The Neverending Story

The renovations still aren't done.  We still live with my parents.  My daughter did not celebrate her first birthday or first Christmas in her house.  I am angry.  Anger actually does not begin to cover it.

For a while now we knew that things weren't as smooth as we once thought.  There are a few reasons.  The major hiccup in this whole thing is that our contractor underbid the project AND he had never worked with this exact type of project before.  The frustration of dealing with the bank on this type of project has been so tiring.  There are two types of FHA 203(k) loans for the rehab of a house.  The first is a called a streamlined 203(k), but does not include any structural changes.  Or there is the full 203(k) loan.  This type of loan is issued when structural changes are being made, scoped to take longer than six months to complete, or when rehab costs will exceed $35,000.  We fall into all of those categories.

The way it is supposed to work is that the contractor does some work.  He then gets an inspection from a home inspector who is certified to inspect projects for the bank funding the loan.  Together they submit their paperwork to the bank with the total amount spent on the updates that have been completed thus far.  Once the bank reviews it they issue a check to us and the contractor.  We sign it over to the contractor and he is now paid for the work that has been completed.  Our project only had 3 " bank draws" built into it.  So lets say for example our loan was a $100,000 loan.  That means the draws were schedule for 1/3 way through the project ($33,000), 2/3 of the way through the project ($66,000), and at completion ($100,000).  That is a lot of cash flow to have on hand.  If that contractor is working with other subcontractors then he must front the money to pay them with the understanding that the bank will not pay until the work is inspected and submitted for a draw.  Because we were accommodating, we agreed to add a few more draws to the schedule, which took money out of our loan to pay the inspector each time, just so that our contractor was not left fronting $33,000 of his own money at a time.  Apparently we didn't add enough draws to help our contractor.  He was still left with no cash flow and that meant unpaid subcontractors, employees, and no supplies.  He started taking on side jobs to have some cash coming in to cover our work.   

There were clues about his need for additional cash flow, such as the occasional disappearing act to work on a job in Rhode Island or Virginia.  They were short jobs, and not frequent, so we didn't complain.  It all came to a head, though, when our contractor told us that the plumber had come into our house last week and taken our water meter as retaliation for our contractor not paying his final invoice.  He also threatened to break through the drywall and take all of the pipes out.   And when I say he took the water meter, I really mean, stole the water meter.  See, the water meter doesn't belong to him.  It belongs to me.  I own it.  It was put in by the water company, not him and his joke of a plumbing company.  Its in my basement and I pay the water company to service my home with water.  Every month I pay a bill to a water company, not him.  When I found out about this in an after hours meeting at the house, I immediately told BJ.  Uh oh.  Somebody just messed with the wrong attorney.

See, the funny thing is, BJ just got his groove back.  He left his job as an attorney at a firm downtown in October, and every since he has been trying to get his own practice up and running.  I am so pleased to announce that with two clients on board, Jordan Law, LLC is officially open for business.  What that also meant is that this plumber just messed with the wrong family.  BJ, Attorney at Law, sprung into action first getting on the phone with our contractor and then typing official documents outlining how this plumber would be reinstalling the water meter within 24 hours while supervised by a third party, and that he is not allowed on our property for any reason EVER AGAIN.  BJ's letter was written so much better, but that is the main theme of it.  This bumbling idiot called him and they arranged the re-installation to take place with the 24 hour window.  BJ-1, A-hole Plumber-0.