Yardwork Sucks

My yard last week.

My yard last Thursday morning.
Moleman…?
Notice how they’ve managed to destroy my yard from the side of my house
all the way to the fence? That’s pretty much ALL my yard.
I have no back yard or side yard. We’ll get to the front yard shortly.
Yeah, that’s my front yard.
Here’s my front yard AFTER they cut the gas line…
This is the scene looking out my front door.
They left Friday for the holiday with a solemn promise
to be back first thing Tuesday morning.

What a mess. I’m really not mad at the plumbers for leaving a mess, or for leaving the mess over a three-day weekend, thus forcing us to move out of our home for the duration, honest. I’m mad at the city for forcing us to do this RIGHT NOW under threat of losing our home. Oh well. Such is life. I’m going to put a proposal to the City Council that they start a fund to provide low or no interest loans to other people who find themselves in this situation. Things would have been a LOT less scary for us had they said, “Yeah, this is gonna cost you four or five grand, but we can loan it to you fairly cheap.” The stress we had was finding the finds.

Oh, if you’re new here and don’t know the story, just read the post below.

If you’re reading this on Facebook, you can see the original blog at www.radloffs.net, click on “Blog.”
12 Replies

12 thoughts on “Yardwork Sucks”

  3. Chris

    And they crushed my little yard gnome, too.

    The sucky part is that it’s been a beautiful weekend, not a cloud in the sky, UNTIL this morning when they were supposed to come back to finish the job. It’s raining. There’s not a worker in sight…

    Gosh I hope they at least connect the last two pipes today so we can move back home!

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  4. Bluzlover

    What a hassle! I think you have a great idea to present the city leaders. Their method of handling this is wrong. Would someone in the Country Club get the same answers you or I would get?!? Keep smiling, you’ll be flushing on your on throne soon.

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  6. Carrie

    (I fixed at least some of the typos from the previous post which I deleted)

    Good luck with the city proposal. The “deal” they offered to us to pay off the alley paving wasn’t ideal. They’d take payments at something like 8%. My elderly neighbors said they were doing that, as it was only $30/month or something. But, 8%? Cripes. I won’t pay 8% interest on *anything*.

    But, I think you have some leverage in that if the loan is tied to the title of the house, they’ll be able to get the balance of the loan paid upon sale of the house (like back-taxes). That just might work.

    And, though the destruction of your yard is heartbreaking (you know I was jealous of your lush, weed-free grass). It’s an opportunity for some new landscaping!! It appears that you could have quite the pond/stream set-up pretty easily :o)

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  7. Jody

    I’m wishing both of you the very best with the city council and applaud you for paving the way to make things easier for others after you!

    Just curious, though…did your neighbors ever offer an apology…or accept any kind of responsibility for what happened? Your [jointly-shared] sewer system worked fine until they had work done. I’d think the least they could (or would want to) do would be to _______________. (There’s a number of things one could write to fill in the blank.)

    You know…sort of like the insurance slogan, “Like a good neighbor…” has your real neighbor been there for you?

    If not, how about a Chris-and-Dagmar-Radloff-Save-the-House fund? (PayPal!) I’ll be the first in line to donate. Your readers can help spread the word. Some things (and people) really are worth fighting for.

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