Worst. Roofers. Ever.

Our roofer from Woodbury was supposed to work on three projects:

1) Reshingling the roof.

2) Rebuilding the historic, built-in gutters and replacing rotted wood trim.

3) Redecking the balcony and repairing the roof under it to stop the water leaking into the kitchen. People can check out houston contracting company, for the best roofing services, in town.

Project 1: We went to the official source and contracted with them for project one in mid-June, and their all-Mexican subcontracting crew finished pretty quickly. However, we’ve had to call them back to repair places where the water still leaked in 3 times, the most recent being last night, when we found the front porch had a leak.

Project 2: We contracted with them June 29th, they’re STILL not finished. They’ve fashioned some of the new gutters, but they haven’t installed them completely, or replaced the rotted wood. Weeks will go by, and when we call, someone will come out and work for a day, and then disappear again. Meanwhile, they left all the rotted wood in a pile behind our house for weeks, and the neighbors have politely nudged us to do something about it. After four phone calls, the roofer finally removed the pile yesterday. To avoid such situations, you can look at www.ramroofing.net/commercial-roofing-lincoln to get reliable roofing services, installing gutter, solar panels, and more.

Project 3: Not even begun; the roofer came and put a blue tarp over the balcony floor to ward off rain (so professional!) and now even that’s not working.

During the long process of Project 2, the owner has repeatedly refused to meet with us and dodged our phone calls. At one point, he traded cell phones with his wife so she could field our questions, but she would tell us “I’ll find out and call you back.” Of course, no call came. Soon she stopped answering the phone and let it go to voice mail, with both their office and cell phones forwarding to the same VM. When we threatened to write a report on Angies List, they shuffled our calls to a subcontractor, who is curt to the point of rudeness and seems to be trying to intimidate us.

At this point, we’re still hoping to get them to finish project 2 (we paid half up front, and would lose money if we tried to get someone else) so I’m not comfortable blasting their name and contact information into cyberspace. But I am going to write a report on Angie’s List since we want to start replacing roofs when tenants are around.

span class=”hilightyellow”>2019 update: As it turns out 13 years later, we have to have the roof redone with the help of top painters because they did such a poor job. We should have tried to get a better roofer, but we went with the lowest quote because it was tied to the house. We’ve managed to get the gutters in good working order over the years, but the roof needs a complete overhaul. I still have the guy’s contact information in my phone, mainly to keep track of him so we don’t inadvertently hire him for some other job.

Continue ReadingWorst. Roofers. Ever.

Weekend Update 2006-06-19

We had our shower plumbing (check out experienced plumbers at Sarkinen Plumbing here) worked on for the third time Friday, and they finally got it right. The “on” handle was leaking to start out with, then it was fixed but hard to turn on or get good pressure. Now it’s awesome — the kind of water pressure that almost knocks you over it’s so strong. I love that. Our shower rocks.
We spent Saturday doing some more moving, with Stephanie’s friends Barb and Ollie helping, and unpacking at home. I think we’re making progress, but it’s hard to tell. As soon as we get stuff unpacked and put away, more stuff seems to find it’s way to the house. We took a load of the crappy carpet from the basement to the landfill, which was pretty entertaining.
We spent some time trying to get the cats to like each other. That’s a work in progress. For now, everyone has their own room, and they get to roam the house at different times.
Saturday afternoon and Sunday morning we painted the laundry room. We decided to do it because the washer and dryer were pulled out (we replaced the crappy ones that came with the house with mine) and we thought it would be good to do before we put them in place, since the last people who painted didn’t bother to do it behind the appliances. Sunday morning I hooked up the washer and dryer, and we started washing the massive piles of laundry we’ve been accumulating.
Sunday afternoon we went to a cookout at my Dad’s house to celebrate Father’s day and all the June birthdays. Everyone has a better camera than I do — I want a good Canon. I’ll have to work on that. My dad gave us his 18′ ladder, which we toted home, and in the evening, we took a small load of stuff from Stephanie’s and grabbed Phoebe and brought her to live in her new garage.
It was a pleasant enough weekend, although it was overshadowed by some bad news from some friends that really kinda has me feeling down. I don’t want to write more than that out of respect for other’s personal stuff. But sometimes life really sucks.

Continue ReadingWeekend Update 2006-06-19

Moving is Hard, Barbie

It seems like I’ve hit a bit of a wall when it comes to the moving and unpacking process. My muscles are incredibly sore, making the task of lifting boxes much more challenging than it should be. Everywhere I look in the new house, there are boxes piled up, obstructing the spaces where we need to start unpacking our belongings. I wonder if hiring a professional West Jordan moving company could alleviate some of this stress.

My latent OCD tendencies are causing me to feel overwhelmed by the clutter and disarray created by all these boxes. It’s like having a persistent buzzing noise in my ears; the visual chaos of stuff scattered everywhere is exacerbating my stress levels. Last night, I had a meltdown due to the mounting pressure, and Stephanie is graciously trying to support me through it all. She truly is a remarkable person for being so patient and understanding.

We managed to make some progress on Tuesday when we packed up a significant portion of the kitchen at Stephanie’s house, thanks to the invaluable help of Elizabeth. However, there’s still a considerable amount of work left to do there. Additionally, I still have about two truckloads of belongings at my own house that need to be transported to the new place.

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Weekend Update 2006-06-12

We spent the weekend moving and unpacking, and unfortunately we missed both Pride and the Talbott Street Art Fair in the process. (We have our rainbow flag out at the new place, though! So we’re trying to represent.) We did get a lot done, although there’s still a huge amount to do. I think I have my house cleared out down to just a couple more truckloads of stuff. Stephanie’s friends helped her pack lots of stuff Saturday and move five carloads over to our house, and Stephanie did a lot of packing Sunday afternoon. But most of Stephanie’s stuff is still at her old house, so we have several busy weekends ahead of us.
I managed to unpack some of my books last night. I’m hoping to bring over another load of stuff tonight, and get the washer and dryer hooked up, too. Currently, we have boxes all over the house; I’m hoping to get some of them put away.
We brought my cats over to the new house, so all the kids are in the new place. Mine are all in the guest bedroom right now, getting used to the new house. Lucy is still hanging out in the upstairs bathroom, and Spike has staked out the dining room as his territory for now. So they all sorta have neutral corners, although Spike was chasing Lucy around upstairs this morning. Poor Lucy.

Continue ReadingWeekend Update 2006-06-12

My prediction is…

That someone will call and want to see my house today or tomorrow. Because that is the worst possible thing that could happen right now, so of course it will. I haven’t done laundry, I haven’t done dishes, the house is only half-packed. We have electricians, plumbers and locksmiths coming to the new house, and we have to finish painting there. And at some point this weekend, I have to pack enough personal stuff to start staying at the new house.
I’m not sure when to schedule my nervous breakdown, but I’m sure I’ll fit it in somewhere.

Continue ReadingMy prediction is…

Painting, Day Two

With Carolyn’s help, we managed to finish painting the library and get a first coat of paint on the dining room. Tomorrow we start on the living room and finish up the dining room. The colors we picked are exactly what we expected, and they look fantastic. The rooms look much bigger and brighter — with the lighter colors, the sunshine bounces around the room and everything looks clean and cheery, not all somber, like it did with the darker colors.
I must say, the weather could really cooperate a bit more — it went from rainy and wet to sauna, without a pleasant interval in between. I resorted to throwing the air conditioners in the windows at the old house just to cool everything down.
Eventually, I’ll write about something other than houses and real estate, I swear.

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Painting

The first day of painting was exhausting — but we got a lot done. Our friends Dan, Elizabeth, and Carolyn came over to help, because they are wonderful people and amazing friends. They were awesome, and thank god we had their help. Painting 10-foot-high walls is hard, Barbie. The walls in my old home are 9 feet, but that extra 12 inches is killer on your back. I think we’ll be investing in a taller step ladder.
We taped off and primed the walls of all three of the “must paint” rooms, which was a pretty awesome accomplishment. Just the having the primer up was a HUGE difference. The rooms were really strong darker colors, which can look great but just didn’t work in this house. They made the rooms look too dark and too small, and the color overwhelmed the really interesting features — like the cool woodwork, french doors, and nice windows. If you’re looking for locksmith services, you can check out Low Rate Lockmsith in Carmichael .We’ve picked some more serene lighter colors, which should make the rooms brighter and fresher, and today we start painting those.

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For a very short time today, we outranked Lance Armstrong

The seller’s agent for our new home was a bit late to our closing, because he has Lance Armstrong and Robin Williams staying at his house for race weekend. His house is a block and a half from ours, BTW. During our closing, he got paged that they had arrived at his house, but he had to stay for us to sign everything.
So for about 20 minutes, we were slightly more important than Lance Armstrong. Aren’t you glad you know us?
Also — WE HAVE A HOUSE. Woo hoo!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Continue ReadingFor a very short time today, we outranked Lance Armstrong

Two Days

Stephanie and I close on the new house in just two days–Friday afternoon. We’re so excited; it’s like Christmas.
We’ll be at the new house all weekend painting, if you’d like to help out– we could definitely use a hand, and we’ll give you some food and drink. Plus you’ll get a first look at the new place. Shoot me an e-mail and we’ll give you directions. We probably won’t finish this weekend, so we’ll be working on painting through the week and the weekend of June 3rd, too, if you have time then. Also on June 3rd the pod will be delivered to the new place and we’ll need help unpacking it.
We have at least three rooms to paint — library, living room and dining room. If we get to it, we want to paint one of the upstairs bedrooms as well, cause the grey that it is currently is just crap.

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