This is my final page about the house project. I received the following email,
which ended my participation in the house project.
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Message-ID: <4B534EBE.8070106@odyssey.net>
Date: Sun, 17 Jan 2010 12:54:06 -0500
From: Raimona Rowe
To: John Banister
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In December 2008 I had sent my sister and her husband an email stating that
I wanted the return of the US$50k I had spent so far on services and materials
for the house project before returning to work on it. In that email I also
said that the only means I would use to pursue the return of that money was
never returning to work on the project.
In December 2009 I sent them an email saying that if, owing to the economy &
etc., they weren't able to get a construction loan, I'd be willing to buy the
property from them for US$1k, get the loan myself, finish the house, and rent
it to them until such time as they bought it back.
For me the situation was like this:
At the rate progress was being made with me working alone most of the time,
I think it would have taken me at least another three years of summers to finish
the house. That was unacceptable to me. I had written off the $50k, and had it
been returned my plan was to use it to hire labor to help me finish the house
much more quickly. Investing more money by hiring the labor with additional money
of my own was also unacceptable to me, as after the Summer of 2008 construction
loan didn't happen, I had no confidence that I'd see the return of any money that I
spent on the project. To me, three years in a row of quitting my job and working
half a year for meals plus spending the $50k out of pocket was enough good faith.
For my sister's family, I'm sure this attitude on my part was a disappointment,
as the original plan was for them not to have to get a loan until the house was
completed. The original plan was also to build a house of a size that only cost
$100k in materials, but that's not the house they had designed. My parents have
spent more cash out of pocket on the project than I have. Also, the amount of
priority they promised to give the project in their own lives is something they
only actually gave the first (& most frustrating) year. I don't blame them, but
I also don't feel that I owe them. Finally, there was a fair amount of effort I
was putting into infrastructure aspects of the house (for example - making
removable rough bucks) in which I don't think they found much value. I think they
likely considered it a better use of the $50k to just hire someone to finish the
house quickly rather than to return it to me and then see me direct an unknowable
amount of resources towards aspects of construction that would show no forseeable
benefit for a number of decades.
I hope they hire someone inexpensive and competent to finish the house, and that
they enjoy living in the finished house for a long time to come.
For me, even discounting that I would have spent the $50k on labor, working for
pay plus meals rather than for meals alone for six months makes leaving the
project a personally beneficial financial decision, even though I'm not the one who
made it.