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Special "Extreme Makeover, Home Edition" issue of my housing co-op newsletter
By Jane Stillwater (about the author) Page 1 of 2 page(s)
For OpEdNews: Jane Stillwater - Writer
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Whatever happened to "Desperate Housewives"? I guess it was a victim of the writers' strike. I liked "Desperate Housewives". But I never liked watching the program that came on before it. "Extreme Makeover, Home Edition". At least I never liked it until now.
Now I watch it with complete and utter fascination. Why? Because the housing co-op where I live is about to get an extreme makeover too! Yes, the re-hab that our Board of Directors' majority alliance has been zealously stalling off for the last seven years is finally about to happen! And does this mean that TV host Ty Pennington will show up at Savo Island with his famous "Good Morning!" wake-up call? Why not? The Stillwaters are a deserving family. I want my home to get transformed!
"But Jane," you might say, "it sounds to me like you have gone back to hatin' on that poor Board of Directors alliance again. Why is that? They've done everything they can to make this re-hab happen. You think not? Just ask them." Yeah, well. Actions speak louder than words. Since when does it take seven years to get a re-hab off the ground?
And if the Board alliance didn't deliberately stall this re-hab on purpose, then they must be the most incompetent people this side of the White House -- where even as we speak GWB is still trying to get Iraqis to just shut up and give him their oil after all these years, spending approximately three trillion dollars on Iraq's "re-hab," taking longer than World War II and still being no closer to shouting "Move the Bus!" than he was back in 2003.
The other day I was looking at a worksheet that listed what the estimated costs of the Savo re-hab would have been back in 2005. Then I compared it to a worksheet listing our estimated costs now. There has been approximately a three-million-dollar cost increase, due mainly to inflation. That means that every single member of the Board alliance who has been responsible for stalling (or fumbling) this re-hab has cost my co-op approximately $360,000 each. Thanks, guys.
Getting the re-hab started by September 2008 is an absolute imperative. I don't think this housing project can survive yet another winter without floating down the drain. Almost every unit in the project has had at least one leak this year. There are blue tarps on several of our roofs -- the kind that they used after Hurricane Katrina. Shingles are falling off the walls, shingles are falling off the roofs and the drainage and irrigation systems suck eggs -- not to mention the lack of effective maintenance inside the units themselves.
Hopefully, however, this is all about to change! In just six more months, if we are lucky, our "Extreme Makeover, Home Edition" will finally begin -- by September of 2008. And once it gets started, I have been told that things will go quickly -- perhaps not in the seven days that it takes Ty Pennington's crew to complete a re-hab, but still and all....
The roofing and siding will go up rapidly and we'll have it all in place by the end of November. The window installation will take only a day or two per unit so we will only have crews inside our homes for a very short time (I've been told that our latest contractor is very good with working with families and not displacing them more than is absolutely necessary). And it will take two months maximum to slap on the roofs. The water heaters and finances can be replaced in approximately five hours per household. Go us! And, if all goes according to plan, by July of 2009 we will finally be able to shout, "Move the bus!"
On his TV show, Ty talks about building eco-friendly homes. "This season expect to see more extreme homes, the latest in extreme technology -- highlighted by an all 'green' build in Arizona. And there will be a green element on every episode this season, with eco-friendly, low energy and recyclable sources being incorporated into the builds." Is Savo Island going to get any 'green' elements too? Heck no. In fact, the Board alliance went out of their way to avoid cost-effective, energy-saving siding in favor of 'real' cedar shingles that entail cutting down a whole bunch of trees -- and costing us more money too. And will we be getting any of those energy-saving solar panels that I begged for? What do you think?
If we had elected a forward-looking Board back in 2001, we could have changed Savo into a national showcase for what eco-friendly homes could be. We had the money. We had the technology. Imagine what we could have done with that three million dollars that inflation just ate! Now our heating bills are skyrocketing but we're stuck with gas heating. If only.... If only the alliance had concentrated on future possibilities instead of on consolidating their power, keeping their market-rate rents low and hatin' on ME.
After apparently stalling the re-hab for approximately seven years, however, even I have got to admit that the Board alliance is finally becoming enthusiastic about getting this re-hab done. Why the sudden change in their attitude? We may never know. Perhaps it was because some of them are now receiving HUD subsidies and no longer mind that the market-rate rents will go up to help pay for the re-hab? Or could it be because of the stern lectures they have just received from HUD? Or maybe it was caused by the three (3) fair housing lawsuits filed against them? Or maybe it's just the "monkeys with typewriters" effect -- that sooner or later it was going to happen anyway?
In any case, the Board alliance's attitude toward ME hasn't changed. Not only are they still hell-bent on covering over my wonderful light-giving window, they are apparently trying to do everything they can to keep me from moving to a downstairs unit -- which I desperately need because of my bad ankle and knees. Sorry, guys. HUD says you gotta do this, even if it involves helping me. And, yes, it IS illegal for you to keep trying to dig into my medical records and files. Sorry about that one too.
But worst of all, at the last Board meeting, one of the alliance members actually cited an out-of-date and illegal occupancy rule that would have forced my two-month-old granddaughter and her parents to become homeless and out on the street if he had gotten his way. That's taking vengeance on me for being a whistle-blower a little too far, don't you think? I guess that they REALLY don't like me. 
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