Wow, Flack, what a huge awesome lot you have. Space like that would cost millions here. You should put in a pool next.

Did you post it here because Flack posted all that dirt in the ground?

Hadn't heard his name in six years, then heard it twice in one day.

Short version, not really. And it wouldn't work for what I want.

Nah, The Money Pit. I imagine Flack standing on his back porch making airplanes out of hundred dollar bills while yet another truckload of topsoil gets delivered. And this is all because of the outbuilding's foundation. Would it have better (less egregious, anyway) if you had simply added on a room?

THE
BATCAVE
AARDVARK

Flack, see if this 1948 movie is available on Prime Video, Netflix, or any illegal streaming service: Mr. Blandings Builds His Dream House where a husband and wife decide to move from crowded New York City to suburbia and the hilarious incidents that keep happening to them that cause the costs of their new home to keep rising. And every time he turns around, someone has their hand out for money for something else that needs to be done.

One part: they need to drill a well for drinking water, which costs $1 a foot. After drilling 300 feet they still haven't found any. So they drill another well a few feet over and strike a strong pressure pocket of water at 19 feet. So the well costs him $319, in 1948 dollars, probably equivalent to $3,000 today. This is before the backhoe digging for a cesspool strikes an underground lake...

Your travails reminded me of that movie.

Casual Observer wrote: Fri Oct 11, 2019 2:53 pm I think we're going to need some pictures of this adventure.

This is what ~$3k worth of dirt looks like.



This is one half of a French drain:



This one is called "French drain running at 45 degree angle instead of a straight line"



Bonus, this one is called "where my fence used to be."

AArdvark wrote: Fri Oct 11, 2019 4:11 pm Is the current cost of the building exceeding your estimated budget?

The current cost of the building has exceeded the cost of our first home.

Is the current cost of the building exceeding your estimated budget?

I think we're going to need some pictures of this adventure.

Monday, the contractor had 6 loads of dirt delivered. That's $150/load, cost directly to me.

Tuesday, I was told I needed a french drain installed. $1,000 to me.

Wednesday, I was told I needed concrete reinforcement added around the pad. $2,500 to me.

Thursday, 16 more loads of dirt were delivered, also at $150/load. Also, the delivery driver severed my cable line. We have no cable television or internet at the moment.

Today, Friday, I am waiting on the cable repairman to arrive.

I forgot to mention the best part. They are moving the electric line because instead of burying it in the easement, they ran it right through the middle of my yard. So they did it wrong in the first place. When they left, they sent me a bill for $984.

Also on the flags: We have the same deal here. “Call before you dig”. If they fucked following flags after proper procedures well.. now they fucked up.

Man you have about as much luck with new contractors as I do with new motherboards!

At this point I would think either they have to do their services at a slightly reduced rate or I would be paying a visit to my local friendly lawyer office.

I'm having a building built in my backyard. Every single thing they bury that goes to a house (power, gas, sprinkler system, cable) runs where my building is going. All of them have to be moved.

I got a call at work today from a contractor informing me that while moving my electric, they cut the main water line that runs from my house to my sprinkler system. In this same call, they informed me (a) it wasn't their fault, (b) they weren't responsible for fixing it, and (c) as a favor to me, they turned off water to my house. I asked the guy what I should do and he literally told me, "I don't know, call a plumber I guess?"

Let me rewind here. We have a phone number we have to call before digging (1-800-CALL-OKIE). When you call it, someone comes out and sticks flags in your yard where you are not allowed to dig. My yard has at least 40 flags in it -- red ones for power, orange ones for cable, white ones for where the power is going, blue for the sprinkler, and so on. The contractor said, "well, it wasn't marked." Literally, every six inches of my yard are marked.

By the time I got home from work I was already worked up about not having water for the foreseeable future. That's when they told me they were about to cut my power. I said okay, let me shut down my computers. They killed the power 5 seconds later. Literally, 5 seconds. For almost 3 hours, I didn't have power OR water.

After calling our local gas and electric company we learned that the contractor never reported the line break. If they had, it would be repaired. There was a lot of yelling. They're going to fix it tomorrow. In the meantime, we've located the main cut off for the sprinkler system, and turned my water back on.

Can you imagine going to someone's house to fix their computer, breaking their toilet, and then telling them you're not in the toilet repair business and that they should call a plumber? Seriously, what the fuck.

Billy Mays wrote: Tue Mar 27, 2018 6:12 pm I am a towering, broad-shouldered, alpha. I also drive a Ferrari.

Bullshit. Real alphas drive Lambos.

I think we're just going to have to agree to disagree here. Perhaps the reason my methods work while ICJ and Flack think they're ridiculous is because of the fact that I am a towering, broad-shouldered, alpha. I also drive a Ferrari.

Billy is obviously describing the way he wished the world works, instead of the way it actually works.

The reality is, if you were to tell any contractor to "get the fuck out of my house," they would, immediately, taking your non-refundable deposit and whatever money you paid them up front for materials with them. Cancel payment on those things after signing the contract that any contractor on the planet will have you sign and you'll still be out the money, plus court costs. Then you'll be forced to hire another contractor. Not only will the next contractor you hire be (rightfully) suspicious as to why you fired the last one, but they're going to charge you the same price as the first one, plus more to clean up whatever the first one left behind. Not to mention that if they're worried you're a loose cannon and might fire them too, they're likely to charge you an even higher deposit.

In a perfect world, yes, we would all be standing on our roofs, shirts off and wind blowing our capes as we crack a whip while the people we hire to repair and renovate our houses cower in fear under our power. In reality, they're going to always leave the doors open and we're going to complain about it on the internet, because all of paid more attention in typing class than we did in Drywall Repair 101.

Billy Mays wrote: Mon Mar 26, 2018 12:37 pm Most contractors don't socialize in the manner that you're describing, they go out during the day to rip off people from the suburbs and then return home at night to abuse their girlfriends. My advice to you would be to roll the dice on another contractor, just don't show any weakness this time.

Ah, so now people who are in an industry together do not speak to one another. I see. Because if there's one word you never hear when it comes to skilled manual labor, it's them being in a sort of, hoooooooooooooooooah, just randomly selecting a word from the dictionary reall -- union.

So, things I have to do now to take Billy's advice:

1) Forcibly cut out the tongues of contractors
2) Bust unions