defect? No problem!

Bought a new house mid July, got a great deal but needed to do some updating to it (mid 90’s home, nothing since it has been built was updated).

Fast forward to today, we’re finally done with most of everything, got our punch list going, and are running through it.

OP’s father-in-law means well.

A little side note on folks helping me, my father in law, we’ll call him Phil, was a construction superintendent for over 30 years, knows a lot about home construction, but isn’t a great teacher. Expects us to run like a group of subcontractors who know what we’re doing.

We don’t.

He yells about everything, he’s a great man, but just doesn’t know how to not yell.

The father-in-law scolded the nephew.

At any rate, he gives my nephew (19 yo) a roll of blue masking tape, and tells him to put a piece of tape where there’s a defect/blemish on the walls.

Nephew starts taping up the blemishes, and misses a few spots.

Phil starts yelling “you dummy, I told you to mark everything!” .

My nephew says something to the effect that his eyes are no good, but keeps going.

Everyone except the father-in-law had the last laugh.

After he finished up, he said “I gotta go be somewhere in a half hour”.

This was pre arranged, so we knew about it.

An hour later Phil goes to leave, and as he’s walking out we hear him curse. And starts laughing.

We run over and see this, so we all start laughing and then clean it up.

Although it isn’t explicitly stated, since this is malicious compliance, I think it’s safe to assume that the nephew marked everything.

Let’s see how Reddit responded to this story.

This person wants to know what happened.

Me too.

It is pretty common.

Another person comments on 90’s homes.

Experts can’t assume that amateurs know what they mean.

If you liked that post, check out this post about a woman who tracked down a contractor who tried to vanish without a trace.