Lost Causes...conclusion

above photo...we begin work on one of many planters or flowerbeds. Have the stepping stones down and some of the larger shrubs planted. Each pink flag marks where we have yet to place a small plant. So many holes to dig...oh my aching back !

LOST CAUSES...conclusion

In conclusion, Brad was left without a business partner, though in reality BP had not been that beneficial to him. Most of his construction workers and subcontractors had left him, as they were all owed money; and he still had about 2 or 3 homes that were close to completion, but not close enough to be given that coveted CO ... certificate of occupancy.
Ultimately this led to his working every spare moment in a valiant but vane attempt to accomplish everything that needed to be done, doing whatever was necessary to get a home completed, approved and the CO issued. What's the big deal about a CO ? Well without it one can not close on a house but it is also to protect the homeowner. The house is inspected and the inspector makes sure that everything is in order, like there is a roof overhead, running water and that the bathrooms are all functioning... an out house in the back yard isn't good enough. Only with the CO can the homeowner go through closing and receive ownership of the house(though truthfully it’s the mortgage they receive). It is only with this certificate of occupancy that Brad could feel the house was legally finished. Sadly, landscaping is not required to receive that all important certificate !

A short amount of time, less than a year, and Brad’s business had bombed. Within 6 months he appeared to have aged 20 years. Tired, thin, worn to a nub, haggard and barely clinging on by his fingernails, it was hard not to feel some sympathy for the fellow.
The 1st Christmas in our new home I decided to send Brad a card. Knowing the ordeal he had been through, I didn’t have it in my heart to reprimand him, to be facetious or unkind. The card simply wished him a happy holiday, with our sincerest wishes that the new year would be a good and prosperous one for him.

above photo...Hours of labor and the last plant is firmly in place. Mulch has been spread and a once ugly patch of dirt and weeds now looks tidy and pretty.

Photo below...Same planter, different view. The large Ligustrum japonicum bush can eventually grow to be 20 feet tall, it was another one of our fortuitous acquirements. The plant nursery had two of these large shrubs and they were in dire need of being repotted. They offered them to us for half their regularly marked price, which was $120. Basically we got 2 for the price of 1. I'm grateful for any and all little favors that come my way.

Occasionally my hubby, John, would swing by Brad’s house, stop and check to see if anyone’s home. More often than not, no one responds to his rap at the door, but there are those rare moments when Brad would venture to see who had come by. On those rare occasions the two would talk, but not about money. John never asks for our money, that matter is a lost cause, it’s gone and best forgotten. However he does inquire about how Brad is doing. For a time the news was bleak; Brad was fighting to keep his home, it was on the verge of foreclosure, he and his wife were separated, he owed everybody money and couldn’t pay anyone. Then, the last time John stopped by and chatted, Brad was looking more cheerful, he told John how he had finally completed the last house and officially his construction business was out-of-business. He was now back doing what he had always enjoyed, working as a carpenter for a construction company. No hassles with permits and inspections, no longer hampered with a crew of slackers. He gets his paycheck and somebody else contends with all the headaches.

Perhaps, in the future, his wife will return and his life will be back on track again. I doubt that he will ever decided to return to the hellfire of owning his own construction business...or at least I pray that he doesn’t !

Lost Causes part III

above photo...One of the 3 young oaks that we bought and planted this summer. This one sits near the front of our house.

For 2 years I’ve longed to plant a few substantial shade trees, but at $200 apiece they would have to wait. Turned out fortuitous as the distressed real estate market had a cascade affect that effected such businesses as plant growers, nurseries and tree farms. Our $200 apiece oak trees ended up costing us only $70 each. Naturally, had they been planted 2 years ago they would have been established by now and we would be seeing signs of new growth, but a savings of almost $400 helps to ease the disappointment. It will be at least another year or two before these young oaks will start branching out.

LOST CAUSES part III...

I suppose I should mention that Brad had a business partner, I’ll not use her real name so let’s just call her BP (Business Partner as opposed to British Petroleum) for the sake of clarity. In the overall scheme of things, BP turned out to be more a bane than a blessing. She knew the home construction business quite well as her husband was a builder/developer, she had helped him run his enterprise and that enterprise was now thriving, of course that was back in the day of the real estate feeding frenzy.

Fate can be fickle and unpredictable, by chance BP met and feel in love with another man and decided to divorce her husband for a shot at "happiness". Seems her first mate was a workaholic and the family always came after the business. Grounds for divorce ? Perhaps !
BP’s new love was witty, humorous, a dreamer and a talker of such charm I'm sure he kissed the Blarney Stone, not once but many times. Can’t say as I ever knew what this new love of loves did per say, had something to do with music or films but it didn’t bring home the bacon. BP realized she needed to find employment in order to pay the bills, so after the divorce she talked to Brad about starting up a construction business together.
From what I could glean she was suppose to take care of the financial end, do all the paper work and tend the annoying legalities, pull permits etc., thus leaving Brad to do the actual construction and job of site supervisor. Unfortunately it didn’t pan out that way, Brad found himself juggling too many jobs and holding too much responsibility while his partner was quite often away enjoying time with her family.
Guess I mentioned that Brad didn’t have a knack for picking out reliable, responsible, dependable people? Perhaps he was just too soft hearted or headed, or maybe he just lacked that special common sense essential in business that allows one to differentiate an honest hard worker from a talk a lot, but get nothing done slacker? Whichever the case it cost him dearly.
At the onset of their partnership BP’s ex got the impression that BP was bringing his floor plans and home designs to Brad and that they were capitalizing on what was legally his copyright. BP on the other hand felt many of these designs had been her brainchild and she had right to such. Naturally this resulted in a lawsuit and all the headaches that go with it; attorney fees, and lost time on the job site in order to attend attorney conferences and make court appearances.
All this just added stress that Brad didn’t need. As things began to stack up, and construction deadlines were not being met the business started to crumble. BP could sense the ship was sinking and decided it was an opportune time to bow out of the picture, taking a job with another builder and leaving Brad with the whole can of worms...conclusion to be continued

above photo...2nd little oak at side of home

Photo below...3rd small oak at the back of our house. It will be a while before these young oaks provide us with shade.

Lost Causes

The above photo was taken when we first moved into our newly constructed home, the photo is a bit dark as it was taken just as the sun was setting. You may notice that the garden is nonexistent, the landscape barren, that green grass is really just a carpet of weeds. At this time the driveway was little more than dirt with a large mud hole in its center. It has taken us time, 2 years to be exact, to slowly transform our yard into a ... well into a yard, rather than a barren plot of land.

When we moved into our new home, we had an allotment of about $20,000 to do such things as install an irrigation system and buy plants for landscaping. But given the fact that our builder/contractor, Brad , was undoubtedly the worst businessman this side of the Mason Dixie Line our money disappeared. We are pretty sure that Brad over extended himself by attempting to construct 5 residences with his meager construction team, and I might add a very piss-poor team at that. Brad could easily have fired 2 or 3 of them and he would have noticed no difference in the amount of work being done. It’s sad that he was not able to see how he was being used by their laziness and ineptitude, to Brad they were good old boys, he had known them awhile and he placed his trust in them. Well sometimes the best of friends don't make for the best business partners.

I figured out that Brad was basically using money paid from one project to finance another, this game of musical funds is played much the same way as musical chairs with the outcome being very similar. When the music stops you end up with 4 chairs and 5 people, somebody ends up without a chair. Our $20,000 landscape allowance ended up who knows where, but definitely not in our yard.

Perhaps we could have taken legal action but it would not have gotten us our money. Brad didn’t have the money, the money was gone, long spent, matter-of-fact he was so in debt and over his head that his own electric bill often went unpaid leaving him in a dark home without lights or air conditioning, a condition almost intolerable in the heat and humidity of south Florida. Faced with a battalion of creditors who banged relentlessly on his door, plagued him with phone calls and sent threatening letters, his wife had taken all the harassment and hardship she possibly could and left him.

Many times we tried to reach Brad via telephone, calls were not answered as he knew all too well it would just be more demands for money, money which he did not have ... to be continued