Stucco work has restarted. They are preparing the surfaces that were damaged during the rebuilding of the decks and stairs. One of the workers told me that it is just so hard to work on these buildings because there is just so much rotten wood. I know we can paint and repair, but ultimately these are old buildings that have suffered from exposure to the elements. Its been about 14 years since we had a major repair of the stucco on the outside walls. Now you can see large areas of stucco that are bulging again. Those probably should be repaired before the outside painting begins. As I remember the cost last time was over $100,000. I would guess it would be twice that now.
Ron has almost finished placing the river rock in the shrub areas on the 500 building. Yesterday he and I took the birdhouses down for the winter. He said he has had Purple Martins at a previous residence. Saturday, I saw Ron mixing concrete to repair the bulkhead on Richy's property. This is disturbing since that raises the question of an employee working on the private property of a board member. I'm sure Richy will reimburse the HOA for time and materials, but then how would we know.
The Parrots have decided to put their unit on the market. They were here two weeks ago and were not happy at the way things were going. They have priced it(608) at $295,000. That could be a hard sell with an identical unit(508) priced at $245,00 and no takers in the year that it has been listed.
I looked into the electrical energy supplier question again. The website www.powertochoose.org shows that for a one year contract, YEP has the best rate. It appears I would have saved over $600 last year with YEP. Jim(210) has switched to STREAM and they have the best rate for a three year plan.
The Cut Ants are still a problem. Ron sprays for them almost every day, but they just keep coming back. Yesterday they attacked my Pansy plants again. Jerry had that problem solved in years past with the bait from Adams Nursery, but we are determined to reinvent the wheel.
Tony, who worked maintenance, is no longer employed here. Colette's husband and Rob are trying to keep up.
We were told at the owners' meeting that Rob had purchased a unit. The Aransas Appraisal district shows a corporation, Bayfront Enterprises, as the owner with a mailing address the same as the rental office. Lisa Stech tells me that is who she makes out the check to when Rob does work for them so I guess he has incorporated his company.
I'm still concerned that we may be paying for eleven security lights when we have only four. The board asked Justin to look into it and he reported last month that CPL was not being overly cooperative. I will send him an email to see if he has determined what the situation is and post his response.