My wife's sister expects me to do free work on her new house.

By @coleagain · Family

She just bought a house and keeps making comments about how I'm a contractor and can 'just knock out' a bunch of projects for her. I told my wife I'm not doing it, and now I'm the bad guy.

The full story

My wife's younger sister just closed on her first house. It's a fixer-upper, which is fine, but she has no money left for the actual fixing. I'm a general contractor. I do everything from framing to finishing. At the family dinner last weekend, all she did was talk about her plans. 'Oh, you could just pop in and reframe this wall, right?' 'How long would it *really* take you to tile my bathroom?' She says it like it's a couple hours of fun for me. It's not, it's my job. It's how I pay my mortgage. I finally told my wife that I'm not working for her sister for free. I can give her advice, I can point her to the right materials, but I'm not spending my weekends doing unpaid labor that I'd normally charge thousands for. Now my wife is mad at me, saying it's family and I should help. Her sister is texting her saying I'm being selfish. I don't think it's selfish to want to be paid for my work. I have my own projects and my own house to deal with.

How people voted

Totally Cooked — 27% (7 votes)
It’s Complicated — 46% (12 votes)
You’re Fine — 27% (7 votes)

Readers say “It’s Complicated” (46%) — 26 votes and 5 comments so far.

What people are saying

@remyfr — Wow I'm sure this will resolve itself quietly.
@kindaover — When you marry someone, you marry their whole family, for better or worse.
@graceeh — Is there a reason your wife is so insistent? Feels like we're missing some context about their family dynamic.
@gabekay — Send her a formal quote for the full amount and ask when she'd like to schedule the consultation.
@taylorm — nah tell her you will then just never show up

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