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| This is quite possibly the funniest movie I have ever seen. |
Today I've had one meeting and have another scheduled for 4pm. Trying to put a positive spin on things I will have to say that it's good to give back to the building (vis a vis my free time) and it's been a good learning experience. On the flip side? Time to buy a house with a garage and a property perimeter so I can tell people to fuck off when they come onto my property like my dad did.
After my earlier meeting I have some good ideas for the bike room, but they at least quadruple the $2,000 budget tentatively given to me by the strata. And I understand that right now, as we're paying off a $1.6 million assessment, hitting them up for $10k isn't going to fly. But neither is doing it half ass like what I'm going to have to do with my crap budget.
I can't build a better bike storage room without money. And $10k for a solid, almost indestructible bike room that will have THREE CONCRETE WALLS is a good deal. Then, if I ever do get a decent bike I might actually feel safe leaving it down there.
But? We'll go with some aluminum racks and some regular fencing and then in every subsequent meeting from here until eternity it will be about whose bike was ripped off this time, and then people will start storing their bikes on their balconies and moving them up and down in the elevator which is against the strata bylaws and people will start complaining about that and so at the next AGM I will ultimately stand up, dump the table over, express a myriad of unsavoury sentiments that would make Jason Bateman proud, punch a hole in the drywall, and leave.
In a building with 60+ suites, all of whom have somewhat divergent desires for their council and who are able to maintain various levels of calm: being on council is exactly like being in politics. Except without the paycheque, the helicopters, and the secret service.
You can't please all the people all the time, and as politically liberal and financially conservative as I try to be, it still doesn't matter because I fall into the pro-bicycle camp which is the minority in this building as most people are either non-athletic or old. And that will change (and so investing in a decent bike locker now will pay off in the future when the old guard turns over), but it will change in the way that governmental economic policies change: too slowly for people to be able to adequately equate the change with the person who had actually been in power when it was enacted. I'm looking at you, Dubya.
So. I will meet with the next company at 4pm and they will offer me a cheap, chain link alternative. I will take my proposals to council and advocate for the more expensive, enduring, and safe bike room and I will be voted down by: the overweight President; the guy that has a bike in such shape that he doesn't even need to lock it up; the guy that doesn't have a bike; and the guy that is also our property manager who will say we need the money to re-do the elevators and the parkade.
Fundamentally none of this will really matter because we're moving to Leamington, Ontario.
I'm going to get a ladies maid and call her Anna.
I see your lady's maid, and raise you a butler and a valet. I am going to have at least three of each for different parts of the sprawling mansion I intend to buy. One day. When I am richer than J.K. Rowling.
ReplyDeleteYou go Duder!
ReplyDeleteCheck into your local High School. They may have a program that teaches kids how to frame buildings, lay brick, run wires, etc. They may do the job for you as a public service project or do it much cheaper than a regular contractor. We have been trying to find a roofer to make some upgrades on our roof as well as replace the damage from April's hail storm. No one wants to give us a proper bid. They just want to know what the insurance company gave us in the way of settlement. Jody has run off about a dozen different guys, and I mean they were running when they left our house.
ReplyDeleteLOL. God. It's just been a harangue with this whole thing. At the end of the day the space that I have been allocated for our bike room just simply doesn't work, but it's been a hilarious (and by hilarious I mean enraging) process to arrive at this particular junction.
ReplyDeleteUltimately? I shall be stepping down from council come 2015, and moving from an apartment into a house our townhouse as soon as that is financially feasible.
I don't play well with others (who are stupid).
Here we are approaching 20 years in our own house and moving into a town house is looking better all the time. Until you own your own home, you never realize the up keep. The lawn, the repairs, the neighbors with their dog shit and noise. I wouldn't go back to an apartment if someone paid me, but a townhouse is sounding pretty good, at least maybe a Garden Home with a smaller yard or no yard at all. Maybe we need to go a whole other route and have a Tiny House on a large piece of property out in the boonies somewhere. Just have some goats to keep everything nibbled down. I don't like neighbors, I don't like people that much.
ReplyDelete