Lessons in patience to me

threewood · Jan 1, 2023

Happy new year! Just read through from start to finish. Wow, what a story. I hate fraudsters, especially contractor fraudsters. It sure sounds like you are running him over the coals.

The addition looks amazing and quite the intricate work. I'm glad it is finished and being enjoyed.

I'm working on my own little shop and can say the contractor is flaky and keeps changing his mind and sometimes doesn't even show up for work. But he tries........I'm my own contractor

ckessel · Jan 1, 2023

Thank you and Happy New Year! :usflag:

ckessel · Apr 29, 2023

I scored a Delta band saw from a guy for free. It's an older unit thats USA made. Been wanting one for a long time.
In two weeks we are finally doing our arbitration hearing. So far the contractor has been stepping on his crank on depositions. Had to cash out a retirement account to get some liquid dough which is needed to fill the tank with our attorney. The other portion will get used so we can get the old garage done and therefore get the permit on the new finalized.

493 Mike · Apr 30, 2023

ckessel said:
I scored a Delta band saw from a guy for free. It's an older unit thats USA made. Been wanting one for a long time.
In two weeks we are finally doing our arbitration hearing. So far the contractor has been stepping on his crank on depositions. Had to cash out a retirement account to get some liquid dough which is needed to fill the tank with our attorney. The other portion will get used so we can get the old garage done and therefore get the permit on the new finalized.

View attachment 1457426

Well, if that bandsaw is any indication of your luck, you should kick *** in court!
Mike

ckessel · Apr 30, 2023

We are keeping our fingers crossed. Also yesterday our old pastor and his wife came by for a quick visit. We gave them the lowdown on the current news of the suit. They are one of maybe 5 who know all the gory details. He asked if he could pray over us. That was awesome!

ckessel · May 10, 2023

Today wrapped up the third day of the arbitration hearing. Looks very good for us but we're not ordering up new rides just yet. Both sides attorneys need to write up briefs for the judge and get them to him late May/early June for him to go over. There is a massive amount of information for him to go over. We'll be looking at late June to early July before we hear what the judgement is. As long as the contractor is nailed, we are fine. Anything past that is icing on the cake. The reason we went this way was due to a letter his first attorney sent us which said he could sue for the remainder of the contract. He quit. We didn't can him. Have him on a recording proving that but since he didn't know, its
inadmissible as evidence. The state contractors board told us his first attorney was trying to strong-arm us and the letter was not legal. Lots of dough gone to fight this plus over 3 years of time. It's been incredibly hard on my wife, most of our retirement funds are gone. Life gives you hard knocks and God gets you through them. We came out stronger after this but WOW! I can't even imagine how some snowflake would be able to handle something like this.
I'll get started on the old garage next week to get it ready for drywall which will be the last? item for us to wrap up on the permit. Have to be done by August as there are no more extensions on the permit. My car will be on hold again for a bit but thats ok.

493 Mike · May 11, 2023

ckessel said:
Today wrapped up the third day of the arbitration hearing. Looks very good for us but we're not ordering up new rides just yet. Both sides attorneys need to write up briefs for the judge and get them to him late May/early June for him to go over. There is a massive amount of information for him to go over. We'll be looking at late June to early July before we hear what the judgement is. As long as the contractor is nailed, we are fine. Anything past that is icing on the cake. The reason we went this way was due to a letter his first attorney sent us which said he could sue for the remainder of the contract. He quit. We didn't can him. Have him on a recording proving that but since he didn't know, its
inadmissible as evidence. The state contractors board told us his first attorney was trying to strong-arm us and the letter was not legal. Lots of dough gone to fight this plus over 3 years of time. It's been incredibly hard on my wife, most of our retirement funds are gone. Life gives you hard knocks and God gets you through them. We came out stronger after this but WOW! I can't even imagine how some snowflake would be able to handle something like this.
I'll get started on the old garage next week to get it ready for drywall which will be the last? item for us to wrap up on the permit. Have to be done by August as there are no more extensions on the permit. My car will be on hold again for a bit but thats ok.

I'm still following your ordeal. Again, best of luck!
Mike

ckessel · May 11, 2023

I was kicking myself in the butt yesterday after it was done. There was a form that I caught, the "signed" contract, that was bogus. I was at work so the dirtbag had my wife sign it and said that would be all thats really needed. While we were prepping for this deal I looked at our copy of what was signed and then theirs. On ours, only her. Theirs me first then here. WRONG. I would have signed to the right of hers. Next was on the arbitration section. Theirs showed her initials. She didn't initial that section. Next was his sig compared from our copy to his. His signature is different. And the kicker. He does a ... after his sig. On one form it slants up, the other down. I'm the one that caught that but do you think I would remember my honey pointing out the sig difference when it was her time at bat and then later me doing opposite and said it was mine? He was toast at that point anyway but I could have slammed the door shut on him if I payed attention. IDIOT! Earlier today when I was at the beach I realized God's hand in that. I would have been sarcastic pointing that out which would have made me feel like Mr Bitchin right then instead of being humble. Lesson learned.
Anyway it's done finally on that front. We most likely will not get a settlement since he will probably file for bankruptcy which will give us bupkis but at least he can't come after us plus we did not do an NDA. If the judge nails him for fraud, like we are hoping because he did fraud us, thats a different story. He can't hide behind his LLC then.

ckessel · May 12, 2023

Yesterday I picked up some lumber for the old garage. I need to at minimum drywall the lid for the sprinkler permit to be signed off. I'm adding material to the existing studs to flush them out with the foundation as I'm going to drywall all of it. A sparky who does side work will be coming by next week to go over what I want him to add/move before it gets covered up. Sometime down the road we want to convert it to a short term rental so we want to get most of the background stuff done beforehand. The wall that butts against the house is the wet wall so it can stay as is for now. I measured out for can light placements, have them marked up to with tape and will be able to find where the wiring is later because I drilled short holes in the slab, marked with a small amount of pink nail polish and can use my laser bore sight to let me know where to go. I'm not sure if I'll do all of the lights now as I want minimum there when the inspection gets done and don't want to tip my hand. Once the sparky work is done, I'll get a couple of spray foam kits from HD and do up top which is also the back side of the deck. From there batts too in that area plus the walls. They did the same setup on the new garage. After than, drywall time. Today I cut up a bunch of the material to fill in. Got pressure treated for the plates so no change there. A couple of weeks ago I moved the items out of there over to the other unit. Started installing the cut pieces today.

ckessel · May 19, 2023

I have about 75% of my wood butchery done in the old garage now. I made some nail plates using some seismic straps I had collected, cut them down to 6" pieces and got them in place. I need to work around the garage door as the way it's placed, I can't space it out otherwise it will hang back from the opening too far. I do need to get it partially disabled where it hooks onto the deck floor joists. When they come by for that, I'm going to ask if they can flip side to side the main brackets in the upper corners as this will free up some space for me for adding more material in prep for drywall. I have one section on the south wall by the door I need to bump out as when it rains, water comes in at the sill. That portion was replaced before we bought the place, due to dry rot etc. I'll bump it out, trim it a 1/4" or so to give it a little more space by the slab, put some flashing down that I bent up using leftovers from my fence, get some sealer down before the flashing goes in to seal between it/slab/sill plate, foam the inner space on the door thresh hold unit as water gets in there too and then back together. Since I had to move the dryer to get into the corner, replaced the dryer ducting and vac'd out the piles of dog hair that were under it. Ffn furry love gets everywhere! I vacuum in the garage periodically but was amazed that those big clumps didn't get pulled up when I put the nozzle at the appliance bases to pull stuff in.

Nxcoupe · May 19, 2023

My dog sheds so much we could knit an entire other dog out the hair. She's an Alaskan Shepherd. 95 pounds of fun and energy.
Garage is coming along. I keep checking in to see if your contractor's nuts get nailed to the wall.

ckessel · May 20, 2023

It did not go well for the contractor. Lots of egg on the face. But...you never know how it will land. At the minimum if he gets nailed we are fine. Want more though as we are out $60k just for legal fees and had to get family loan plus cash out retirement accounts to finish the work. We had the privilege of paying taxes on that too. He was talking about bankruptcy before this finally happened so it could be a no started due to that. If he gets hammered on fraud though, like what we want to happen, he can't hide behind his LLC. We can go after him personally even up to the point he's homeless. The guy has a screw loose as it is. He's not used to someone fighting him. Others have rolled over or settled out of court. There are several NDA's out there. This week I've been keeping a couple of my heaters close by while I'm down below working or here in the house.

493 Mike · May 20, 2023

ckessel said:
It did not go well for the contractor. Lots of egg on the face. But...you never know how it will land. At the minimum if he gets nailed we are fine. Want more though as we are out $60k just for legal fees and had to get family loan plus cash out retirement accounts to finish the work. We had the privilege of paying taxes on that too. He was talking about bankruptcy before this finally happened so it could be a no started due to that. If he gets hammered on fraud though, like what we want to happen, he can't hide behind his LLC. We can go after him personally even up to the point he's homeless. The guy has a screw loose as it is. He's not used to someone fighting him. Others have rolled over or settled out of court. There are several NDA's out there. This week I've been keeping a couple of my heaters close by while I'm down below working or here in the house.

What caliber are the heaters?
Mike

ckessel · May 20, 2023

.40 JHP 180 grain and 12ga 00 Buckshot.

ckessel · 2023-06-02T21:13:31-0500

Today I wrapped up the insulation of the lid. I wanted to foam it before I put the glass in, which is what was done on the new one, but it turned out to be a $400 disaster. Operator error or other issues. Got almost as much on the floor as the lid so I decided to stop hemorrhaging money on that. Will take the other foam pack back to Depot for a refund. I'll also be able to take one bundle of glass back too since I had plenty by using some of the scraps in narrow areas. The drywall will get done mid next week so from there I'll get the final inspection done and the project which started in 19 will be done. The wiring for the can lights is in behind the glass, I have small holes drilled into the slab marked with pink nail polish so I can sit my laser bore sight there and point right where the rock will need to be cut for access. I am one tired dude after the last couple of days. Tomorrow is car day so I'm spectating the yearly show at Pismo Beach.