I’ve alluded to trouble brewing with the general contractor on the fixer upper project I took on earlier this year, but I have yet to even mention some other craziness that came with that house.
When I bought the house, I was very quickly contacted by the next-door neighbor. Actually, I had several people drop by unannounced, including the mayor at one point, for reasons I can only assume revolved around the fact that the house was in a small town and the citizens were just plain nosey. After living in D.C. for so long where you don’t look at strangers, let alone talk to them, this was odd to me.
But the one neighbor who came around the most was …something. She immediately shared with me, almost conspiratorially in tone, about the history of the house, the neighborhood, and the family that owned the house before me. She told me how she had magnanimously taken it on herself to take care of the house while it was abandoned the last year, how she kept the lawn mowed, how she ran off drug dealers and people trying to sleep in the cellar. And how she had, purportedly, made a deal with the last owner to purchase part of the backyard.
Then she casually threw out that it was believed by some that the owner was murdered. (Neat. A house with such rich history.) And wouldn’t you know it, he died right before he could get their backyard purchase deal in writing and recorded in the county. Shoot.
I stood there in wonderment trying to keep my face neutral, not sure what to believe but certain she was about to ask something of me.
She wanted the yard.
“I already paid for it. Twice in fact,” she declared.
My brain immediately swirled with questions. Why would you pay twice? And the house was empty for a year before I bought it, why are you just now bringing this up? And can we circle back to that alleged murder at some point?
She launched into why she needed the extra yard space. Something about a fishpond, or a gate, or something. I’m not entirely sure since I checked out during much of the explanation. Right, but this has nothing to do with me. I’ve found there are some people in the world that will talk and talk, hoping to confuse you or wear you down until you give them what they want.
If I’m being honest, my initial instinct in such situations is to interrupt, dig my heels in, and not relent.
But you catch more flies with honey, yada yada, so I tried to stay polite and open minded. I could see this woman had strong potential to make my life miserable going forward so I tried to think of a compromise.
I politely told her I needed to talk to my GC about our plan for the yard, but I would certainly try to think of a win-win for us all. She seemed ok with that answer for the time being.
Meanwhile, my GC had returned without the crew that did such a good job on the roof. Now, he had two older gentleman…and not much else. Progress slowed way down. I didn’t notice it at first, because they purposely did things to make the house look different, without actually finishing any project. Really, they just made the house worse. Ripped out the doors, partially knocked down the wall I had chosen to remove, tore down ceiling fans. I never saw a dumpster arrive, so the piles of debris just accumulated inside the house and outside in the front yard. At one point the GC told me to be careful because they had found a baby rattlesnake out front and expected there to be more. (No doubt because snakes love a good debris pile!)
Debris pile. Favored playground of serpants.
For those keeping score at home, we’ve now had alleged murder, vagrants, drug activity, and snakes at this house.
Feeling really good about this purchase!
Around that time, the neighbor resurfaced and threatened legal action if I didn’t give her part of the back yard.
Sigh.
I asked the GC if he’d gotten all necessary permits because I was now afraid the neighbor would snoop around for any way to come against me. He assured me he was handling all that.
I managed to get the neighbor to understand she had no legal grounds against me, and I told her she was certainly welcome to walk through the yard for any fishpond needs, and she settled down again.
I started picking out décor items and continued to stay optimistic about this project. Me and the GC decided on a plan to bring a gravel driveway into the backyard and replace a retainer wall that was compromised. “I’ve got a guy who will give us a deal on the equipment we’ll need to rent for that. But I’ll need to pay him upfront.”
Sure, that sounds reasonable. Here’s a check!
I cringe remembering it all.
The GC was a slick talker. He appealed to my ego. He appealed to my frugality. He told me he had leftover items from other jobs that he’d give me at cost. All the LVP flooring I’d need, a sink, some lights. I was thrilled. What luck! Here’s another check! Sure, just keep the items in your storage unit until we need them!
I also started buying items I found deals on. I found bathrooms vanities for a great price and asked the GC if he could pick them up and store them for me and he agreed to do that on a specific day.
And then I started noticing things. I called the store where the vanities were and asked if he’d picked up the vanities, and he had not. “Oh, I had this dental emergency to deal with. I’m SO sorry, will get on that right away,” he humbly explained.
I noticed the gravel driveway equipment never appeared. “Oh, it’s been raining and then I couldn’t get the rental that day…” I began to question everything.
I called the city to see if he’d pulled permits. He had not.
I asked him to take his GC license to the bank for my loan files … and he broke down and told me he used to have it, but let it lapse and it was going to take several weeks to take the exam and get it reinstated.
Excuse after excuse came and lie after lie was revealed. I began devising a plan to replace him. Then things really got weird. More in the next post.