What's annoying me today

You do.

I think I may have mentioned before my working with someone who still uses proper 90s old school middle management wants peak.

It's still, in 2024, all about being aligned, moving forward on the same page with synergy, flag poles and ducks. And fair winds.

Not unlike how I always imagined Berry's fabled Boss of yore.

We're all singing from the same hymn sheet.

It's mostly Simon.

Is it Garth Marenghi?

Currently putting this to music in my head

Unfortunately not. The best thing is that his business has sales under £500 a year.

Probably just the bottom of the hockey stick.

Spent the last hour taking the Jeep apart to find the source of the overhead rattle. Suspected a loose speaker mount but they all seem to be solid. Tightened up every screw and mount in there, put it all back together and the rattle remains.

Having lived in our house for a year we thought we had figured out the basement issues with water getting in there with fully replacing all the gutters and laying new concrete outside the basement area which would transfer water away from seeping into the house. We had a series of crazy storms and the gutters couldn't keep all the water from coming down into the problem spot in the back of the house. Water got into the basement again and again. It is a finished basement and looked under the tiles and found that it was pooling in other areas down there. This was a major problem with the possibility of mold forming. After some investigation we found that the developer who we realised was an utter cunt and had cut corners, didn't just do that he didn't even install the problem drain tile in the house and the membranes that were meant to be in the walls had been badly utilised to the point that someone had used one roll of membrane and cut it down so that an inspector might see a little of it when they did the final inspection. Well, it's meant to be four feet tall behind the dry wall and in the foundations. At it's best, one foot tall as it had been cut down and then six inches in some places. And the corners weren't even covered at all. If excessive water escaped the gutters (and the storms have been intense) then no chance was it going to keep the water out. Sealing experts came and opened up the wall and declared that it was one of the shittest and laziest jobs they had seen in a long time. The best part was that there was a hole in the extension in the basement that had been built for stairs down from the back dooer. Water had been flowing through there and into the tiled floors. Too high for the sump pump (as the water wasn't coming from below but above) and there was mold forming under the stairs.

We have to rip up the stairs and large parts of the wall and re-do the whole thing. The finished basement is now unfinished as all the tiles and everything on the floor had to be removed because of seeping water.

Our lawyer looked at trying to claim on the builders insurance (as he hides behind multiple LLC's to mitigate lawuits) and found that they fucker hadn't been bonded for years at it had elapsed in 2022. We bought the house in the summer of 2023. So no up to date insurance bond and the city of Maywood (where we live) didn't notice this either. There are also suspicions that the final Village/Township inspector never actually did the whole thing when so much was missed by him. I am guessing someone bunged him some money to produce a piece of paper. Our lawyer thinks that too. The developer was an out of towner who had been very very difficult with us during the house purchase even going so far to cancel the transaction when when we asked too many questions. Wifey wouldn't let it go and sent multiple letters to the builder begging for another shot. I was content that this wasn't going to work but we had been put in another corner having already agreed to the sale of our condo (flat), by then.

Maywood (the town) have responded to my lawyer's requests by saying, there is nothing in the building codes about the basement and drain tiles (the house was sold by them cut rate to this builder under the proviso that he build to code as they were still part owners of the project), when my lawyers literally read them the Maywood building codes back to them down the phone as he had them in his possession. There didn't seem to know their own rules!!!!!

The whole basement thing is going to cost $40,000 to completely put back together but I am spending $10,000 next week to get the problem area taken care of so at least we can stop the mold.

Big fucking mess. Ironically I may end up paying more in Lawyer fees if this doesn't go our way.

I am exhausted. Still wifey still loves the house so here we are.

Chicago: Fighting the good fight.

This all sounds very familiar to the way blame was passed around with the cladding and building in our flat. Fun isn't it. Fuckers.

Oh yeah it’s a blast!!

I feel guilty even wanting to take time off from work because I know I am on a timescale to
Pay everything off even though I want to. Being responsible never seems to be getting me anywhere but I am trying….

Chicago: Pressure valve.

The bean counters ruined a decent F1 race today.

I’d say they ruined the result as opposed to the race itself

Update: whatever I did appears to have worked. Rattle is no longer rattling.