Well, A full 2 months and 1 week after I closed on the house, I\u2019m 2 weeks away from my 2nd mortgage payment and my contractor just emailed me:<\/p>\n
\n\u00a0\u201c\u2026materials are on sight now, the guys are doing some final snow clean-up today than they are headed to your house tomorrow morning.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n
Finally?<\/p>\n
This has been a real issue of contention for me. The fact that I\u2019m living with my GF\u2019s parents and paying for propane, electric, insurance and mortgage on a house that I don\u2019t reside in. There\u2019s not much I can do as switching contractors would only add additional delays to the project. I\u2019m confident that I\u2019d 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\u2019ll 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.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Anyway, it turns out a few things have arisen from the last week:<\/p>\n
1. The Stucco & Paint work on the exterior of the house won\u2019t happen until April because my contractor didn\u2019t get started until after the temperatures reached below freezing.\u00a0<\/p>\n
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.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The 2nd line-item isn\u2019t 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\u2019m hoping that he can plow my drive way for the safety of his crew\u2026but never mind, I just got this email:<\/p>\n
\n“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\u2019t have snow removal in our budget.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n
Obviously, the best answer I could come up with would be, \u201cMatt, you started my house 2 months later than we discussed and everything I\u2019m dealing with now (Living with GF\u2019s parents, delaying appliance deliveries, paying for heat I\u2019m 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\u2019d do two months ago.\u201d<\/p>\n
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, \u201cYour recommendation is I grab a snow blower?\u201d I doubt my contractor will ever see this compilation of blog posts but it just feels like he\u2019s not on team-Adam. My consultant did say last week, \u201cWhy should matt care that you\u2019re out of pocket on storage and homeless and dealing with all of this? It\u2019s not his job to worry about any of that.\u201d David is right but at the same time, I\u2019m 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\u2019s Wednesday and he\u2019s just now getting there.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Anyway, I wish I could say I\u2019m saving money by living in a small room that my GF grew up in but I just can\u2019t wait for this all to be in the past.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Well, A full 2 months and 1 week after I closed on the house, I\u2019m 2 weeks away…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"apple_news_api_created_at":"2016-12-14T13:51:08Z","apple_news_api_id":"885d50e4-996c-4a21-82cf-4e4747377631","apple_news_api_modified_at":"2016-12-14T13:54:19Z","apple_news_api_revision":"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA==","apple_news_api_share_url":"https:\/\/apple.news\/AiF1Q5JlsSiGCz05HRzd2MQ","apple_news_cover_media_provider":"image","apple_news_coverimage":0,"apple_news_coverimage_caption":"","apple_news_cover_video_id":0,"apple_news_cover_video_url":"","apple_news_cover_embedwebvideo_url":"","apple_news_is_hidden":"","apple_news_is_paid":"","apple_news_is_preview":"","apple_news_is_sponsored":"","apple_news_maturity_rating":"","apple_news_metadata":"\"\"","apple_news_pullquote":"","apple_news_pullquote_position":"","apple_news_slug":"","apple_news_sections":[],"apple_news_suppress_video_url":false,"apple_news_use_image_component":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"csco_singular_sidebar":"","csco_page_header_type":"","csco_custom_appearance":"","csco_disable_excerpt_posts_layout":false,"csco_page_load_nextpost":"","csco_post_video_location":[],"csco_post_video_location_hash":"","csco_post_video_url":"","csco_post_video_bg_start_time":0,"csco_post_video_bg_end_time":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[150],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-6508","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-my-house","7":"cs-entry","8":"cs-video-wrap"},"apple_news_notices":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pb3IC4-1GY","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":6265,"url":"https:\/\/adamchandler.me\/blog\/2016\/10\/14\/what-i-learned-in-buying-my-first-home-with-an-fha-203k-loan\/","url_meta":{"origin":6508,"position":0},"title":"What I learned in buying my first home with an FHA 203K Loan","author":"Adam Chandler","date":"October 14, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"I\u2019ll talk more in a future post about the new house There is a lot out on the web about FHA and 203K loans. Unfortunately, I\u2019m a purist who prefers reading blogs written by real people and not SEO-ified websites who only have content about these programs so they can\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "My House"","block_context":{"text":"My House","link":"https:\/\/adamchandler.me\/blog\/category\/my-house\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":6325,"url":"https:\/\/adamchandler.me\/blog\/2016\/10\/17\/life-homeownership\/","url_meta":{"origin":6508,"position":1},"title":"Life: Homeownership","author":"Adam Chandler","date":"October 17, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"June 22nd - October 7th (15 Weeks, 3.75 months). That\u2019s how long it took from applying for a home-loan after seeing the house and getting the keys. I think this is in the higher-end of time-to-close for people but if you read my post about the FHA\/203K process, you\u2019ll see\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Life"","block_context":{"text":"Life","link":"https:\/\/adamchandler.me\/blog\/category\/life\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":6667,"url":"https:\/\/adamchandler.me\/blog\/2017\/02\/02\/my-house-01-30-2017-update-walls-are-up-my-contractor-didnt-budget-for-countertops\/","url_meta":{"origin":6508,"position":2},"title":"My House: 01-30-2017 Update – Walls are Up, My contractor didn’t budget for countertops?!","author":"Adam Chandler","date":"February 2, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"Here is the drywall finally hung: This wall shown here leading up the stairs is actually insulated with R-15 fiberglass and a vapor barrier as it will become one of the walls that encloses my beer-cellar. Sheetrock is way behind schedule. We lost a week due to scheduling issues and\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "My House"","block_context":{"text":"My House","link":"https:\/\/adamchandler.me\/blog\/category\/my-house\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"House Update 2-01-2017","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/farm1.staticflickr.com\/266\/32606251396_b9d014fc45_z.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/farm1.staticflickr.com\/266\/32606251396_b9d014fc45_z.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/farm1.staticflickr.com\/266\/32606251396_b9d014fc45_z.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":6332,"url":"https:\/\/adamchandler.me\/blog\/2016\/10\/29\/my-house-i-think-weve-wrapped-up-the-layout-phase-of-remodeling\/","url_meta":{"origin":6508,"position":3},"title":"My House: I think we’ve wrapped up the layout phase of remodeling","author":"Adam Chandler","date":"October 29, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"Next week, demolition starts on the house I \u2018financed\u2019 and received the keys on October 7th. I really wanted things to move quicker but it\u2019s not appearing that way. I think we\u2019re finally in a good place to proceed. I did want to share some photos where Heather & I\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "My House"","block_context":{"text":"My House","link":"https:\/\/adamchandler.me\/blog\/category\/my-house\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Home Remodeling Sketches Version 4","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/farm6.staticflickr.com\/5549\/30331531010_f95439d41d_z.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":7274,"url":"https:\/\/adamchandler.me\/blog\/2018\/01\/08\/my-home-plumbing-rant\/","url_meta":{"origin":6508,"position":4},"title":"My Home: Plumbing Rant","author":"Adam Chandler","date":"January 8, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"Update: Before you read the post, I should indicate that Martin's called me to clarify the situation. Their workmanship warranty is only on parts they provide. Since I provided the fixtures myself, I won't not receive their guarantee. Basically, in simpler terms, by paying their markup on things they'd sell\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "My House"","block_context":{"text":"My House","link":"https:\/\/adamchandler.me\/blog\/category\/my-house\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":11775,"url":"https:\/\/adamchandler.me\/blog\/2023\/01\/10\/life-the-new-year-and-whats-ahead\/","url_meta":{"origin":6508,"position":5},"title":"Life: The New Year and what\u2019s ahead","author":"Adam Chandler","date":"January 10, 2023","format":false,"excerpt":"Humans try to make a reference or link to something to account for time. We invented calendars and then try to reference an event and the time that\u2019s passed. It reminds me of how folks from USA are always trying to measure things in football fields. I never played football\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Life"","block_context":{"text":"Life","link":"https:\/\/adamchandler.me\/blog\/category\/life\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/adamchandler.me\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6508","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/adamchandler.me\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/adamchandler.me\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adamchandler.me\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adamchandler.me\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6508"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/adamchandler.me\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6508\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/adamchandler.me\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6508"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adamchandler.me\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6508"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adamchandler.me\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6508"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}