Back in June Laura and I were thrilled to finally have engaged a contractor to begin the process of transforming the House Of Dad into a place we could call our own home for a time. It had been almost nine month since we all had lost Dad and I felt sure he would have been just as frustrated as I was at our search for a contractor.
But as I say, in the beginning of June we finally struck gold and we were off to the races! We were told the day we signed our contract that it would be 6 weeks to completion, possibly as long as 8 weeks depending on availability of materials, but since we had spent the previous 6 months acquiring materials we thought we would be well ahead of the curve. Demo began the very next day.
At first work proceeded apace and it was beginning to look like we would indeed make our 8 week max at the very least but perhaps even be finished faster than that. Then the first painting "crew" came to the house and the first of a seemingly unending string of problems began. And the completion date began to slip and slip and slip.
When we got to the beginning of August it was becoming clear that young Zac our project manager was out of his depth entirely but he continued to schmooze with tales of things that were ordered and things that were coming. Entire weeks would go by with no work taking place at the site at all. Or else a tradesman would come out and partially complete a job and leave. By the end of August when we were now 3 weeks past our 8 week completion date I began to get really angry with Zac and demanding to know when work was going to resume on the project.
Zac assured us that we would be moved in to the house by the anniversary of Dad's passing at the very latest. Work began again and the work is very high quality for the most part. There have been several instances where small details have had to be pointed out to Zac repeatedly in some cases, in order to have them repaired. And of course there was the air conditioner debacle which I am still not satisfied they are addressing.
Mid way through September, 6 weeks past the completion date, Zac was replaced as our project manager by his boss Yossi. Yossi seems to want to get everything completed, but there are still problems galore. First communication from Zac is not great, and it turns out that is true with his boss as well. So Yossi is unaware of many of things that Zac and I had discussed previously so in some ways it is almost like starting over. Second Zac has made no notes, that's right, zip, nada, zero, nothing, so even things that he has already ordered cannot be properly tracked down in some cases and have had to be back tracked because I DO make notes. Example; the doors that Zac said he had ordered in the first week of this project as of the first week of September STILL had not been ordered! Now we're being told 4-6 weeks for doors.
Well the anniversary of Dad's passing came and went and still no work is taking place on site. The countertops are being fabricated, finally, for far more than they should have cost but there's nothing to be done about that now. But as of this writing no work will be taking place at the house until the end of the week at least, but since we are now at 7 weeks past our 8 week completion date, I will believe that when I see it.
And the completion date slips and slips and slips...
