Success after IF

This porch is going to be the death of me. WWYD?

So... longest story short I grew up with a nice rustic screen porch, and cherish the moments I had, reading & chillaxing "outside" with the breeze blowing, the birds chirping, the deer nibbling the grass.... lol.

When we moved to this house, I knew I wanted to make on of the decks (the main back one) into a screen porch. After MONTHS of bugging Davez and getting bids, I won. My cousin ended up doing the work, he's a contractor, built much of his own house, and comes from a long line of skilled craftsmen. (mom's dad/brothers).  His main biz is landscaping though. But he does nice work.

Well, with construction, NOTHING goes as planned. We ended up needing a variance to ok the porch being too close to the property line. (by 6 inches)

Another $1000 and delays.

Then we had to thaw the ground last winter to redo the footings. All in a hurry b/c a TV remod show had us as finalists for a (paid) part in their show. That fell thru and we did all that (expensive) thawing for nothing.

Then we found a great deal on cedar, which obviously made the porch much nicer, but hello... more money. Skylights I had to have? Mo' money. The swinging porch bed we designed? Also not free.

So all in all... we spent almost FOUR THOUSAND DOLLARS more than we planned on this "cheap" project. I'm just sick. Not just sick b/c that's money we really don't have to throw around, and my "we have to save every penny for IF cuz we're OOP 100% now" freakout I'm having... but that's just a LOT OF MONEY !

All in all, I think my cousin got about $2K more than he planned in his pocket. The rest (cedar, skylights, variance....etc.) are things he won't profit from. He underbid the job, to say the least.  (not on purpose, just not experienced, I think).

NOW... I have final inspection on the damn thing this morning, and there is still some pine wood that needs to be covered before it's signed off on. Cousin said there was no exposed pine. I looked like a turd in front of the city, and now we have to spend MORE time getting it finished correctly.

*I* say it was not finished correctly, and I should not have to pay him to do it right. I sure as CHIT would not be paying more money to a Joe 6-Pack contractor, but then again, he would just ignore my requests and never come back. Cousin has been pain in full.

It's reasonable to ask my cousin to finish it for free, right? Even if he is family?

If he came in at budget (which I pushed HARD to stay on) (hard) then I would probably chip in a few bucks cuz he's fam. But $2K over ???

 

No way hose zay.

 

Thoughts? empathy?

(ps - the River GTG this summer on our (new used) houseboat is canceled. We're rowing, at best. sniff. )

Join us - Commit Random Acts of Kindness, and say "I did it for Cricket" Cricket's Cadence

Re: This porch is going to be the death of me. WWYD?

  • I wouldnt pay him extra. He should finish the job correctly. If it doesnt pass inspection then he should come and fix it...and not expect money in return.

  • Ugh.  I went through a similar situation when we had a friend of ours build our deck.  We had a walkout ranch, so the deck had stairs.  Needless to say, it was a lot of work and my husband even took off the week of work to help.  Anyway, the city came to inspect it and it failed inspection.  Long story short, it failed inspection two or three times before it passed (the city we lived in is super picky though).  Each time it failed, our friend came back and made the proper fixes and we didn't pay him any more for it - as we shouldn't have to.  I think that your cousin should absolutely fix the problems with the deck so that it passes inspection FOR FREE!
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  • No extra pay.

    He was hired to do a job.

    When the job's complete it should pass inspection.

    He's inexperienced and this kind of thing is the cost for him of gaining experience.

    He should have gotten the final inspection done before he settled the bill if he wasn't prepared to bring it up to code without more pay.

    Rookie move.

    He looses. 

    Our IF journey: 1 m/c, 1 IVF with only 3 eggs retrieved yielding Dylan and a lost twin, 1 shocker unmedicated BFP resulting in Jace, 3 more unmedicated pregnancies ending in more losses.
    Total score: 6 pregnancies, 5 losses, 2 amazing blessings that I'm thankful for every single day.
  • imageMr.&MrsS:

    I wouldnt pay him extra. He should finish the job correctly. If it doesnt pass inspection then he should come and fix it...and not expect money in return.

    This.  It should def. be finished in a way any contractor would finish it.

    Ella- 8/22/08, Jules and Tuck- 12/15/10
    image
  • Oh gosh that is my dream too! A nice screened in porch. Ahhhh...

    You especially need one with the airplane sized mosquitos up there. lol! 

    I say no check for the dude. Since he bid the project instead of just having you pay him straight materials plus labor, you really don't need to pay more. You're done. If he won't come back... then you can revisit the thought.  ;)

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  • Make him finish the job correctly- no extra pay.

    BTW- I read that one line as "I knew I wanted to make out on the decks".  Weird!  I read it three times before I got it right!

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