The truth is out there
A few days ago S stopped by his Mom’s house. As luck would have it they left the back door open so he was able to get inside to nose around. This is what he found.
Framed, wired. No more. No more. No more. When the dumpster was clearly gone he was hopeful but nope. No work has happened in months.
WHY? Why would work stop? What reason could they possible have? Giving them the benefit of the doubt I went to the City and pulled out the electrical permit. It passed. Final Electrical inspection passed 5/25/2021. May 25. Does that mean that the job site has basically been abandoned for 3 months? It does. Longer than we thought Did that just waste $15K in monthly carrying costs of K’s money?? It did.
Is it possible that that entire time nothing was happening she didn’t call? Yes.
Sidebar: Our business has a customer who had a new patio door installed and the rollers are stiff so it squeaks a little. It isn’t broken. It isn’t unusable. It locks. It is not hard to open. It just squeaks and its irritating. She calls us every day for an update. Every day. K is bleeding money living in an apartment she hates and not a damn thing has happened in 3 months and she hasn’t called.
Back to the issue at hand.
I was gearing up to get the energy to call her. You know, checking in on my own emotional storage. Evaluating if I could handle the call and the fall out. But procrastination always pays (Sorry Blake). Today S had a long drive so he called her to check in. This is what he heard:
1. The HOA President called her to celebrate. Apparently he received a phone call from the property manager saying “the homeowner is happy” and “we are finishing up” and she is moving back in a few weeks. I believe no part of this.
2. She has a quote for finishing the interior of the home but she doesn’t understand it all. But she understands enough of it to know that she isn’t paying them to remove the light fixtures. Because the home is gutted. Because we did that. Because they told us we had to before they moved forward. Like a year ago. I believe she has a quote but I don’t believe it is for the entire interior portion. I will need to see this to believe it.
3. But also her friend Larry is flying in to town to finish the job. Larry is nearly 80, not a contractor, not fit as a fiddle and I have seen an old picture of him standing in his underwear. This is all I know about Larry. But I do know she is locked out of her own house, it isn’t sheet rocked, and she hasn’t chosen any finishes so even if he shows up all strong and willing and ready to work there is nothing for him to do. I believe only that Larry is coming to town. Like Santa.
4. She talked to her sister who agrees that she needs 2 sinks in her master bedroom (NOT THAT AGAIN) and apparently her sister also thinks she should start choosing her floors. I only believe she talked to her sister. I also believe her sister will not ask any tough questions or assist her in taking any action that will be helpful. I believe her sister gets stunned into inaction in a conversation faster than I do and then just starts nodding her head and agreeing like a puppet.
My mind was spinning. So. Much information. It isn’t all true. It cannot all be true. I don’t trust any of the people. I don’t know what to do first. I don’t know what can be done. S says nothing. He says he was just venting to me. But no. Something needs to happen. No matter how this ends it will end in a fire-y crash that I will need to fix. Either I get my arms around it now or I wait until she is flat broke and homeless and scramble then. I don’t know when that will be or what my capacity will be but I know where I’m at now. So I started pushing buttons.
· I contacted the two neighbors I know to see if they had any idea when the next board meeting was (they don’t)
· I emailed everyone I knew at the Property Management company asking for an update on the status (any guesses as to how long I will wait for a response?)
· I sent a text to the former president of the HOA asking for names and numbers of everyone on the board. I offered to go door to door tomorrow asking if she couldn’t get it to me. I told her I desperately needed to believe that one person outside our family cared that this job got done. She was on it. Suddenly she had all sorts of information including
· She called Prop Management company asking them to call me
· She told me K hat a meeting with the contractor on 7/30 and hired them
· She told me that the Prop Management company has been updating K
· She told me the board meeting was the 2nd Monday of the Month.
More information isn’t better. I honestly think that I need to talk to every human involved to fact check the insanity. And then get a clear idea from them on what they understand the status is. Same sheet of music and all that. Yes. That is what I will do. I will just keep pushing buttons until someone answers me. There is a reason nothing is moving forward right now. There is a hold up. I need to vet out the reason for that, solve it, and allow things to keep moving.