Rebuilding Contracts

I am dismayed by the advice given by the "Open Contractor Fraud and Insurance Forum" as reported by Bayou Buzz. It is beneath elementary and borders on incompetent.

Citizens were offered tips on how to protect themselves when dealing directly with contractors and insurance agencies:

• Do not offer the contractor a complete payment in advance.
• Remember to ask for receipts once any portion of payment is remitted.
• Be sure to request detailed invoices before work begins.
• Price supplies ahead of time.
• Pay with a check or money order for better record keeping.
• Insurance claims can be resubmitted after checks have been disperse.
  

I already know at least two construction professionals who may have been victims of construction fraud.

In those cases they can afford it and have enough documentation to convince a court to grant them relief. There are several problems with astonishingly the minimal recommendations reported by Bayou Buzz.

The things they left out were amazing.

Let me add my list;

• Make sure the Contractor is licensed in the State of Louisiana.
• Make sure you have a Certificate of Insurance with you named as "Additional Insured"
• Don't accept a copy, only accept an original issued by the Contractors Insurance Agent, prior to beginning work, its the only way to be sure the insurance is in effect.
• Don't pay for work in advance. If you pay deposits insist on verification of the invoices and clear title to the material you paid for.
• Negotiate a complete written contract. Don't rely on oral representations. Write letter, send emails and faxes. Contracts are required for any work over $7,500.00
  
• Use Industry Standard contract forms. Don't sign the contract presented to you by the a contractor without reading and thinking about it. AIA and AGC forms are Industry Standards but they don't apply to most residential projects.
  
• Don't pay until the work is delivered. There is a 90 day lien period in Louisiana. If the Contractor doesn't pay his subs or his employees you might have to pay twice.
• Record significant contracts, record the termination of the contract and get a clear Lein and Privlege Certificate (issued by the Recorder) before making the final payment.
  
• Never ever pay cash.
• If the money is being held by a third party make sure you know what they require to release the money and how long it will take. Get it in writing.
  

I'm sure if I had time I could think of other things to add to the list.

LRA should be issuing these guidelines. They have a stick to prevent unregulated contractors from receiving LRA funds.

The rich can take care of themselves. I also don't worry about the "poor and disadvantaged", they have an entire industry dedicated to "protecting" their "interests".

The unfortunate middle is left without the education, experience or resources to effect their recovery. These are the people most in need of help and they are the most important segment for the recovery of New Orleans.

Excursion: Chattanooga, Tennessee

Over the Fourth of July weekend we went to Chattanooga, Tennessee.

Chattanooga is less than two hours for Atlanta by car. It has been a tourist city for many years. Anyone who drove across the south in forties, fifties and sixties would have had to have been blind to have not encountered the "See Rock City" signs, billboards and barns.


Almost as prominent were the Ruby Falls signs.


We didn't visit either of them.

Our excursion started out as a get together with an old friend who lives in Huntsville, Alabama. Chattanooga is about equidistant from Huntsville and Atlanta. Unfortunately our friend had a family emergency and couldn't make it. We decided to go ahead, if only to get a change of scene. In the end we decided to drive up Saturday morning, check out the town and return Sunday morning. A short, simple excursion.

Chattanooga is a tourist city, but very unlike New Orleans. The tourists are different, the attractions are different and the feel is different.

We were there only a short time, so my impressions are just impressions.

First the Chattanooga Riverfront has been developed into a continuous green space. there is a Riverfront Park which has a walking path which extends for miles through a combination of wetlands, parks and scenic vistas. While the Tennessee River is no where near as majestic as the might Mississippi, it is far more scenic.

An old railroad bridge has been converted to a pedestrian bridge and the older part of town across the river is accessible by foot.


We walked the river front and eventually ended up at a restaurant overlooking the river.

After taking a cab back to our restaurant we sortied out again to the Tennessee Aquarium.

It was interesting. There were the de rigeur exhibits of jellyfish, seahorse and tropical fish a la Nemo. It seemed well done.

Our time remaining in Chattanooga was spent eating in a brew pub, sleeping and having breakfast at a neighborhood restaurant across the river from Chattanooga. It was pleasant.

Our return to Atlanta was a pleasant ride in the country. We took a couple of side trips. First investigating an outlet mall in North Georgia. It wasn't that interesting.

The second to Lake Allatoona, a artificial lake north of Atlanta. It was very scenic and interesting. There is a state park there which offers cabins with fire places which might be a cozy place to hole up on a cold winter weekend.

Not long afterwards we visited the new Georgia Aquarium. But that is a story for another day.

Her First Arrival

It's been about a year since our trailer was delivered and almost a year since I first slept in it.

It seems about time I told the story of the first time We stayed there.

In the process of obtaining a trailer we apparently inadvertently gave up the opportunity for FEMA to send us a check every month. Talk about poor communication.

Does anyone recall in the aftermath that FEMA or anyone else explained that you had an option of getting a travel trailer or a monthly stipend? Has anyone had any explanation of the options for families? I have a neighbor who asked if he could get two travel trailers for his family of four. He was told NO! He declined the invitation and was instead sent a check for $10,000+ by FEMA with a promise of more to come.

Later I heard that families could get more than one trailer, although I suspect you would need to have 12 kids to qualify.I have written before about how we obtained our trailer through the early return program, and how I worked to get it set up. I finally got everything hooked up and began sleeping there. I was eagerly anticipating her first visit to the trailer. She had been in Atlanta and except for a couple of quick visits had not even really seen the Trailer.

I was confused. She worked very hard to get the trailer delivered and set up, then She said She wouldn't stay in it. She spent time at her mother's when ever She was in town.

Eventually I guess I wore Her down. Given that we had apparently made our bed and had to lie in it. As much as I appreciated he generosity I just couldn't impose on my mother-in law any more. I treasure my privacy and expect the same of others. My mother taught me that after 3 days guests, like fish, begin to stink. I learned that lesson well.

In eventually I got a tentative "I might stay in the trailer". I decided to go all out. I think she needed a romantic diner prepared in the Trailer with linen napkins and table cloths. I thought we needed a candle lit dinner.

I had some crystal candle holders we salvaged for the house. I also had already procured (some surreptitiously salvaged) stainless steel tableware and some almost forgotten unused china, which resulted from an aborted venture in Florida.

All I had to do was go shopping for some linens, prepare a menu and hide my anxiety.

The Linens were relatively easy, only a few places were open the (it was early December). Kmart was open and close by so was Big Lots. They were closest to the Trailer. I visited both. At Big Lots I bought some blue candles and some decent towels to supplement the thin, small FEMA towels. At Kmart I bought a Martha Stewart table cloth and napkin set. I was almost set.


I also had the salvaged Baccarat Champagne flutes and obviously need some Champagne to go with them. That was easy enough. The the menu was harder. I had yet to come up with any decent pots and was limited to the FEMA supplied Coleman camping set.
Dinner would be a simple affair, a simple green salad, baked pork chops and a microwave vegetable. The pork chops were a recipe I had started using when going to pick her up at the airport. The long baking time allows for a trip there and back.

Her flight was in the evening. We generally travel in the evening, if possible, to avoid the impact of delays and to get the most out of the work day. I set off to pick her up in the dark, with the table set pork chops in the oven and Champagne in the fridge.

I wasn't sure she would let me take her to the trailer. I was the only person living within several blocks and the ride home was pretty scary in the night. block after block of unlighted houses with about half of the street lights out.

Fortunately coming from the airport you can get to out house down West along Robert E. Lee and since parts of Lakeshore, Lake Vista and Lake Terrace had not flooded that route didn't look so bad, although many many people had not yet returned even to Metarie and although things were definitely better in Metarie it was still dark dark dark.
I needn't have worried, everything turned out just fine.

Big Iron

I love cast iron skillets. For a long time I didn't have any. Several years ago, when visiting my mother, I mentioned to her that I always liked cast iron skillets and had never had one. The next Christmas I got two brand new cast iron skillets, a small one and a large one.

One of the keys to using a cast iron skillet is that they need to be "seasoned". That is basically creating a coating of burned on grease which fills the pores of the cast iron and creates a "no stick" surface. Seasoning, cleaning and care of cast iron cookware is almost a sacrament of Southern Cooking. Many cooks will assert with absolute confidence that there is only one true way to season and clean a cast iron skillet.
Cast iron cookware has many unique qualities. It distributes heat very evenly. It holds heat well, so well that if you turn up the heat too high you can't get it to cool off quickly. It does take some time to heat up so you need to preheat the pan to avoid sticking. It's also cheap, 6" skillets start at about $4.00 and Sears has a set of 3 for $17.00.As we cleaned out our house we set aside the things we though we could salvage. One of the things I put in the carport was my muddy, rusty cast iron skillets. Still full of flood water when I found them. I wasn't sure I could save them. Since cast iron is so cheap, I probably should have replaced them. It wouldn't have been the same. They wouldn't have been the ones my mother gave me and they wouldn't have survived the flood. I set them aside to try to clean.

After about a year I finally got around to recovering my cast iron skillets. First I scrubbed them with a Brillo pad (it was cheaper that SOS), until almost all of the rust was gone. Then I ran them through the dishwasher. That was to remove more rust and to disinfect them, but also so She would be happy and possible eat something cooked in them. Finally I scrubbed them again and dried them.

The final step was to season them. There are several methods of seasoning cast iron

The most popular and easiest is to simply coat the cookware in Crisco and bake it. I think lard would work better but it's a little hard to find these days. There are different opinions about how high and how long. I favor a high temperature for a long time. I think the higher the temperature the better. The longer the better. Some people even recommend using a self cleaning electric oven. You set to self clean which will get very hot, hot enough to turn baked on food to ash. We doesn't have a self cleaning oven, so I just cranked it all the way up and went to bed.
I got it a little too hot. After a couple of hours the whole place filled with smoke from the smoldering Crisco. It didn't cause any lasting damage but it did work. It seasoned the pans very well. The seasoning created a hard black coating over the entire surface of the pan almost as slick as Teflon.
The proof is in the eating. cast iron is the best way to cook a real southern breakfast of bacon and eggs.

Rapper's House Arrest Reinstated

I have a Yahoo.com home page set in my browser. It comes up with headlines, local weather, my IRA and some links I like (the Saints and LSU schedules among others). One of the boxes I have included is the Topix.net New Orleans Headlines. For the last three months it also included, almost every day, the headline Rapper's House Arrest Reinstated.

I have the same link on my blog home page in a side bar. The story was somewhat mildly interesting when it first appeared, although I was not all that interested in it myself.

What I find amazing is that it just keeps on going. It's the Energizer Bunny of Headlines. Apparently as of this writing the story has not been updated in 70 days, yet it continually shows up as one the top headlines. It is also a story from the St. Tammany Parish News, hardly one of the major news outlets in the area nor a hot bed of Hip-Hop.

It seems to have gone away recently, but if it comes back, does any one know how to kill this Bunny?