I depise living in an apartment. It is like being a cup on a shelf.

So, I have owned homes.

In the back of my house there is a loose brick patio.

On one side of the patio and the backside the property slopes. There were terraced railroad tie retaining walls.
Those ties were in the ground for over 30 years.
They were rotted and needed to be replaced.

I wanted stone and not wood. I hired a landscaping masonary crew. We are talking about heavy stuff. Sand, crushed gravel, backfill gravel and blocks.

The head guy is from Guatemala. I had lived in Guatemala for six months back in mid-seventies. So, I knew his country well and we hit it off. Nice guy and a and competent mason.

I went with him to a yard to get bulk sand and gravel which I paid for.

Then we went to Home Depot to get the Block. Three pallets in shrink wrap unopened.

The pallets are loaded into his dump truck. They unload the blocks and stack them for use.

They dug out the old railroad ties some over 8ft. probably 200 lbs+.

Prep the ground level ready to lay block. They start to lay the block get about three rows up on a short 8ft. span.
The mason calls me and says look at the blocks.

They are a poured concrete type block made to look like stone with a back lip. They are supposed to be the same.

They were not. Really messed up 144 block per pallet. And they could not be installed properly.

That was yesterday. So, this morning I go back to Home Depot with two bad blocks and pictures. Saying I don't want these blocks. My guy lost a half day labor unloading and stacking these blocks.

What are you going to do? I want someone to come and pick up the block. They gave me shrink wrap and said load them on the pallets and someone will come pick them up.

I said ok. So, this will happen Monday.

I am going to have to do battle with Home Depot. They will take the block back. But I want them to pay the labor about $350 for what the workers have done and will have to do to restack them on pallets for pick up.

Ah home ownership. I am beginning to understand why people move into retiement communities where when something goes wrong someone else fixes it.

Bad situation, I don't know what HD will do for you but they aren't really obligated to do anything. And if you aren't a contractor who spends a whole lot of money at HD, you don't really have much leverage.

That's why it's best to subcontract these jobs for labor and materials, might be a bit more expensive but it makes the subcontractor responsible for the quality of the material... and if material shows up not right, it's on them.

Just frustrating really.

HD has insurance. They have their relationship with the manufacturers. It is up to them to work that out.

I will find out today what they will do.

They will pick up the blocks.

I still need blocks. So I can buy different blocks from them. Maybe they can discount that purchase?

Unfortunately, you will probably end up eating the cost of that labor, but you might get a pleasant surprise and they may split it or pick it up. Don't hold your breath, though.

In the end, the card they will likely play is that you are responsible for checking materials being delivered before accepting delivery. It sucks, but it's how it is.

Best wishes to ya, I hope it all works out.

They might, but probably not. Like DC said, you don't buy enough materials from them to be able to hold that over their head like a contractor who might buy $100,000 worth of materials from them. Giving you a roll of stretch wrap was probably your concession.

Just came back from HD.

They are cooperating. They will pick up the bad block.

I will purchase new different block and they will discount that block.

That's great.

I have found that most businesses will help out if there is a problem with a product they carry.

Years ago I had replaced my water heater, with a newer and high end product, with the idea that I would never run out of hot water, and that I would not have to replace the tank again for many years. I had Lowes install it.

About 13 months later, it was leaking like a sieve. It was out of their full warranty coverage. After tons of conversation with Lowes, they agreed to install a new one for free. That was it though. Well, I don't give up easily, and so I contacted the manufacturer. I got a little help, but was still going to have to pay for over half the tank. I still didn't think I should have to do that, so I found the President of the company's name, and his office #. (which was probably near his office, but not directly his office) After more ...... conversation .... they agreed to cover the entire cost of replacing the unit, parts and labor. (so I got Lowes off the hook for the labor, as well) I called Lowes, and they couldn't believe it, until they got the PO authorization from the manufacturer for the tank and install.

The squeaky wheel often gets the grease, but most people don't know how to squeak effectively, or are afraid even make any noise at all.

I am glad you were able to get what is right from HD.

That is good news. I felt they might do something for you just for fear of bad PR if you were the type to go on social media and blast them. That was the only leverage you had. But in the end, a few hundred bucks to ensure that didn't happen is a small price for them to pay.

On that vein, we had an issue with Verizon where they were double billing us one month. It was two separate bills for the same month. One was paid and the other wasn't and I was getting text messages like crazy. I was working with anyone and everyone and nobody could figure out what was happening or how to make it go away. Finally Friday hits so I just pay it too while continuing to track it down and make that payment a credit. Sunday hits and the phones get disconnected for lack of payment. I was livid and sat down and found a ton of executive emails and copied them all on an email with all of my documentation about my payments and engineers tracking down this billing glitch. Remember this is a Sunday on executive land.

Within a half hour I get a phone call from one of the executives apologizing like crazy for the ordeal and thanking us for being a being a long the ideal customer with over ten years of full on time payments and wanted the opportunity to make it right. He said everything should be turned back already clearly with waiving the reactivation fees, the paperwork to return not one of the payments but actually both of them for the trouble will be completed first thing in the morning as well as waiving the normal bill for the next 3 months as well.

At 8:15 the next morning the money was already back in my account.


Now I get to do all the same again, but with Southwest.com I doubt I'll hear anything back from them. I'm currently in the process of driving back to Orlando with a rental car from Denver.

AHHH the advantages of living in a small town. Most people who do work for us we already know. Stores including Home Depot already know us. We have very few problems with supplies or the workers. I'm sorry your having problems bro

In the end I believe it will work out for the best.

HD is taking the old block back.

I am going to buy a new block that is bigger. 2" in height and 6" in length.

HD discounted the block $375. I will add $300 to pay the crew for lost labor.

They are hard workers and I believe they will do a good job.

As I look at this job. I laugh at myself.

At 74 I actually believed I could do the job.

What a massive overestimation of my current abilty.

This job is hard with a capital H. I mean 8' railroad ties in the ground for 30 years had to be dug out. Then hauled away. Footers have to be dug. Crushed gravel pounded into the ground. Stone blocks at least fifty pounds a piece carried downgrade, stacked and leveled. Gravel wheeled and back filled behind the block.

What was I thinking??

A half hour into it and it would not have been a 911 call but a call to the morgue.

There was a time when I did stuff like that.
But those days are long gone.

In 7-ish months I'll hit 65yo. I wouldn't try anything remotely that challenging now.

Heck. I pulled out the Husqvarna blower today and blew leaves(fairly wooded lot) for 2hrs.

After that I cut the grass, both back and front for another hr. Feel like a Mack truck flattened me.

Oye vey.

Ironically, along those 'leaf' lines, I've been doing my parents leaves for 3 years, this will be year 4.

Same as you, they live in a very wooded area. Dad could mow, but doing the leaves? Too much for him.

This past week we moved them out of their house of nearly 53 years, into a condo at a retirement home place. Fortunately, my 3 siblings were able to help with the move.

2 live out of state, sis lives here.

I was hoping they'd have the house sold before the leaves started falling.........but, no.

So, every 2-3 days I'm over there, by myself, doing the leaves. If I keep up with them, it's not so bad. Go a week without doing them this time of year? Hours of work, with my mower, then dads mower to pick up, then raking the flower beds, climbing on the roof to get the leaves off.

Thankfully, this will be my last year doing it.

I'm only 52, and I will still do just about any job that doesn't require me to buy a bunch of tools I would only need that one time.

But even now, I still look at what it would take for me to do the job versus paying someone to do it, and sometimes pay them.

Recently had the lawn guys put a bunch of stone in one of the beds rather than mulch every year. I did one bed myself last year, but without a trailer to get bulk rock, loading bags at a time from Lowes was back breaking. These guys pulled in, and went to town, had the whole thing done in like 45 mins (took me 3 weekends), weed fabric and all. 3 yards of stone at $320/yrd, I priced out bulk when I did the other bed and it was $280, so for $120 someone else could do it.

If I had to venture a guess.

This job involves about 40 tons of material.

Sand, gravel, crushed gravel, stone blocks, bricks, railroad ties plus a lot of dirt.

Looks like they are building King Tut's pyramid.

This giant job is near done.

It should be finished Friday. It will end up costing more than I thought but there were things unseen.

And add changes that made sense. The home was built in the 80's.

Over the last few years I have rebuilt the entire house from floor to roof. Took down 11 trees.

Replaced four sets of double doors and all the windows. Replaced all the flooring.

Remodled the kitchen and three bathrooms. Replaced interior doors.

Replaced the heating and AC. New roof paid by insurance from a tree landing on the house.

Painted the exterior and interior.

So, I am done. anything from this point on should be small stuff and DIY landscaping.
Nothing major. So when I leave this planet my kids will not have to handle any major repairs.

There was 120' of retaining wall built and a brick patio leveled and relayed.

Tonight I watch the Braves/

That's great. It sounds like you got a ton of stuff done.

All I did this week was pay off my mortgage.

That is a day I will never see. I refinanced a number of times as rates fell.

However, in my case it does not matter. The mortgage is small and I don't really pay it.

I live with my daughter and two grandsons. She has a MBA and is working on a Phd. She works from home.

She makes good money and the monthly is a huge deal from what she would have been paying with her own house.

I leased my home for five years. During that time we lived in Reno where she bought a house. That house was sold and we moved back into my house.

So her savings monthly after paying the mortgage is considerable. It is a win win.

I am just glad all the work that needed done is now done.

That's worth celebrating!

Good job!

Grats, the feeling of being debt free is amazing, isn't it?

That was a humble-brag of epic proportions. Congrats!

I have gone to my old mortgage company's site and looked at the "This loan is paid off" message about a dozen times since I authorized the final payment. It almost doesn't feel real.

Wow! That's huge!

I'm not sure I'll ever see that here. Thirty years puts me at just about 80 years old when I finally pay it off, so I'm gonna need to make a BUNCH of extra payments to ever have a shot at it.

I had made some extra payments over time, but the money I got from my stepmother's estate did the rest.

Something good came from something bad. I am sure she would be smiling like crazy today if she could see my mortgage paid off.

Congratulations! The "extra" just keeps paying you. No regrets about the scraping wee did to pay extra. It was worth it and gave us some "extra" to do more.

Bask in the glow, man!

Congrats! It's a great feeling! I had mine paid off but took out a HELOC last year to invest in rental properties... I've had to get comfortable having 'good debit'...

We bought a really nice house in a mature neighborhood. Classy little 2-story brick English cottage. It needed upgrades, which limited how much the sellers could ask. Great bones, nice setting on the corner of two sleepy streets. Got it for a ridiculously inexpensive price. Classy-looking little joint.


From Payment Number One, we always paid more than the monthly- and we'd always pay the extra to reduce the amount owed on principle.

30 year fixed. At a time when banks and S&L's were pushing variable-rates like crazy.
Some months, we could only afford to dump 10-20 bucks of the principle toward the future. Some weeks, we were able to dump another hundred or more.

We paid the house off in 20 years + one month.
It was the most incredible feeling I experienced that year. It was almost as if the actual physical weight of that house was taken off my shoulders.


Congratulations, Y.
It's a fun club that just gave you your membership card.

I bought my house on my 44th birthday. I literally got the call the day before that everything was approved, and signed on my birthday.

I took out a 30 year FHA, and refinanced it once to a lower rate. That's a racket. A borrower is better off just paying ahead. Once you get into year 5 or 6, all you've paid is interest. (for the most part, anyway) Refinance and the whole interest racket starts all over, ands might be even worse if they .. ahem ....... generously offer to include the closing costs, so you don't have to come out of pocket with any money to close.

I paid ahead as much as I could, and made a bit of an impact, but I still owned a horrific amount of my original loan amount. I refi'd at about 7 years into my original 30, and went with a 25 year ..... but despite a lower payment, I bet I still paid more than I would have if I'd just stayed with my original loan.

I was just sitting down to do the bills for the month, and realized that I have extra money .... because ... no house payment. I am still going to throw $150/month into a dedicated account for taxes and insurance. (along with a little extra for my "house repair" fund)

Congrats on the house. It's a freedom to be had by everybody. Also good on the tax/insurance account. Many people don't consider that since that was paid by the escrow account attached to your former mortgage. Check with your county and state to look in to paying quarterly, or even monthly if possible. With no mortgage payment, scratching together the estimated prorated portion of tax should be little problem.

Like anybody else, I found it easier and felt better about writing a check that had "00" zeros v "000".

That's good stuff, Clem. We started in much the same way, then it quickly became contagious. Wasn't a really nice house though -- needed a lot of work. House was too small, neighbors too close, but we stuck it out. Paid it off in 6.5 years, stayed there another 6 with no mortgage, saved and paid cash for the next house, literally set ourselves up for life.

You have the small town part right. I moved to a suburb of Dayton last year and it is difficult to decide who to hire for any type of work like HVAC, plumbing, electric etc. Plus I had found while looking for homes to purchase last year the workmanship is horrible, especially when done by the homeowner. In my old hometown, I knew all the contractors who worked on my home. The home we bought was only twenty years old and the sloppy paint and other maintenance not in line with the quality of the home. WE had electricians here for two days ( nearly $,3000) due to dangerous wiring issues from an addition and other electrical "maintenance".

Also my cars for purchase and service. One of the owner's of the local new car dealership (he ran the service dept) sat right behind me at our HS basketball & football games. I could trust him for advice when my car needed work.

I miss that trust I had from people to be honest and do a good job.

It's all of this right here, and the fact that I'm cheap and enjoy learning things, is why I do everything myself (I may also be a bit of a control freak).
I KNOW things are done right, and I save a good penny doing it. The only downside is there is only so many hours in a day and only so many days in a week and there is a lot to do.

I couldn't have said it better. The people that do work for us KNOW us. And that's people from all over n.w. Ohio, by the way, not JUST this town. I go to church with some of them, I sit beside some of them at local games, at restaurants, etc. My wife has said, in fact, she hates going out with just the 2 of us to restaurants, wineries, games, etc "because you go talking to everyone and I don't know them." She's not antisocial, she's just shy.

Me? I'm shy as well, but I realize that talking to customers, or to people that have worked for us, etc etc - is BUILDING a better relationship with them.

On a side note, I use facebook for work at times. It's a great feeling to see the support from even total strangers like "Hey, I've never used you, but my friend/cousin etc has, said you do a great job at a great price".

I could give example after example after example of me getting work due to "I know someone that you worked for", or example after example of people/businesses that did work for us and if there was a problem, bam, they were there to fix it asap.

During the five years i lived in Reno. I rented my house outside of Atlanta.

I hired a property mangaegement company to handle the property. That included advertising, screening the renter, and collecting the rent.

When I returned to Atlanta and took the house back. It was my worse nightmare.

The home is four bedrooms, three baths, fireplace in the kitchen and living room, large recreation room 3k square feet.
Rent was $2250.

This family trashed my home. They had a dog that pissed all over the house. I had to replace all the flooring. In some places remove the sub-floor.
I had to have the entire house painted inside and out. Hardwood put into hallways and dining room. There were doors kicked in. Woodwork damaged.

When I first entered the house I went ballistic. I wanted to sue the property management company. And I wanted to hire "the godfather" to take care of the family and their dog. I moved back into the house in March 2020. Smack dab in the middle of the pandemic when everything got shut down.

I had to find a painter and get that done first.
Then I had to find carpet and hardwood make a decision and have it installed in like a week.

So that gets done. I get all the renters deposit and go after them for damages. I hired a collections agency. Pandemic. It ended with I would never get the money. I would lose time and money trying to collect it.

Then a major storm hits and a pine tree falls on the house at 3:00 am. Scared the crap out of me. I file a insurance claim. The entire roof, part, of the deck and some gutters all replaced.

All of that work is now over plus the retaining wall. I then replaced all the faucets in the house. All of the bathrooms and kitchen had been upgraded before with new tile, toilets, and glass shower doors. We are talking over $50k of work done. The storm damage had insurance deductble.

I also had six trees cut down and removed.

I am Done with a capital D. Nothing other than minor stuff should happen for a long time. The house will go to my two kids when I leave earth.
My daughter lives here with my two grandsons. They will be in great shape.

It was a total hassle but in many ways I am glad. I have peace of mind that all is taken of.

So was there a body count? We have rented out a condo my wife owned, not this bad, but endless headaches, so we sold it to get .!out of the rental meat grinder. Not laughing at your story at all, but I kept hearing Hee-Haw running through my head as I was reminded of those problems: "If it weren'T for bad luck, I'd have no luck at all. Gloom, despair, and agony on me!"

Sounds like you had some better luck at the other end of the tunnel with all the repairs. Hope it is all good for quite some time.

Anger is not a strong enough word to describe how I felt when I first came back to my house.

The property management company has so many layers of insulation to avoid being sued. You can't get to them.
They actually sold out and came back as another company.

The renters. I wanted revenge. I really did. To do what they allowed to happen in that house is unfathomable.

I wanted their legs broken or damage done to everything they owned.

They let sparks from the fireplace burn big spots on the carpet. The place reeked of dog piss.

There were inches of dirt on the ceiling fan. They never changed the air filters. I had to have the ducts cleaned.

My home is in a neighborhood with two lakes and nature trails, tennis courts and a pool. The homes are expensive. There is a home owners association with serious rules.

The property management company were supposed to have expections every six months. I had them send me reports. All was supposed to be in good order.

I had no idea what was going on. They left food in the garage. It attracted rodents. There were feces all over the shelves in the garage.

When I think about all this. My blood boils. I seriously thought about getting to this people. They are lucky that I am old.

Well it is all over and fully restored to the best shape ever. Everything is brand new.

Lesson learned the hard way. One good thing is that over the five years I was gone. I made about $100k. So, all the new improvements did not come directly out of pocket.

Isn't there a way to do something such that this will follow them when their next landlord does a checkup on them?

I think I would look into suing the management for their failing to perform their duties.

If the mgmt company was doing regular inspections and providing reports, and the damage caused was over time, and not done after the last inspection, then it's just a matter of if the juice is worth the squeeze.

I'm quite sure that the management company had a contract that outlined their responsibilities. If they failed in their responsibilities, they must have some liability.

Reminder to self..... Never pizz off bonefish.

There credit is ruined. They would never get a good reference.

The deal is property management companies are scum. They care about only one thing. Renting the property.

They are lawyered up to the max. Really hard to go after them.

They had references etc. But that stuff can be faked.

If you rent to someone directly and you are there to inspect the property. All the issues can be handled.

The problem was I had never done this and was in Nevada. I was blind and remote to be able to keep up with everything.

I assumed all was well. And the property management company were really the ones at fault.

I doubt that I will ever rent my home again.

But if I did. I would know better and do things differently. Some lessons are learned the hard way.

All the guilty parties escaped my wrath.

If I was younger. Things may have gone a different way. I am kind of glad I am old because vengence can hurt you.

I think any homeowner who puts a lot effort into their home would take it personal.

I never expected someone would do what they did. Never. This is no slum lord deal. I thought that the rent amount would screen these types of people. i expected the property management company to protect my property.

I knew nothing about the whole rental business. Sure I heard stories about bad renters. But I did not expect those types of problems on this kind of property value.

We always did our own renting, and one thing we always did when showing the property to a prospective renter was walk them out to their car. You can tell a lot about how someone lives by how they keep their car. If they can't keep the inside of the car even someone tidy, imagine what they will do to property that isn't even theirs.

It's not fool proof, but it is one more box to check when processing applicants.