WastedPotential
sociotard
Registered: Aug 2000
Location: the heart of an awl
Posts: 3692 |
quote:
Originally posted by bunkum:
shoddy construction company (if you come to this region, check out all of the construction from about 1940 and on...it all looks like the slums)
last year, and the year before, I had plenty of work in a subdivision about a hundred miles from here. The general contractor was a shady bastard that used a lot of "recycled" materials (less than legal). The area hadn't seen affordable new construction for at least twenty years. They set up shop with a realtor, offering "no money down," "no closing costs," and most of all, "affordable quality." The second year, I was being called in for warranty work on the houses from the year before because low quality materials were already failing. Cabinets were falling apart, leaving only the parts I screwed to the walls still attatched. In the fall, windstorms would blow through. Walking around the development, I would hear the "thwap thwap thwap" of roofing shingles raining out of the sky. constantly. I used to eat lunch with the trim carpenters, and we would make jokes about the mortgages lasting longer than the houses. One guy used to always say that we were building the ghettos of tomorrow, today. I'm afraid he was right.
This has been bothering me lately because I didn't go back this year. It bothers me because I'm not there. By the second summer, I started to fell less like a craftsman and more like an accomplice to a crime. Prospective homeowners would come through the houses I would work in, and some would chat for a little bit. Some asked me questions about the house. I always answered honestly and warned them away. The realtor didn't like me. The general contractor didn't like me, either, but he never complained to me because I'm a cheap date. he complained about me to some of the other contractors, though.
I wish I could be there to warn these people not to make their low-income desperate lives even more fucked up. People that can't afford a down payment REALLY can't afford major repairs like a new roof or new cabinets or new plumbing. (No, I'm sorry, roofing damage isn't covered in your warranty, high winds are an Act of God. Drip, drip, drip.)
Yes, I know this is way off topic. I'm easily distracted and go off on tangents without thinking about it. eat me. thank you.
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POW!
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12-13-2000 02:58 PM
