Embezzelment??

Last night I met with a guy from Home Depot about my deck. He was going to come to my house last night, but he had been in my neighborhood earlier in the day and had taken a look because he knows there can be weird issues with associations so he wanted to see what the deal might be and from the stop he could tell me right away that they wouldn’t be able to do the work as it didn’t meet their minimum requirements. Home Depot doesn’t do deck work for under $4400…so I asked him how much he thought it would take, based on size and the wood they use which is guaranteed for life (not like the cedar they are supposedly doing on mine) it would be probably $3100 or less…and when I told him my dad’s estimate on the materials to redo it at $500 he said that sounded about right and suggested if it was possible to spend the $500 and 12 hours on a weekend he would recommend doing that (if I can get around whatever the Association requires for licensed contractors and all that) I also told him I had been told the permits would cost $300-400 and of my figuring on it being $100, he said that $100 sounded right for Edina and the project I was looking at. He also told me that he had looked, the posts were fine, there were a few boards that could be replaced but that that balcony was in no danger of falling down anytime soon (the note I had been given was that it was in dire need of replacement and would be one of the first done). So nice huh? Would this be embezzelment?? Something is going on, that's for sure, and that something is defintiely not favoring the residents of Manor Homes of Edina. Someone on the board or maybe the entire board, is trying to pull a fast one and I’m really ticked now…not sure how to proceed on this one, but I think everyone needs to go. They have been squandering money for way too long and giving assessments here and there that are ridiculous (like the $410 I had to pay 2 or 3 years ago for a garage door because they decided to replace all of them, even though the only ones that really needed to be replaced are ones that had panels in them, which mine did not) and the $510 assessment this year because they didn’t have enough in the reserves, or didn’t think there was enough cause they overspent, from what I can determine, on landscaping. Next summer we are supposed to have our road resurfaced…I wonder how much they are going to charge us for that one. I don’t think the association fees I pay cover anything. We used to have good snowplow service but the place we had last year, the few times we needed it, sucked. We used to have good lawn care, now I swear it’s never cut and when it is, it’s not cut enough to even notice it (definitely not the once a week it used to be done). Oh, also the Home Depot guy told me he would recommend waiting till spring, that I there is some dry rot and I could do some repair work, but he thought it would be better to replace it as it will eventually need that and it would keep from dropping the value of my home. And this was from a guy who can’t do the work anyway…so I know he’s not telling me bad information!!

I decided on my run this morning (I needed it!!) that I’m going to draft a document up for the board to read, I’m going to make my requests on the bill and everything for this deck they are trying to force me to replace, I’m going to require the name and information on the person that did the inspection that said mine was so bad off, also going to find out how many estimates were received and I’m going to let them know in no uncertain terms that I’m doing the work on my own, when I decide it is necessary and that any increases in our fees and/or assessments in the future I will want to see itemized spending details to know exactly why these things are necessary. If we don’t have the money, don’t do the work! And if any of this isn’t met, well, I do know some attorney’s and I’ll have the whole board investigated and impeached if need be!! This is ridiculous. I so wish I had a house instead of a condo…

On another note, isn't he adorable? My friend's son, he'll be one in a few weeks.