Water Water Everywhere

Our latest debacle is a doozy. In their infinite wisdom, our benevolent leaders decided, once again this year to attempt to grow winter grass. Nevermind the fact that we live in a desert. Nevermind the fact that we're in the middle of a historic drought. nevermind the fact that our sprinkler system is decades old and in constant need of attention. Nevermind the fact that we're on financially shaky ground as a community.

For the last several weeks, the landscaping guys have been fiddling with the sprinklers, making sure they were ready to go once the grass seed got laid down. Yesterday, they put down the seed, but there was no sprinkler activity the rest of the day. Then, this morning, the sprinkler guy came around and removed a bunch of the sprinkler heads. Didn't replace them with new ones, just took them out entirely. Several hours later, the sprinkler system came on. And if you've ever seen a sprinkler system run with no heads, you know where this story is going. Instead of gently sprinkling the new grass seed, we have a series of geisers that are washing the seed away. That's going to make for a lovely looking winter lawn.

Blow Me

It amazes me how much of our money is wasted on moving trash around. Not cleaning it up, just moving it around.

One week, the landscapers will come around with their leaf blowers, spewing toxic fumes into our air, and blow debris off of the sidewalks and into the flower beds. They don't pick any of it up, just blow it into the flower beds. Then, the next week, they'll come around again and blow it all out of the flower beds and into the grassy areas. Still not picking any of it up, just moving it around. Then, another week, they might come around and blow debris out of the car ports and into the areas around the dumpsters, still not actually cleaning any of it up, just moving it around.

Why is so much of my money wasted on just moving trash from one place to another while poisoning my air?

And for those of you who may be wondering, those walls that were plastered back in May still haven't been painted.

Half-Assed

Two months ago, workmen came around the complex and patched some of the cracks and holes in the breezeways between our condos. They did a mediocre job, but I figured that after a week or two, they would come back around to sand and paint the patched areas.

That never happened. Two months later, our breezeways are still adorned with bare spackle. Our HOA has failed yet again to performa a basic maintenance job in an acceptable manner. After two months, the job remains half done and the workmanship of what has been done is sub-par.

The Answer is Blowin' in the Wind

The shabby appearance of our carports has still not been improved. Despite the HOA's explicit, written claim that our monthly dues pay for upkeep of the parking areas, those parking areas have not been leaf blown in several months. As a result, there are currently piles of leaves more than an inch deep in our carports.

If the HOA actually did the things it claims it does, this might be a fairly attractive neighborhood. Instead, it's a rundown looking mess.

If It Ain't Broke, Fix It

This week our benevolent leaders have decided to scrape, patch, and paint some of the breezeways on the property. This is not unneeded maintenance, but it is certainly not high priority maintenance. The breezeways are not crumbling down around us like some other parts of the neighborhood are. This money would be much better spent elsewhere.

Namely, the money being wasted to scrape, patch, and paint areas that are not really in need of that treatment would be infinitely better spent on patching and painting the large number of stucco walls on the property that are crumbling down around us and have been in desperate need of maintenance for months, if not years.

Why the powers that be would choose to spend our scarce funds on non-urgent maintenance when there are parts of the community that are in much more dire need of attention is beyond me.

Carport Detritus

Our parking areas are supposed to be leaf blown on a regular basis. At one point, we were told every two weeks, though I have never found that to be the case. Apparently, even once a month is too much to ask. Between December 2010 and February 2011, the carports were not cleaned at all. To compound matters, that time of year is the time when leaf accumulation is the worst. By the time the carports were cleaned in February, there were piles of leaves several inches deep in some areas.

This photo was taken in March of 2011, about a week after the carports were cleaned. As you can see, this area is already in need of attention. This is at least partly due to the less than thorough job that was done in February of removing several months worth of debris. One more service our residents were promised that was not delivered. And when it was delivered, the workmanship was unacceptable.

Frostbitten

These bushes were frost damaged in December 2010. This picture was taken in March 2011. SVEHOA had over two months to tend to frost damaged shrubs around the property and chose not to. Once again, they failed to render the services they were paid for by the residents of the community they manage.