Englewood Story

Link: http://EyeOnEnglewood.com

We decided to sell our precious historic home on Acoma Street in order to afford the home on Pearl, our “pearl of great price.”

We joked that it was a “pearl of a house" on a "pearl of a street”... or, it soon would be.

Lessons learned, we designed a home that would allow each member of our family (usually students) to have their own restroom, a study nook and an extra mini-kitchen in the extra den.

We utilized the buffer of our bank's Construction Loan department which acted like a trust in dispensing funds only after inspections and work was completed.

This way, there could be no funny pre-pay business like our last contractor had pulled.

Surprisingly, the City of Englewood agreed to accept our hand-drawn plans if the foundation and roof designs were drawn by a structural architect.

Over the years, we had admired the work of Welch Construction, in Englewood, and entered into a contract with Mr. Welch to have the house finished by mid-August, in time for students to occupy it for the fall semester.

Follow up:

When the time came, I went down to the City myself and purchased the building permit.

At the counter, however, the bill was three times the amount on the fee schedule for our permit. We were adding on to a house already purchased, and the assessed price of the addition should have been the only value considered.

Being a novice, I squeaked, "really? Our contractor said it shouldn't be more than a thousand dollars." I remembered our $5,000 slush fund the bank had included. Two thousand evaporated with this first check. Ouch!

I couldn't dispute the permit fee much because I didn't realize there were any standards governing the amount of fees the City could charge for building permits.

What's the old adage? "If you don't know your rights, you have none."

Paying the fee, I returned home to a contractor in pleasant spirits who had just discovered that he and our neighbor, Ron Noffsinger, had been old fishing buddies.

The excavation came quickly as did the foundation pour and the bulk of the framing. We were on a roll. Everyone's hopes were high.

The first inspection came and went, and I requested my first draft payment to the contractor for work completed.

Then on May 14, 2007, the rainstorm of the decade hit Englewood. Welch had just removed our roof from our old house, and had his framers throw up some previously used tarps to manage a typical afternoon thunderstorm.

The problem is, it wasn't typical. It was a full on, 8-hour deluge.

We repeatedly called Welch, but he did not pick up the phone. Nor did he bother to call us.

We finally called the fire department who came out and said the weight of the water was too great, and that we were going to have a mess by morning.

Our neighbor, Miguel Drake, smelling of beer, awoke his other neighbor, Greg Pickett, to try to help. It seemed like a nice gesture, although the situation was too far gone. They quickly left, and frankly I was relieved that no-one fell off the ladder.

Around 2 O'clock a.m., we heard the first crash of the ceiling in the kitchen, then a "whoooosh" of water. Something crashed.

All night long, we cradled each other in the corner and listened to each piece of our ceiling give way, things breaking around us.

The brand new oak floor was ruined. Furniture broken, new kitchen cabinets soaked, tile broken off our new counter-tops, we generally empathized with the hurricane victims in the South.

The estimate was 800 gallons of water poured into our house that night.

Forced out, the dynamics of the build changed entirely. It sat idle while the bonding company of Welch Construction and State Farm worked out the details.

The framers no longer worked cheerfully. They finished the second story absent closets, outside doors, decks, and a few miss-framed issues. Passing inspection however, and paid, they went on to the next job site.

The plumber who owned Castle Plumbing came and went at leisure, and one day I asked him when he was going to do the work. "Oh, it's almost finished," he replied.

"But where is the copper?" I asked.

"No copper. Copper is too expensive."

"But, no-body asked us about plastic piping," I argued. "And, hasn't copper gone down lately?"

"Well yes, but there's a huge job site liability with copper these days."

I was extremely disappointed. Yet, it passed rough in inspection, and timing was my critical issue now. The quick work and attention to detail of Electrician, Rob, from CEI also passed.

Now, if only those framers would return to fix the position of the tub, build the attic access, stabilize the stairs, put in our exterior doors and frame the closets!

For weeks they didn't come. This, along with the repair work in the old house, set us back week after week. We finally ran out of patience with Mr. Welch at the end of July in an agonizing decision, we fired him.

Our balloon had popped. Mr. Welch said, "seems I've dropped the proverbial ball all over the place."

The bank notified me that Mr. Welch had changed the name of his company and his bonding insurance had canceled him. They required proof of liability insurance before they would pay Welch or Castle.

I provided proof of our umbrella policy, and the payments went through.

I hired dry-wall contractors and we completed our rough-in inspection then. True to his word, CEI remained on the job and completed all the electrical work. It also passed inspection.

But try as I might, I could not get Castle Plumbing to return any phone calls or finish setting the toilets, sinks or radiators.

With school starting, angst set in about finishing our project in the black, or finishing it at all.