Calls and First Steps

Composed a long letter to he-who-must-not-be-named on Friday, outlining our concerns and disappointment in as non-confrontational a way as possible (maybe I'll post it, maybe I won't). Lisa didn't want to send it off, however, until we talked to him about the wood rails. Friday night, she told me that in her conversation with him, he had said that the wood rail was too expensive (6K), and that he was already spending 2K on the iron... like that's our issue... whatever.

So Lisa after screwing up courage (and a little rehearsal) called him this morning (no answer... message... and a callback).

With my pulse racing to 120 (no lie), I listened to one side of the conversation... here are some selected snippets ... the ones I found interesting or seemingly of note ("" is her statements; [] her recollection of the conversation):

"We want to move in ... " (raising of eyebrow)
[he said this coming weekend "if it all works out well" ] ... don't know if he was hanging this over our heads or what

"or iron"
[he said that we hadn't discussed wood specifically... uh no... so "or iron" was Lisa's response was that we hadn't discussed iron either... he went back to his usual tack of "it's finish," and he doesn't pay for finish... "I don't cover that. That's extra."] How it could be is beyond me, since it was all outlined in the plans.

(at this point she mentioned that we've priced some stuff online, and he seemed surprised... "oh, what did you find?" then he didn't seem to listen to Lisa's response)

"how difficult would it be to switch it out later?"
[he said that it was easy, that it happens all the time]... good, voldemort... then it should be easy for you to replace in '08 when the BBB arbitrates all this...

"no, we want to move in as soon as possible"
[Lisa didn't have the impression that he was holding our move-in date hostage]

"so we can move in stuff before the final inspection?" followed by a HUGE EYEROLL
[he said that he planned to bring only the inspection card to the final inspection... conveniently leave the blueprints at the office... in hopes that the inspector will simply sign off] I find this to be grossly dishonest. And it leaves us in a moral quandary... we want back in our house, but...

"so the whole wall?"
[this referenced drywalling in the garage... and the answer is no... just around the door... if it stays.] after talking to Cain the electrician today, I'm thinking that it might not pass inspection because of lack of first floor attic access... but whatever.

"I know. We paid a lot of money. I know it's not free."
[he said that his budget has been suffering] not our problem [it's costing him a lot of money... even though "it's not a big job... not making a lot of money on this"...though he "wasn't complaining"... and when we sit down at the end to de-brief, we'll see that there's been over 13K of stuff he should have charged us for but didn't] again, how's his inefficiency in budgeting OUR problem?

no "thank you" at the end... attababy, no pleasantries for the bastard (who, she admits after the call, is "very good at distraction"... she said that at multiple times in the conversation she had to remind herself that they were moving away form the point she was trying to make... she's not ready to call him a lying sack of shit yet...).

[side note: Cain took me around the house today to show me stuff, and told me that he-who-must-not-be-named balked at his list of materials saying that it was too much stuff... but Cain stood his ground and told him to look at the plans... and he relented... but Cain warned me that Fred will attempt to use statements beyond the plans... yeah, don't we know it, brother. Cain also said that the wires outside the house were for the condenser for future expansion... uh, condenser... isn't that for the air conditioner? future expansion? isn't that already in? I thought we had leaky proof of the drainage for the air conditioner back in October (though it seems unblogged now)... and I though this was visual proof of water to feed the air conditioner. Lisa said if the air conditioner isn't installed and that it's just a heater up there, he's a lying sack of shit... ]

So Lisa feels better after debriefing with me (of course, she doesn't remember everything in the conversation... but she said want she wanted to say). She's glad I wasn't on the phone, so that there was no escalation of emotion. I'm glad I didn't have to talk to him. And this lays the groundwork for sending him the email... so we'll go over the letter and make revisions based upon today's conversation... then we send it off... and it can become part of our documentation of what's happened when we go forward with complaints to both the BBB and the CSLB.

So, where are we now? Hopefully a week (or two) away from moving in our stuff (and our bodies)... and mere hours away from firing the first volley in what I think will probably be a protracted struggle to get what we paid for.