paper trail

Jenn and I are in the middle of getting raked over the coals by a company that sells manufactured homes, and if I can give one piece of advice to myself 6 months ago and to anyone else who is entering into a contract where a bunch of money and shit is at stake, it is this: don’t accept phone calls or face to face conversations — everything they say, get it in email, text, hard copy, whatever, just get something that you can bring to court to show that they fucked you around.

I’ll give a brief summary of why I say this. We bought a house from this company back in like March, and the salesman told us they would need the house out of their lot by May or June at the latest, and if it stayed later than that they would have to charge us fees. We said sure, no problem, and got to work getting our property ready for the house.

But once we had paid for the house, getting the company to commit to a delivery date was like pulling teeth. Unreturned phone calls, unanswered emails, delivery plans made and then broken, delay after delay due to workers being sick, workers on vacation, trucks broken down and can’t get parts, barge broken down, barge company bailed at the last minute, tides not right, etc, etc, ad nauseum.

At this point, our timelines for a bunch of things are totally fucked, and we’re beyond pissed at how we have been dicked around. But they still have our house, which we paid for and still want, so we don’t want to get in a fight with them just yet. The plan now is that once the house is delivered, we will give the company the opportunity to make things right by basically charging us nothing for the delivery. And if they don’t try to make it right, we will ask them to. And if they refuse, we will take them to small claims court.

Or we will at least threaten to. See, we don’t have much in terms of a paper trail for all the previous delivery dates that they bailed on, because a lot of this was done over the phone. Yeah, I know, you savvy business pricks will be like “ummm HELLO, obvi, duh.” But we have zero experience with this kind of thing, and believed they would want the house off their lot asap, like the sales guy said. We didn’t imagine we would end up here, months later, with them holding our house hostage.

And I’m sure we’re not alone. I bet lots of other people would make this mistake too, and that’s why I’m writing this. Well, that’s not true. I guess I’m just writing it because I’m so fucking pissed about this situation. This whole thing has been ridiculously stressful, start to finish. Fucking hell. So, ok, this post is just for me: next time you buy something big, get them to email you every god damn minute detail, you fucking bonehead. Because you just never know the creative ways in which people will kick you in the balls and rake you over the fucking coals.

Ps, I emailed the company this evening asking for the details of the latest delivery plan via email. I know it’s likely too late but better late than never.

more thoughts on homes

Yesterday a co-worker asked me to host a party. I said nah. We have been the go-to party hosts for like 15 years now, and the disappointment and frustration of trying to throw parties during the pandemic has me burnt out on it. If someone wants a party, why don’t they throw it themselves? I suggested to my co-worker that they host it and they said “nahhh, maybe if the weather was nice and we could be out on my deck but it won’t be nice for a while…” I thought maybe they were nervous about their place getting trashed by a rowdy crowd or something (even though that seems like a silly fear at middle age) so I said what about just having people over for a potluck than? My co-worker simply replied, “I can’t.” Now, they have a totally decent house, centrally located, plenty of space, so I’m not sure why they “can’t” have people over. We’re not talking about having a rager here, we’re talking about a dozen or less co-workers having a few drinks together.

Another co-worker overheard this convo and said basically the same as the first co-worker, that if the weather was nice they would be happy to have people over for an outdoor thing, but their house “is no good for hosting parties.” I’m not clear on what that means though because to me, most people just want a place to get drunk and smoke weed. It’s better if the venue is clean and tidy, and even better if it’s got a cool vibe but those aren’t necessary. So really, any house is good for hosting parties, by my standards.

My first thought is that maybe some people are ashamed of their homes, like I have been feeling about the prospect of moving into a mobile (ahem, MANUFACTURED) home. Maybe they know their places are messy, or they haven’t gotten around to patching that hole in the drywall, or they haven’t finished those 4-yr old renovations, stuff like that. Maybe they just think their places look shitty or smell bad, like they will appear poor or something. Anyway, I don’t know if this is necessarily the reason my co-workers didn’t want to host an indoor party but I bet it’s a fairly common reason. I think the other common reasons would be laziness (don’t want to decorate, clean up, have to deal with drunks at the end of the night, etc), fear of their stuff or place getting damaged, and fear of failure, ie hosting a lame party. Those are the things that have prevented me from having parties in the past.

Anyway, I just thought it was interesting to encounter the possibility of other people being embarrassed of their homes right when I’m wrestling with that issue myself. Good timing, universe.

^{I just love this dang gif.}