View Single Post
Old 06-23-2015, 06:54 AM
  # 64 (permalink)  
MesaMan
Member
 
MesaMan's Avatar
 
Join Date: Mar 2014
Location: Colorado
Posts: 3,472
Welp, 'tis a new and wonderful Morning here in the Neighborhood. Cool. Sunny. Some Doves up in our Suburban Pine Trees; planted Decades ago with the Settlement Money from Body-crushing Whiplashed Car Accident. It's comforting to sit here and absorb the residual good from all that indescribable anguish that today is but a proverbial, distant Memory.

The Caucasian Conundrum of yesterday was a problem that really was not a serious problem at all, of course. But, you have to muscle through the moment to look back and detach from it all. I do, anyway...

Da Wife calls me at the Dog Park yesterday, really P.O.ed. Our House Buyer + Son + her Realtor are on our Front Steps - unannounced - wanting to enter our House for what we first thought was her separate House Inspection. I'd already paid $355- for my own Pro Inspection - put on line - so that Buyers/Bidders in this over-heated Housing Market could see for themselves what this House needed. Likely a new Furnace, for one thing. So, I leash up the Pooch, and zip Home. I send my Realtor an incendiary Text about this Breaking Development after he doesn't pick up my Call. Not about him, but about this other Realtor. He drops the impending-Deadline Contract he's writing, and speeds over to our Joint.

Meanwhile, the 'Contractor' pulls up, and parks part-way on the Curb - facing the wrong way - while blocking the Fire Hydrant. A real piece-of-work, this Guy. I muscle my attitude into my Retired Int'l Biz/Crisis Management Mode, and am determined to make this encounter work w/o scuttling the House Sale.

Turns out, the very nice Single Gal w/2 Rescue Dogs buying our Joint just wants this Contractor to estimate Remo details like a new Kitchen, and finishing ~600 sq. ft. of unfinished Basement. That's kewl. I supply House and Structural details, and tell my usual Stories. I hit it off immediately with her Son; a like-minded Fan of the 'Small House Movement' just back from helping Earthquake Victims in Nepal.

Then, when I point out that a non-Weight Bearing Wall in the Kitchen can be moved w/o consequence to allow an Island, Mister Blue Collar ****-wad 'Contractor' goes off on me, telling me that a 'real' Engineer has to make the call on removing this Wall. I point up to the significant expanse of unsupported space above my Head, and mention how I watched these Vaulted Ceiling Trusses get set in 1987. They support the Ceiling. The 'Cosmetic' Kitchen Wall does not. You could cut the escalating tension in my Kitchen with a Chain Saw at this point, so I drop it. It became obvious that he had to be right; Topic notwithstanding. I'm thinking our poor Buyer, who doesn't seem to know this Contractor, should take up Smoking. She'll need a Cig right after he royally screws her. All we can conclude is that he wants to slam in an unnecessary 'Support Beam', and rack up his Bill. He roars off. The Buyer apologies to me.

Meanwhile, her lying Realtor acts like she used this neato on-line Showing Service to book this stealth Appt. Problem is, we disabled that on-line Showing Service days ago after accepting this Gal's Offer. I would have gotten an e.mail to 'Accept' - 'Reject' - 'Reschedule' this Appt. [which wasn't a Showing at all]. So, we had to roll with the dynamic of not making her look bad in front of her Client [our Buyer].

Da Wife - from Michigan, as is ArtFriend - did a magnificent job of Firewalling this pushy Realtor, who complained that 'she'd already wasted 30 minutes waiting' for me. Too bad, so sad. There was no way anyone was muscling into the Michigan Polack's House. Zeus Bless her!

When the Deal-infringing Parties left, the Buyer Gal and I had a great Chat while she took plenty of Pix. I pointed out the free-span Master Bedroom Vaulted Ceiling; made possible by weight-bearing Roof Trusses. She got it. Everyone wants to imagine where the Furniture will go, and how much their Life will improve in new Digs. Lord knows I don't factor into the Fantasies of many Woman, but at least I can provide House Info to help this Gal realize her's.-)

Had I been Drinking still, this situation would have gone up like The Hindenburg on a hot day. No >$400,000 in our Pocket next month after Closing. As my Saying goes - when someone implodes a situation in on themselves - 'I showed me'! Today, I woke up Sober - feelin' like a million Bucks - and this Contractor was still an A-Hole. Funny how that Karma stuff works, ain't it?

No Livers were harmed in the making of this Rant.
.


.
MesaMan is offline