Probably everyone who has been around me this past year has heard about my disastrous construction project at the house – a replacement of the driveway and back yard patio. Well after 15 months it might be over.
It all started innocently enough back in the summer of 2006. I had some plans drawn up for re-landscaping the back yard which entailed remodeling the patio. As my 50+ year old driveway was cracked in places, I decided to replace it at the same time. The company I engaged had done some good work for a friend and they seemed professional, so I thought I was alright. However from the very start it all went wrong – they did work sporadically and dragged things out over 2 months or more and when the work was complete the quality was pretty shabby.
I of course made the blunder of all blunders by paying most of the $15,000 price tag before I inspected the work closely (you aren’t supposed to walk on concrete for a while, so I wasn’t aware of all the defects until later – but still how stupid of me to pay before making sure I was satisfied). Anyway, all parties recognized that it was a bad job, the company that laid the concrete blamed the materials, the concrete materials company blamed the guys that laid it, and I was left holding the bag.
To make a long story short, I got nowhere by myself so I complained to the California State License Contractor’s Board. They looked at things and arbitrated a settlement which at the time looked great for me - they would tear out the entire project and redo it. Well that work finally started in August but things again went wrong. Since there was no money in the job for anyone (they had already been paid) there was no incentive to complete things so over the last 3 months I have had sporadic work done and I have been given every excuse in the book. Everything that could go wrong has gone wrong – they severed the phone cable to the house, they broke my neighbor’s sprinklers, they left me without a driveway for months! For the last month I have had the job 3/4 done, but pouring the last section was being put off again and again.
My patience, which had been unbounded, finally broke this week and I threatened legal action if the job wasn't done this week. This appears to have gotten through to them and yesterday evening the final pour was made.
Note that I said evening, I came home from work to find everyone working on the final drive section. However, this was 6:00 in the evening - it was going to be dark in an hour. Sure enough as darkness fell they were still working, with a truck pointing its headlights down the drive. Someone went to get lights which then turned out to be defective and so they went on a search for bulbs. Finally at 10:30 they applied the finishing touches and it is finished!
So it has been since August 2006 to the end of October 2007 that I have been without a backyard. I can't say I have missed it really - life is a lot simpler without a yard - very low maintenance.
As for the concrete company, he informed me that he is now out of the business - I was his last customer. He is a victim of the downturn of construction in the area. That's why downturns are good - it weeds out the people who shouldn't be there in the first place.
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