Steve has asked that I offer an update on what’s going on with getting us back into our fire damaged home. As you may recall, the fire happened at the end of March of last year…and we still aren’t home yet. I haven’t written about it because it’s been literally the most difficult passage of my own life, and it certainly has been so for my daughter (“Yo” for Young One) as well.
Uncertainty and stress have taken their toll on our health. Yo was getting weekly acupuncture treatments when we were near our house, but since having to move an hour away, we haven’t been going down there. Not for nearly 5 months now. Neither one of us is all that interested in eating food, and I recently made the decision to try a weight gain powder. Happily, it tastes alright and it doesn’t bother our unfortunately sensitive systems, so that’s a plus.
Our stress is the result of being in the situation that our original contractor (the “OC”, in the direction of whom we say “Boo, Hiss”) put us in by not doing the job that he said they would. I’ll leave it at that, adding only that they’ve broken numerous consumer fraud laws, and it’s going to cost a lot more to finish our house and repair the job they did than what remains of insurance funds.
Without going into too much detail, I’m in the process of refinancing so I can cover what needs doing to make our house whole and complete. It’s been a harrowing road, because I’ve been a little too successful at unplugging from the financial system. I was aware of some of the effects of doing that, like what happens when you don’t have or use credit cards.
For reasons I’ll leave undisclosed, though, there’s no record of my stellar payment history on anything. I’m discovering how important that is in the world as it stands in this moment, and there must be something in this story that says I need to be really good at receiving.
While it’s true that the OC was a cabal-like entity in our lives, presenting a problem-reaction-solution kind of scenario for us to navigate, lots of other people, good people, have stepped up to help us get through both financially and emotionally. And believe me when I say that getting through, on some days, is literally all that I have to offer. Joy went on vacation from both of us.
Where things stand today
I hired a lawyer to craft a demand letter to the OC with a yes or no kind of answer. Yesterday was the deadline for same, and I’m pretty sure that our adversary has chosen to say no. I’ll find out on Monday, but what that means is that I’ll be filing official consumer fraud complaints, with or without the attorney’s help. I don’t know yet if he’ll take my case on contingency, but the law is most certainly on my side.
Yep, that could take a year or two to bear fruit, but by golly, what they’ve done is unconscionable. Standing up for myself will hopefully keep this from happening again, at least with this OC. Apparently, the field of general contracting is rife with people who have little to no integrity, and the law is, most fortunately, set up to hold those who practice such behavior accountable.
I’ve also hired a new contractor: a local guy with a valid license and a good heart (let’s call him the “GC”), whose business focus is, quite often, on helping people like us to recover from a bad contractor’s misdeeds. He’s been vetted by my own brother, who’s well-versed in the world of construction, but down in the state of Florida.
The GC tells me that he’ll file for a temporary Certificate of Occupancy in two weeks! There’s a ton of work for me to do between now and then, and certainly once we’re back in the house, there’ll be energy clearing and unpacking and organizing…and more construction. Hopefully, most of that will be on the outside of the house and we can have our sanctuary while work is going on.
I went to the house a couple weeks ago to leave a key for the GC. The OC had stolen our new door keys from the lockbox, and I had to pay a locksmith to break into my own house. Anyway, while I was there…I actually stepped out into the yard. It filled my heart to look up at the trees and stand on the ground…at my home, in my sacred space.
Yo is worried that it won’t feel like home when we go back, and that everything that made it our home is now in a landfill somewhere. I think that we’ll weave ourselves back in there with every meal we prepare, every picture we put up on the wall, and every pot, pan, dish and glass we unbox and find a place for…and it won’t take long.
My goodness, it’ll be an honor and a privilege to blow leaves into the woods at home, and work to restore the long-neglected and disrespected yard. It actually is looking as though we’ll wake up in our own sacred space before very much longer, and I find it fascinating that our lives are mirroring events unfolding on the world stage in terms of well-earned justice in the wake of unimaginably bad behavior.
What it feels like to navigate all the moving parts…