A Tale of Frustration

 

I have, for the past 6 months, been trying to find a contractor to build two porches for my new house.  This has turned out to be more difficult than you might think.  First of all, the price of lumber was ridiculously high.  It recommended that I wait a few months.  Which I did.  And then began even more problems, which has given birth to this story.

 

Prequel

Once upon a time . . . . there was a “we” that moved to Wharton, TX.  Reason?  Compromise.  We looked for a home.  Not much available.  And, then we found an acceptable house.  With problems.  A house with problems. 

The realtor recommended a contractor.  Larry the contractor, was contacted and contracted.  And, he did very good work, he showed up every day, and charged a reasonable amount.  The end??  No.

One day the “he” of the “we” got very sick and he died. 

I found the care and feeding of the property to be great.  Honestly – I’m a city person.  City people don’t have to deal with water wells, pumps, and whatever else comes with having well water.  City people don’t deal with septic systems.  City women (like me) don’t deal with having to mow using a zero-turn riding mower (yes – I did, a couple of times, mow grass, some weeds, a couple of flower beds

and got it stuck once or three times  – ergo, the “like me” reference).  So, I decided to sell the too big property in the country and bought a house in town.

I bought a “repo” house.  Owner had walked away from it and took everything that wasn’t nailed down and a couple of things that were.  It was a house with problems. 

I called Larry, the contractor.  Contacted and contracted, he showed up and fixed all the problems for a reasonable amount of

The end??? No.  For reasons not important to this tale, it was determined that I would have to sell the “in the town house” and move elsewhere.  Which I did.

A Tale of Total Frustration and Four Contractors
part one

The new house is very nice.  A perfect house for me and the demon duo with one small exception.  It has no porches – a necessity because I do like, when it’s not 95° with 90% humidity, to sit outside and watch the world.  I had contracted a local man to build a small porch on the front side before actually moving because otherwise, trying to get furniture and other stuff into the house would have been

awful … terrible … bad

hard.

Now, I wanted to have the small front porch extended and a roof added (95° in the bright sun makes the door knob so hot you can’t touch it).  I also thought it would be nice to have covered stairs and a covered walkway up to the stairs.  We get rain here in the winter and spring.  Great big pouring down hard rain.  I am already tired of getting soaking wet to the skin trying to get into and out of the house.

I also wanted a screened in back porch.  Another place to sit and enjoy.  A place to put some of my succulents and cacti, bromeliads and shade lovers.  And, a place where the boys could go (because of past experience with dogs and trees, the boys are house cats) and maybe enjoy the outside (sort of).  Many years ago, Larry, the contractor, retired and, I think, fell of this part of the earth.

And, so began the quest (hunt, search, pursuit rootle) for a new contractor.

Stay tuned, tomorrow

A Tale of Total Frustration and Four Contractors
part two

 

ps: This has nothing to do with the story. 
It just made me laugh.

21 Sep 2021