Hey loved ones.
Sorry, y’all. It’s been a whirlwind.
First of all – we are all well. We are about as settled as we can be in our North Santa Rosa (basically Windsor) apartment before we have to get the place ready for a newborn.
To catch you up: our house is in the exact same state as it was in the previous post. Absolutely infuriating. We had a claims agent from State Farm named Bo. Bo needs to reconsider his career. He made what we’ve been able to accomplish an absolute struggle (basically Kenny did his job besides cut checks and Bo didn’t like that we were proactive)…I.e. he almost made us lose our apartment. Anyways, that jerk-off is gone. Another agent (adjuster), who has actually seen our house, is now taking over our case and trying to fill in all the holes that Bo created. So hopefully we will be back on track.
Last Friday the head of our HOA notified us that they would not be paying for roof repairs. We pay multiple hundreds of dollars in HOA dues for this very thing. Protection, poor piss landscaping and once a year gutter maintenance that is always too late in the fire season. So our insurance is gonna have to deal with that, because this “nose goes” game is absurd. What’s sad is that this individual lives in the community. She knows us. She’s seen Amy and Hailey outside every day.
All we can say is: Karma.
The roof needs to be repaired first before the amazing crew at ServPro can work on the interior. Fingers crossed it’s done before winter!
A few people have asked, so I’ll address it here. Hailey doesn’t fully understand what’s going on. We are calling our apartment “home” while calling the previous home “the house”. We still go back to “the house” to get some of our cherry tomatoes from our garden, for example. She’s one tough cookie. She’s seen the inside of our gutted home and exclaims “woah” every time she sees it. But no major meltdowns. We are working hard to make sure our current home is fun.
We have a pool, wild blackberry bushes (which we go and pull from daily – yum!), visit the “purple dinosaur” at the little park in our complex, watch the hummingbirds that come to our feeder and read on our balcony every day.
We’ve also been asked if we will return to the house when it is complete. Honestly? We aren’t sure. The way the HOA has handled this situation with the insane fees that it comes with for little to no return doesn’t instill any confidence. They have checked on us once to make sure we are okay. We are still paying those dues. Also, psychologically, how do you go back to trusting a home after such an event…even though it was all started from the outside? But let’s be real: we don’t know when it’ll be complete and what the state of the housing market will be when that time comes. We may not have the choice.
We sure miss our neighbors, though. All 3 girls in the driveway was such a blessing.
As for the 2nd little lady on the way – she’s 23 weeks developed and doing extremely well. She’s much more active than Hailey was. Thankful that this pregnancy, at least, is going smoothly.
Our apartment is great for the most part. We have some foul odor coming from our utility room/vent system, which our apartment maintenance crew is trying to figure out. Just hoping we don’t have to do what the plumber has suggested: tearing down a wall to see if there is some leakage in our draining system for the washer. *sigh* We are well taken care of by the staff and they’ve acknowledged that this is a big deal that needs to be resolved – so it is nice having someone fight for us.
That is about it for now. Thanks again to all those who check in with us. We love you. We are so grateful for our support system!
Much love – Kenny, Amy, Hailey and baby Bingo
Martinelli Memorial Day fire 
Hi guys . . . John here, you’re old neighbor. I’ve read your blog entries and like everyone else I too am saddened and angered over the shameful treatment you’re receiving from this utterly WORTHLESS board in this complex. “Some” of those board members may be expressing sympathy for your plight, but let’s get real here . . . NONE of them are actually DOING anything to address this as it should be addressed . . . and those COWARDS know it!
I’ve already paid weeks ago to be the first to get a copy of the city official fire report that’s been done for weeks and I’ve been assured by Sgt. Thompson who wrote and other city staff that I will be the first to get it too. Incredibly, the lieutenant hasn’t even bothered to read and sign-off on the report that Sgt. Jeff Thompson worked so hard on. In my four decades of law enforcement, all my reports had to be completed and signed off on by everyone in the chain of command within several days! I’m so glad I’m now retired from law enforcement these days.
The equally worthless city will no doubt take months to even approve the roof work via permits. It will be fall before you know it, and an early rainy season will delay work until next spring, which is probably the earliest you should realistically expect to return here (if at all). My gut tells me this may take YEARS, given that this mess will no doubt wind up in court. I’m sorry for the abrupt truth, but as an old school New Yorker . . . I learned long ago its better to be straight up truthful with folks, rather than sugar-coat reality.
Kenny & Amy . . . you need to go door-to-door here with a PETITION to formally remove this entire Board, as well as ALL their equally worthless and shameless agents! The level of anger all up and down this street is so high right now, that you’ll have little trouble getting the signatures and the support. People here are fed up with just about everything at this point. It’s gotten so much worse from when you and I served on the Board.
You and I have had so many concurring good conversations about this too. We’re ALL paying ridiculously high dues receiving little to nothing in return. Worst yet, those in charge are largely treating people here little more than an HONORABLE IGNORANCE and hiding behind tightly controlled cowardly zoom meetings where legitimate questions are routinely kicked to the curb with stupid childishly incompetent responses or zero responses at all in many cases.
It’s time to fully clean house here and get a new Board and agents who know how to talk to the owners of this homeowners corporation with respect. I think you should also reach out to Mr. Carson down the block, who remains in litigation with these people from his own roof collapsing SIX YEARS ago with NOTHING being done for him either! A collaboration with him and his attorney would be timely and appropriate. This Board now exerts more energy in scheming ways to NOT support owners and NOT spend our own hard earned money on our own homes. Their cowardly answer to everything now is to use OUR OWN money to keep running into court to come after us!
Together you should be suing these Board members and their stooge agents, because they have breached their fiduciary responsibility under the Davis Stirling Act, to perform their jobs in your BEST interests. These people have actually gone OUT of their way to actually CAUSE harm in failing to maintain our home structures! How many more roofs need to collapse or suddenly burst into flames.
The fire report attributes ZERO blame to you as an owner. It concludes that the roof simply and suddenly erupted in flames with no negligence attributed to you. Yet, this current Board Head has the unmitigated gall to tell you they’re not paying for a damn thing?
It’s THEIR ROOF! Article 5 of our CC&R’s says THEY have the fiduciary responsibility to maintain that exterior . . . not YOU! That roof and everything that happens with it is THEIR responsibility and they damn well know it!
Kenny, it’s time for you to reconsider my suggestion to you before this fire to return to the Board here with a totally new group of responsible fellow owners, so we can all reclaim our homes and have our property covered, respected and our rights enforced! This is the fastest way of bringing about the relief you seek. Please give this due consideration again. There is strength in numbers . . . don’t continue to go this alone. Rally the other owners here for support.
PS . . . that’s such a cute picture of little Haley!
John
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