The End is Near....

Or rather, Vindication X 3! The picture to the right is one of the holes that was dug in the repair of my foundation! Actually, it's also one of the holes that served one of the two tunnels that was dug under the house to place piers under the middle of the house. All together, 32 piers have been placed under my house and two tunnels were dug to access the middle of the house.

Are you surprised? I was. I had received notice from builder's nitwit that my foundation would not be repaired and also advised that I would not receive the offical plan of action since we had been "communicating." He listed three things as a plan of action that were no where close to a plan of action. One was "fix cosmetics." Umm.... no. Details, please. Of course, I e-mailed exactly what I expected from a plan of action and advised that what he sent me (he who has never been in my house) was most definitely not a plan of action. I didn't hear anything back for a couple days. He then sends an e-mail asking me to call him as he has an update. Grrr. I send him an e-mail asking him to send it via e-mail. The update - they received more results from the soil survey and my foundation does in fact need to be repaired. He attached the engineers drawing for the repairs, i.e. where the piers and tunnels would be, etc, advised who the company and the engineer were, said he would send information on the company and offered to set up a conference call with the engineer to answer any questions I might have. This was one of the best communications I've had. It was also the week before Christmas.

The next thing I know I'm getting a call from the foundation repair folks scheduling January 12th as the start date for the repairs. In case you haven't guessed already, I had received no information on the company, etc as nitwit had said he would. Fortunately, the lady from the company answered all my questions. Then there was a mini saga (which I will someday write about) over getting a key to friend B who has been an absolute angel helping me with all of this and who is the photographer of the picture. I could not have managed this without his help. I would not have given a house key to nitwit builder rep. Ever. In fact, nitwit left me a voice mail the Friday before it began (notice he didn't e-mail as I requested) saying he would be there on Monday and advising they didn't need access to the house and basically puzzled as to why I would have someone there representing me. I truly wonder what he would do if it were his house. Anyway, B was there and has done wonders with nitwit. I now even get daily e-mail updates from nitwit. For the curious, they did need access to my house. In fact, the plumber beat nitwit there the first morning (they do a plumbing check before and after foundation repairs) and today to do the leveling.

The one sad thing in all of this is I wish I could be there to see for myself. Turns out I'm totally fascinated by the repair process, as is B.

Happy New Year!

My Christmas and New Year's have been pleasant and uneventful. I'd thought traveling on Christmas day would be pleasant and it was. The only downside was getting up at three o'clock in the morning and losing an earring during my travels. The plane left MD on time and we boarded on time in Dallas, only to have to wait for maintenance paperwork, to have the crew repeatedly count passengers, and then request two passengers move to the middle of the plane for "balance reasons." We left about 45 minutes late for a flight that only takes about an hour. In the end, we were only about 30 minutes late. Baggage arrived timely and we headed home. It never really felt like Christmas and I'm not sure if that was because I flew on Christmas Day (I've driven home on Christmas day before) or because I just never truly ramped into the Christmas "spirit" this year. Doesn't matter - it was a good day. We had our now annual Christmas seafood dinner; a small affair of just me, my Mom, my brother, and his wife.

No big plans while I was at home. My Mom wanted to show me the cabin she's working on at our farm. It is a nice space in what is an addition to the shop that has been there my whole life and then some. We were bandying about ideas for what space should be where when I asked the big question - where's the bathroom? My Mom and brother both burst out laughing. There isn't one. There's what will be a nice kitchen, smallish dining area, living area, study/office and bedroom, but no bathroom. Plans are in the making for attaching a bath house. I've seen the "compound" idea on a couple of shows on HGTV, but they were located where the weather isn't so fickle. LA has somewhat mild weather but the winters can be crazy with mild one day and downright cold the next. Not to mention thunderstorms and 100 plus degree days during the summer. Mom assures me she has ideas. Guess I'll trust her on this one. Right now it's only a space to spend a couple of days should she want to. I expect one day she may live up there, but hopefully by then the bathroom concept will be worked into the cabin concept.

On Monday, we headed to the DMV to title and tag my very first car in LA, which my Mom still occasionally drives, since registering it in MD just wouldn't be the best idea. LA is a state that also charges sales tax when you register a vehicle. Since we bought the car in LA, we took proof that we had paid sales tax - the receipt for the car. My Dad, you see, created a folder and just about anything associated with that car until I took over is in it, plus some stuff after it headed back to LA. Then the guy at the DMV says there is only eight years worth of records in the system. I'm not surprised as the car is well over eight years old. He also says that the receipt showing sales tax paid isn't good enough, we must show it was registered in the state of LA. The website didn't say this. No mind, we'd taken the folder (I didn't think we'd need to, but my Mom did) and, of course, a copy of the original registration was in it. The DMV guy was in awe. Granted the car is worth so little now that paying tax on it wouldn't have been all that much, but it was the principle of the thing.

I flew back on Tuesday. I enjoyed my visit. BC has grown and it's now even inching it's way back on to my list of possible places to live and work. It would eliminate holiday travel and let me sleep holidays in my very own bed. The flights back were good, but there was a little hitch. The cargo door got off the track in S'port and we left about an hour and half late. I originally had a two hour layover in Dallas, but as I was verifying the gate, the flight status was now boarding. I still had to make it to the next terminal. I caught the train and moved as quickly as I could. I was one of the last people to board. I just knew as I walking down what seemed like miles of jetway by myself that I'd get there and find the door closed, but it wasn't. I wasn't sure my suitcase would make, but it did. So, all was well. It's good to be home.

I hope 2009 is a good year for all.

Utter Frustration...

With the builder. What else is new. A couple of weeks ago builder rep called. They determined my house had not moved enough to warrant fixing the foundation. They would fix the "cosmetic" items and then re-survey in the three months. I'm not sure if I was happy or not to hear this. Honestly, I think they just bided their time to make me think they were really checking it out. Basically, if they re-survey in three months and determine no major movement, then any new damage is all mine to fix. Good for them. We all know the continuing damage would be due to the house shifting. To make matters worse, this is a man I literally cannot communicate with.

Two days after that phone conversation, he calls me mid-morning. He's with the bricklayer at my house to fix the exterior and no one is home. I asked if maybe they might be, I don't know, at work?! He says there is a truck in the drive way. I say so? Well, he has the bricklayer. I gave him the renter's phone number as they had agreed I could the day before. He asks if there was brick in the garage. I said yes, but that I doubted the renter could drop everything and head back out there. I also asked if he could give me/the renters advance notice. Well, I agreed to this on Wednesday. I said I wasn't arguing that, but I'd still like notice. As I've said, I can't communicate with nitwit, it escalated and he hung on me. Basically forced me to call him back to ask him to do the work.

After that incident, I decided e-mail was the best form of communication. Seems reasonable, right? If he reads it he can respond to it. Umm, no. Apparently he has no reading comprehension skills. He gives one word replies that address nothing in the e-mail or sends back a document while ignoring three forths of the rest of the e-mail. He implied the brick had been fixed. I asked for confirmation. I got a copy of the last survey in reply. I asked about several other things in the e-mail as well, all of which went unaddressed.

The kicker was a flyer left on the door advising me to call them. He knows I don't live there, but I figured a lackey did the delivery and let that slide. Then I find the builder has left a much more offical letter on the door (very professional way to communicate with home owners) advising they've sold the remaining lots to another builder (like I care) but rest assured they will still address all the problems with my house. How on earth does selling vacant lots to another builder imply in any fashion that they would no longer be responsible for the issues or warranties with my home? The one they built. They also let me know, about three months after the fact, who would be doing the repair work and that I would have a letter by Dec 15th outlining all the work to be done with a timeline, and advising this work would start January 5th. Nitwit had led me to believe it would be done this month. My renter will be gone next week, so I'm in a quandry on how to coordinate the interior stuff. I mentioned the letter to nitwit in an e-mail to make sure the letter is mailed to me and not delivered to the house. He advises that there was no such letter that went out. I advise him to contact the VP of the Dallas office because not only was there a letter, but he, nitwit, was copied on it (it appears via e-mail). I also copied the relevant paragraph in the e-mail (thank goodness renter PDF's these things for me). So far, no reply and no letter from nitwit.

The issues with the house are a small part of my frustration. I understand that soil conditions, weather, they all contribute to what can go wrong. It's the utter lack of communication from this company that has me spitting nails. Nitwit seems to believe since it's warranty work he doesn't need to let me know when he's going to do repair work. I keep trying to tell him it's still my house and I want to know what is being done. If anyone has any suggestions for dealing with nitwits, I'm all ears, because apparently I'm failing miserably at communicating with this one.

Something to remember...

Today's Bible verse (from Christ Notes) was:

Those who control their tongue will have a long life; a quick retort can ruin everything.

Proverbs 13:3 (New Living Translation)

Alas, it would have been nice if it came yesterday, before I spoke with builder rep guy. I've just about decided I'll have to communicate with him solely by e-mail because he just sends me through the roof every time I talk to him. More on that later, as I'm only half-way down from the ceiling.