Guest Author - Katie Murphy

I live in Florida in an home with a pool, but there is a serious design flaw in my pool/patio area. The pool takes up the entire patio and there is no where to place chairs around the pool…much less a chaise lounge. So, if I wish to use my pool the only option my guests have is to stay in the pool or to sit on the edge of the pool. Not so much fun.

You would think we would have noticed this when we were building the home. That would have been too easy and the remedy would have cost us about $1000 in 2003. Four years later we decide it is time to expand the patio, so we can actually use the area.

Of course we know to get numerous quotes on the project. We start with three local companies and three days later, one company returns our call. This seems a little weird to me, as we found those companies because they ADVERTISED. No wonder they have to charge so much.

We schedule the appointment to come and look at the project. Onward and upward, we proceed to the Yellow Pages to find other companies and call two others. Amazingly, they both call back and set appointments.

Now we’re excited. We are making progress toward our new party patio and we’re already planning a date for the festivities. We start discussing furniture and lighting options. We are officially excited.

A week later, three guys have shown up, talked to us about the project, measured and re-measured and gave us their opinion of what we really wanted. It is really interesting how each of them had “the best” materials and staff in the industry AND how all three companies exceed the current codes. Wow, can you believe it?

Okay, we are almost there. Let’s make a trip to the store and start pricing furniture and as soon as the project is done we can start enjoying our pool. I might even buy a new swimsuit. Yippee!

Waiting for the quotes. Waiting….waiting…..waiting.

A week later, the phone messages begin… “I have your quote. Can I come over to go over it with you”? Okay, three more appointments. Our excitement level is still pretty high. We are ALMOST there. Let’s share the good news with a few friends and let them know we will be having a P A R T Y pretty soon. Yippee!

Okay, we have the quotes. First guy…. “we can do this and this and this, but we can’t do that and that and that”. How much? $17,895. Second guy… “we can do everything”. How much? $25,000. Third guy…. “the job can’t be done”.

We’re four weeks into getting prices and we’re still not there. A $6000 difference seems pretty steep to us. We want more quotes. Call three more companies. They all come out and do the same thing. We tell them we are getting numerous quotes. Quotes come in and now we have a range from $12,995 to $25,000.

We can’t understand why the disparity. We really liked the guy (Joshua) with the lowest quote, but it also made us nervous. We talked at length to him. He explained his business model. He was a principle in the company. He explained why he was able to do it at that price without compromising quality. He promised the job would be done in a month. We called two counties and the Better Business Bureau. Everything looks golden. WooHoo, we are getting our patio and screen enclosure started. Let’s set a date for the party.

We signed the contract and handed over $1000. The job is going to engineering and the permit will be applied for within the week. The week passes and no word yet. This doesn’t mean much as he told us engineering would be about a week and permitting could take up to two weeks.

It’s a week and a half after signing the contract. I make a call to Joshua to ask when the concrete company would be coming out to form the project. He answers my call immediately. This is a great sign. He tells me they will be at my home on either Wednesday or Friday. I’m totally delighted and can barely contain my excitement.

Wednesday comes and goes. Thursday afternoon I call my new friend Joshua and leave a message to confirm they will be there on Friday. At around 5pm, Joshua calls me to say: “the county will not issue a permit because the codes have changed and they can’t connect the new structure to the old structure”.

My heart sinks to my knees. What do you mean? That’s crazy! Why are you finding this out now? He apologizes profusely. I don’t understand. He offers to go to the county building department with me. This makes me feel a little better. I tell him I will speak to the building department myself on Monday.

We trek down to the building department. Wait an hour to speak to a planner. Explain the project. She says hold on and I’ll pull your file. She runs a report and comes out with a printed report that shows no inquiries by this company to pull a permit for our project.

My blood pressure is so high, I feel like my head is going to blow off and crash against the ceiling. Fire shoots out of my eyes.

To be continued next week…