Well, A full 2 months and 1 week after I closed on the house, I’m 2 weeks away from my 2nd mortgage payment and my contractor just emailed me:
“…materials are on sight now, the guys are doing some final snow clean-up today than they are headed to your house tomorrow morning.”
Finally?
This has been a real issue of contention for me. The fact that I’m living with my GF’s parents and paying for propane, electric, insurance and mortgage on a house that I don’t reside in. There’s not much I can do as switching contractors would only add additional delays to the project. I’m confident that I’d find a contractor was cheaper. This guy is not cheap. 70 grand to renovate a 750 square foot house? Obviously, when you guys see it, you’ll understand where the money went but I ended up buying all of the appliances myself. I think with the materials being used, 50,000 USD would be more appropriate for this work.
Anyway, it turns out a few things have arisen from the last week:
1. The Stucco & Paint work on the exterior of the house won’t happen until April because my contractor didn’t get started until after the temperatures reached below freezing.
2. Snow is now falling so now I have to hire someone to plow the place so the contractor crews can work safely and efficiently.
The 2nd line-item isn’t a huge deal. My contractor runs a plowing company which has been both a positive and negative. On days it snows, his guys are out plowing and not working on my house. It snowed every day last week. The good news is, I’m hoping that he can plow my drive way for the safety of his crew…but never mind, I just got this email:
“There is really nowhere to go on the property with a snow plow, a snow blower and a shovel are the best solution there. No, we don’t have snow removal in our budget.”
Obviously, the best answer I could come up with would be, “Matt, you started my house 2 months later than we discussed and everything I’m dealing with now (Living with GF’s parents, delaying appliance deliveries, paying for heat I’m not using, plowing, paying $450 a month to store an entire house worth of stuff at U-Haul and spending an hour a day commuting to work) is your fault. The least you can do is plow my place so your guys can do the work you promised me you’d do two months ago.”
Of course, my HUD Consultant who oversees the job and signs the checks as Matt completes work has told me to show restraint. I am. My response was, “Your recommendation is I grab a snow blower?” I doubt my contractor will ever see this compilation of blog posts but it just feels like he’s not on team-Adam. My consultant did say last week, “Why should matt care that you’re out of pocket on storage and homeless and dealing with all of this? It’s not his job to worry about any of that.” David is right but at the same time, I’m dealing with all of this because Matt is late on his start. Last week, he was supposed to start last week. Then Monday, now it’s Wednesday and he’s just now getting there.
Anyway, I wish I could say I’m saving money by living in a small room that my GF grew up in but I just can’t wait for this all to be in the past.