order from chaos
I'm still working on that other post, but since that's going to take a while, I figured I'll get to it when I have it done and in the meantime continue posting here on my usual semi-regular, semi-haphazard basis.
I went out to the late show last night to see Snowpiercer (in the theater! finally!), which on one hand might not have been the wisest or most cheerful choice, especially given the events of the week, but on the other turns out to have been the right decision for me. I liked it more than I had thought I would, based on the little I'd heard about it, and found it more hopeful in the end than I had expected. I'm glad I went. I also saw it in the art theater nearest me, over by the Tattered Cover, and I have to say that I am very, very pleased with some of the renovation work that they've done in there. It's a very comfortable place to see a film, and I am going to start keeping an eye out for other things of interest there.
House stuff continues. So far it's not improving, more's the pity. I met last week with my neighbor and the contractor who'd done some work for her - work which I am (still) sure affected drainage from our shared downspout and shunted the water against my foundation. The good news is that in the process I learned a bit more about when the addition was made, because my neighbor has one just like it, as do many others in the neighborhood; I also learned more about how and why. It looks like it dates from the 1920s, and was put up around a space that originally had been used for outdoor cooking due to fear of fire. This explains a good deal about the construction quality, in fact - including the horrifying discovery that the corner of the addition with all the issues is supported by a wooden post on a brick pad, yikes. The upshot of that is that I would likely have ended up needing to deal with foundation repair under the addition at some point anyway; it's just the torrential rain and flooding from last year, combined with the drainage, that rushed the situation.
The bad news is that what this means in the near term is that I have to decide if I want to file a notice of claim and the subsequent lawsuit or not.
It's a bit of a complicated situation. As was not entirely unexpected, the contractor is holding fast to the "nope, not my fault in any way at all, and yeah you should probably do something about that drainage problem" position. I was nonconfrontational and pleasant in the conversation, which probably had something to do with the fact that he ended up feeling comfortable enough to admit that he had not gotten a permit from the city for any of the work he did for my neighbor, because it would have been "too much trouble" (and cost for her, was implied) to repair all the (preexisting) things that wouldn't have passed inspection when he was done. Now, I'm not a lawyer, but I have a very strong suspicion that if you are a contractor operating within city limits to do construction/repair work and you are required to get a permit and you do not, the odds of your general contractor's insurance covering anything that goes wrong are low. If I'm right about that, it means that anything recovered in a lawsuit would come straight out of his pocket (presuming I were to win the lawsuit, which is by no means a certainty). It gets more complicated by the fact that the guy's lived in the neighborhood here for at least 10 years - he's less than 2 blocks from me, in fact - is well known and well liked, and has two young kids. My neighbor's known him for that length of time and insists he's a person of great integrity. (They're off at the bluegrass festival this weekend, actually.) She even suggested I might want to ask him for a bid to do the foundation repair - she's going to ask him to shore up her addition before it goes bad, evidently prompted by what's happening with mine. (Um, no. Before anyone asks, the answer is no; I am not going to ask a permit-waiving general contractor to do specialized foundation repair, especially not when it's a situation like this.)
So. Do I want to file a lawsuit that is sure to sow a LOT of bad feeling over this? I don't know. I'd have to be absolutely certain I was right about the cause of the damage and that the cost was too much for me to bear otherwise, I think.
I have an independent structural engineering firm coming in next Wednesday to do a detailed assessment and provide me with a written recommendation and scope of repair, though, so I am going to wait and see what that brings. I decided to go with a well-recommended firm to do an independent assessment rather than depending solely on the verbal report from the last structural engineer I called - because he, although very nice, has a business relationship with my siding contractor, and given how awful and complicated all of this is turning out to be, I want something from someone who has no (known) ties to anyone else who's involved. That seems prudent. Anyway, more as I know it.
In the meantime, I've gotten my home office reassembled to my satisfaction in the library and am working in it right now, so that's good. Tonight I'm going to watch the second episode of Outlander, which I am already enjoying LOTS. It's been renewed for a second season already, and I am very, very pleased by this.
Might as well end on a high note, right? See y'all later.
This entry was originally posted at http://silveraspen.dreamwidth.org/317514.html and mirrored to LJ. Please comment where you wish! (There are
comments currently posted at Dreamwidth.)
I went out to the late show last night to see Snowpiercer (in the theater! finally!), which on one hand might not have been the wisest or most cheerful choice, especially given the events of the week, but on the other turns out to have been the right decision for me. I liked it more than I had thought I would, based on the little I'd heard about it, and found it more hopeful in the end than I had expected. I'm glad I went. I also saw it in the art theater nearest me, over by the Tattered Cover, and I have to say that I am very, very pleased with some of the renovation work that they've done in there. It's a very comfortable place to see a film, and I am going to start keeping an eye out for other things of interest there.
House stuff continues. So far it's not improving, more's the pity. I met last week with my neighbor and the contractor who'd done some work for her - work which I am (still) sure affected drainage from our shared downspout and shunted the water against my foundation. The good news is that in the process I learned a bit more about when the addition was made, because my neighbor has one just like it, as do many others in the neighborhood; I also learned more about how and why. It looks like it dates from the 1920s, and was put up around a space that originally had been used for outdoor cooking due to fear of fire. This explains a good deal about the construction quality, in fact - including the horrifying discovery that the corner of the addition with all the issues is supported by a wooden post on a brick pad, yikes. The upshot of that is that I would likely have ended up needing to deal with foundation repair under the addition at some point anyway; it's just the torrential rain and flooding from last year, combined with the drainage, that rushed the situation.
The bad news is that what this means in the near term is that I have to decide if I want to file a notice of claim and the subsequent lawsuit or not.
It's a bit of a complicated situation. As was not entirely unexpected, the contractor is holding fast to the "nope, not my fault in any way at all, and yeah you should probably do something about that drainage problem" position. I was nonconfrontational and pleasant in the conversation, which probably had something to do with the fact that he ended up feeling comfortable enough to admit that he had not gotten a permit from the city for any of the work he did for my neighbor, because it would have been "too much trouble" (and cost for her, was implied) to repair all the (preexisting) things that wouldn't have passed inspection when he was done. Now, I'm not a lawyer, but I have a very strong suspicion that if you are a contractor operating within city limits to do construction/repair work and you are required to get a permit and you do not, the odds of your general contractor's insurance covering anything that goes wrong are low. If I'm right about that, it means that anything recovered in a lawsuit would come straight out of his pocket (presuming I were to win the lawsuit, which is by no means a certainty). It gets more complicated by the fact that the guy's lived in the neighborhood here for at least 10 years - he's less than 2 blocks from me, in fact - is well known and well liked, and has two young kids. My neighbor's known him for that length of time and insists he's a person of great integrity. (They're off at the bluegrass festival this weekend, actually.) She even suggested I might want to ask him for a bid to do the foundation repair - she's going to ask him to shore up her addition before it goes bad, evidently prompted by what's happening with mine. (Um, no. Before anyone asks, the answer is no; I am not going to ask a permit-waiving general contractor to do specialized foundation repair, especially not when it's a situation like this.)
So. Do I want to file a lawsuit that is sure to sow a LOT of bad feeling over this? I don't know. I'd have to be absolutely certain I was right about the cause of the damage and that the cost was too much for me to bear otherwise, I think.
I have an independent structural engineering firm coming in next Wednesday to do a detailed assessment and provide me with a written recommendation and scope of repair, though, so I am going to wait and see what that brings. I decided to go with a well-recommended firm to do an independent assessment rather than depending solely on the verbal report from the last structural engineer I called - because he, although very nice, has a business relationship with my siding contractor, and given how awful and complicated all of this is turning out to be, I want something from someone who has no (known) ties to anyone else who's involved. That seems prudent. Anyway, more as I know it.
In the meantime, I've gotten my home office reassembled to my satisfaction in the library and am working in it right now, so that's good. Tonight I'm going to watch the second episode of Outlander, which I am already enjoying LOTS. It's been renewed for a second season already, and I am very, very pleased by this.
Might as well end on a high note, right? See y'all later.
This entry was originally posted at http://silveraspen.dreamwidth.org/317514.html and mirrored to LJ. Please comment where you wish! (There are
comments currently posted at Dreamwidth.)