This one isn't a political rant or anything like that. No, I need to rant about the "renovation" project at my apartment complex.
So, my complex decided they needed to repaint all of the buildings. I guess they are having a problem attracting tenants. They sent out a schedule of this project, showing the dates each step would happen on each building. Well, first of all...they start my building late...but this isn't what bugs me.
The day before any work was to actually start, they send out an email to clear our patios for the work. This email says that the entire process will take 2-3 weeks, and that we need to keep our patios clear until the building is done. Now, our apartments in this building are not that big. This is a building full of 1-bedroom units with the largest being 600 sq ft. As you can imagine, many of us use our patios as a kind of living space. Some have patio furniture (I have a chair out on mine that I like to curl up in on rainy days to read), those of us with bikes have to store them on our patios, and several of us have plants or some other type of patio garden. Yes...ALL of that has to be brought in. The issues I have are:
1. My living space is cramped.
2. My plants require a couple of hours a day fo DIRECT sun, which means I have to block my patio door with my plant tables.
3. Because I have to have my blinds open during the warmest part of the day to try to get my plants enough light, my A/C runs non-stop in the afternoon, which increases my utility bill.
So, the work began Friday, 6/28. That day saw 1 painter on a lift with a power sprayer painting a majority of the siding. Monday, most of the day saw only that 1 lonely painter on the lift again, until after lunch. At that point, the rest of the crew showed up to prep the court yard portion of the building to have the walls/siding painted (covering the floor, covering all the fixtures on the doors and apartment numbers, etc.). At this point, I was basically confined to my apartment with the painting going on right outside my door, and the locks on my door covered on the outside, so that I could not lock my apartment if I left.
Tuesday, the painters show back up at 8 a.m., but sit around their van for a hour eating their breakfast. When they finally do start working, they spend some 2 hours covering all the windows on the patios. I take this to mean that they will start painting the patios. Yay...maybe I can soon move my stuff back out! I then hear a bunch of banging around out there, a little spraying, and after a full day of this, I leave the apartment to see them closing shop for the day. The only work completed was a small part fo the court yard paint that needed completing, the trim on 4 windows (yes...only 4), and the trim around the doors and windows on only 3 patios spray primed (yes, sprayed, which means it took them maybe 5 minutes per patio). They definitely did not complete 8 hours worth of work!
So, Wednesday comes around...the day before the July 4th holiday. The lone painter that runs the lift returns to take the lift away. I don't see any sign of the painters the rest of the day. I figure their supervisor gave them an extra day for the holiday, and they took the lift off of the property as to not have it messed with the 5-day weekend. I expect them back Monday.
Monday was yesterday! Guess what...no painters! I had to pick up a package in the office, and mention that we haven't seen the painters at our building since Tuesday afternoon, and wondered when they were going to return to finish. They stay they thought the building was done, which I assured them it definitely wasn't, and was looking in a sad state! I later get a call from the office staff. She said she called the supervisor, and was told they have to let the paint dry for a couple of days, and why they let the paint dry, they work on another building. The next two buildings on the list are within sight of my windows, and the painters surely were not there. I also told her that didn't make any sense, because it has been 6 days thanks to the holiday and weekend...plenty of time for the paint to dry.
NOTE HERE: I have owned a house, and painted said house...and you only need to give exterior paint about 4 hours in the sun to dry before applying the next coat!
I suspected the supervisor was giving our office staff a BS story...that he probably sent his painters off on another job to make some money, since he cannot collect on this job until the contract is done (and it's not scheduled to be done until September). Keep in mind, this is a large construction company apparently, and I'm sure there are multiple crews working multiple jobs. I drive around the complex before heading to the store, and see a group power washing a building that isn't even scheduled to be starting until late August. Additionally, another building that shouldn't have even been touched until August has an entire side painted. However, there are no sign of the actual painters...just a bunch handful of power washers. Looks to me that the crew dropped off the power washers (as all the equipment was in a pile in the grass and none of their vehicles were around), and then took off to another job!
So, either the office staff is dumb enough to believe the supervisor's bullshit story, or they are trying to bullshit me. Seriously, I don't care if they decide there isn't enough shade around my building to work on it during the hottest month of the year...and they decide to skip down the schedule and work on other buildings to come back to mine. I seriously just want some damn communication!!! If that is what they are going to do, tell us...so we can put our stuff back on our patios and quit being cramped in our apartments unable to even use the square footage of the patios we pay for! I have no problem pulling the stuff back in at a later date! I just want some communication as to what is going on! No way in hell will I be okay with this current situation for months because they can't communicate when they will return to finish our building!