In which I flame the builders next door
For the last six months, we have had builders next door.
From standing in the street outside our house and yelling at each other at 6.30 in the morning, to blocking off the laneway that we use to access our backyard to park the car (which I was told at the beginning of the project would only be blocked for a few weeks...that was in August or September), to driving up and down said laneway and leaving their earthmoving vehicles running (while they're not using them) outside our kitchen window, filling the house with putrid exhaust fumes, to the unbelieveable volume of their equipment, basically everything they've been doing has been pissing me off.
They're building what appears to be a three storey (so far) residential apartment complex. We never got any notice of lodgement of planning application from the council (which is unusual, since a big development is going in on the main road adjacent to the street we live on, and the council spammed the heck out of our mailbox for that one). I am a bit cheesed off because now it means that whoever lives there will be able to see into our backyard, which is not really a great thing. We'll have to install some shade sails or something to obscure their view. I like my privacy.
ANYWAY. On Friday night Mark came home to discover our side fence broken. I'd been home for a few hours but not gone out the back. This is the fence that separates us from our laneway. And it wasn't just broken - it was bent and bowed because what appeared to be about 73 tonnes of dirt had been excavated and deposited in the laneway. And why? Because the plumbing needed to be installed, so they had to excavate. You may be wondering why the plumbing was not installed before the basement was dug, the foundations were laid and 3 storeys of pre-fab were erected, but if I knew the answers to those sort of questions, chances are I would not be sitting here bitching about my broken fence.
So. Here's what it looks like.
From the back of our backyard. You can see our side gate here in the foreground.
The worst damaged part of the fence. How they managed to do THAT, I will never understand.
The fence has now completely detached from either side of that central support strut and was sutured back together by the builders using a few flimsy pieces of MDF, which is basically glorified cardboard.
Here's their repair job from the laneway. Nice effort, idiots!
A close up of the above damage.
Further along the fence, more of the same damage, near the bottom of the fence.
The same section of fence, this time at the top.
This is our gate. The gate on the left swings inward, and the gate on the right swings outward. Both have been unseated from their dock and pushed inward. I think our fence may have fallen completely if we didn't have a gate there. There's a bit of chain holding the two gates together that I think was our saving grace.
And here is a longer shot - you can see all the dirt in the laneway, and how dramatically the fence has bowed toward our house. The gap between the fence and the house is normally only about wide enough to fit one person and I think that the only reason it didn't go over completely there is because of the gate you can see in the foreground, and in the distant background.
So. I am PISSED. When confronted, the man who was there - he was the plumber - told us that it would be fixed by the builders by the end of the project, which could be any time from here to eternity. Meanwhile, winter, with it's squally storms and rain is coming, the bit of MDF that has cobbled together the worst breakage will just melt away to nothing like the Wicked Witch of the West with a bit of water on it, and a stiff wind will blow this fence over.
So. I am REALLY pissed. Really pissed. I was so cranky on Friday night that I could barely think straight, so I sat down and shot some Nazis and felt better. Thanks, Medal of Honor!
Mark and I went down to the real estate agency first thing Saturday morning and gave them a disc with photos we took. Our leasing agent wasn't in, which is fair enough, Saturday mornings are prime property-showing days, so the receptionist emailed her the photos and I am expecting her to call on Monday.
A very nice elderly Italian man and his deaf son own the house we live in, and they're such lovely people and take such good care of us and now they have to deal with some careless fools destroying their fence.
I am just gobsmacked and literally cannot believe that a builder, when discovering he was damaging his neighbour's fence, would just proceed with what he was doing, instead of trying to figure out a way to minimise the damage. I have known a few builders in my life and can't imagine them behaving so unethically.
Oh, and the plumber is from a company called ThinkSmart Plumbing. I can unequivocally state that they AREN'T smart and they DON'T think.
So. I FLAME YOU, BUILDERS. FLAAAAAME YOOOOOUUU!
But thankyou video games for giving me an outlet for my rage.
From standing in the street outside our house and yelling at each other at 6.30 in the morning, to blocking off the laneway that we use to access our backyard to park the car (which I was told at the beginning of the project would only be blocked for a few weeks...that was in August or September), to driving up and down said laneway and leaving their earthmoving vehicles running (while they're not using them) outside our kitchen window, filling the house with putrid exhaust fumes, to the unbelieveable volume of their equipment, basically everything they've been doing has been pissing me off.
They're building what appears to be a three storey (so far) residential apartment complex. We never got any notice of lodgement of planning application from the council (which is unusual, since a big development is going in on the main road adjacent to the street we live on, and the council spammed the heck out of our mailbox for that one). I am a bit cheesed off because now it means that whoever lives there will be able to see into our backyard, which is not really a great thing. We'll have to install some shade sails or something to obscure their view. I like my privacy.
ANYWAY. On Friday night Mark came home to discover our side fence broken. I'd been home for a few hours but not gone out the back. This is the fence that separates us from our laneway. And it wasn't just broken - it was bent and bowed because what appeared to be about 73 tonnes of dirt had been excavated and deposited in the laneway. And why? Because the plumbing needed to be installed, so they had to excavate. You may be wondering why the plumbing was not installed before the basement was dug, the foundations were laid and 3 storeys of pre-fab were erected, but if I knew the answers to those sort of questions, chances are I would not be sitting here bitching about my broken fence.
So. Here's what it looks like.
From the back of our backyard. You can see our side gate here in the foreground.
The worst damaged part of the fence. How they managed to do THAT, I will never understand.
The fence has now completely detached from either side of that central support strut and was sutured back together by the builders using a few flimsy pieces of MDF, which is basically glorified cardboard.
Here's their repair job from the laneway. Nice effort, idiots!
A close up of the above damage.
Further along the fence, more of the same damage, near the bottom of the fence.
The same section of fence, this time at the top.
This is our gate. The gate on the left swings inward, and the gate on the right swings outward. Both have been unseated from their dock and pushed inward. I think our fence may have fallen completely if we didn't have a gate there. There's a bit of chain holding the two gates together that I think was our saving grace.
And here is a longer shot - you can see all the dirt in the laneway, and how dramatically the fence has bowed toward our house. The gap between the fence and the house is normally only about wide enough to fit one person and I think that the only reason it didn't go over completely there is because of the gate you can see in the foreground, and in the distant background.
So. I am PISSED. When confronted, the man who was there - he was the plumber - told us that it would be fixed by the builders by the end of the project, which could be any time from here to eternity. Meanwhile, winter, with it's squally storms and rain is coming, the bit of MDF that has cobbled together the worst breakage will just melt away to nothing like the Wicked Witch of the West with a bit of water on it, and a stiff wind will blow this fence over.
So. I am REALLY pissed. Really pissed. I was so cranky on Friday night that I could barely think straight, so I sat down and shot some Nazis and felt better. Thanks, Medal of Honor!
Mark and I went down to the real estate agency first thing Saturday morning and gave them a disc with photos we took. Our leasing agent wasn't in, which is fair enough, Saturday mornings are prime property-showing days, so the receptionist emailed her the photos and I am expecting her to call on Monday.
A very nice elderly Italian man and his deaf son own the house we live in, and they're such lovely people and take such good care of us and now they have to deal with some careless fools destroying their fence.
I am just gobsmacked and literally cannot believe that a builder, when discovering he was damaging his neighbour's fence, would just proceed with what he was doing, instead of trying to figure out a way to minimise the damage. I have known a few builders in my life and can't imagine them behaving so unethically.
Oh, and the plumber is from a company called ThinkSmart Plumbing. I can unequivocally state that they AREN'T smart and they DON'T think.
So. I FLAME YOU, BUILDERS. FLAAAAAME YOOOOOUUU!
But thankyou video games for giving me an outlet for my rage.