My day turned stressful when I received a phone call from our HOA lawn guy saying he happened to drive by our park, and noticed that the pavilion was leaning over in the wind. Next update, the police were there, concerned that the structure posed a danger to people, were calling out the building code enforcement. Then I start getting emails and calls from other people. What a mess!
The story from the beginning:
I attended our yearly HOA meeting like a good homeowner and was asked if I would be a board member. I had recently changed jobs and would no longer be traveling for long periods of time so I thought it would be a good time to be more involved. One of the other people said we should build a pavilion in the park because there was no place to sit or get out of the sun. We got bids, and selected a contractor to do the work.
Near the completion, the contractor fell off the roof and broke his leg. He paid other people to finish up the work though. Turns out he thought the HOA should help pay his medical bills… so I got to deal with the phone calls from him and the insurance company. Not much fun.
So with today’s high winds, the whole thing fell down. I figured the connection points of the columns were insufficient, and the roof section hinged down… but when I saw the pile on the ground, my thoughts are now that we have an expensive wood pile.
So, thus far, being this involved in the HOA has been a mixed affair. It doesn’t stay dull very long.
Here is what it looked like this summer:
Here’s what it looked like around noon today:
And here’s what it looks like now:
