Printed quotable - -
*Frank Layden, Utah Jazz president, on a former player: "I asked him, 'Son, what is it with you. Is it ignorance or apathy?' He said, 'Coach, I don't know and I don't care.' " (1991)

THIS STORY IS TRUE TO THE BEST OF MY RECOLLECTION, AND I WILL CONTINUE TO ADD TO IT AS TIME PERMITS

THANKS for coming by - - if you have any suggestions on how I might gain recompense for the crimes perpetrated against us by the following characters please EMAIL me and let me know how you can help

FRIDAY the 13 th - a good day to start to recall all the crap I, my wife Mary and our 11 to 13 year old granddaughter Noel have been subjected to here in Northwest Florida over the last 14 months.

IT WAS another 13 th - the 13 th of December 2002 when I and my granddaughter NOEL arrived here in Navarre to take up residence in our new beautiful waterfront home in Northwest Florida. Little did we know of the underlying deficiencies in what appeared to be a superbly remodeled older home on Pensacola Bay. Robert G and Mary Lou Tracy had redone this home, engaging the services of a local contractor of high repute so I was told. Perhaps I should have been more suspicious, Mary Lou (was) a realtor and lister. A paper we were given when we visited that stated "Additional facts regarding 7031 Santa Clara Drive" stated "This house was rebuilt to 2001 hurricane standards&. We were all too soon to put this to the test.

9/16/2004 HURRICANE!! IVAN hit us and the results were devastating. I was in Hawaii at the time, my wife Mary had to get prepared and evacuate from the area on her own, the only help I could give was some coaching from the sidelines. After a herculean effort on her part she was able to get our 2 vehicles to higher ground, secure a small van and load our 13 cats and 3 dogs up and head north. She could not find accommodations until she reached Tennessee a day and a half later.

I, in the meantime am scrambling to get a connection from Kona back to Pensacola. Finally getting a ticket I reached Charlotte only to find that the airport was closed in Pensacola. So the airline re routed me into Fort Walton via Panama City. The plane was something out of a Central American spy story, and it broke down in Panama City so another day was lost. I finally reached my family 3 days after leaving Kona. I found my wife driving with one hand, both hands heavily bandaged. Upon returning to the house, found the road blocked by fallen trees. Had to get out and walk. The destruction inour neighborhood was severe. She knew we were in trouble when she found one of our living room chairs in the ditch a quarter mile away. There were fire personnel in the area and they told her she had to leave, could not stay in the home. It seems that one of our dogs (old and half blind) had lost it when they had to leave from the damaged house and attacked her. Lot of good they did - dog attacking her, she was completely ignored, my granddaughter Noel got him off and helped her up and somehow they got to the hospital. So she spent the first night back from Tennessee in the hospital in Fort Walton. She thought they were being kind to her in letting her stay. Well, she was mistaken. I got the bill.

So absorbing all that, we drove out to see the house damage. It was bad. Real bad. Here are some pictures. Click on them to see an 800X599 image in a new window.

The upper left is the front (water side) of the house. The lower right photo just about sums it up - "What now??" You are looking at the complete floor of the 12 X 24 sun room on the east side of the house. Now having been a mechanical engineer B4 I got into boating I started to look at the debris and figure out how this place could have suffered such an amazing amount of damage. 2 of the 4 6X6 posts supporting the upper deck are gone. All the 6X6 posts supporting the sun room are gone, the entire intact floor is off sill and at 90° to the foundation. Then the entire roof has fallen into the now open pit. Front porch steps were against the pump house on the road side of the lot. The lower front deck had separated in thirds and the outer 2 portions were on each side of the house, the center portion jammed in thru the living room window. Remember we are "built to 2001 hurricane standards" and the homeowners' inspection report reads as follows and I quote: "Construction of this house is exceptional, both in materials and execution. It is significantly above reasonable expectations for a house built as recently as it was, in an era when cost considerations have driven down both the quality of materials and the skill of labor". NOT!

I had called the builder from Hawaii BEFORE IVAN hit expressing my concern that the home might be damaged and asking to be put at the top of the list should it need any work. No one was there so I left a message on their recorder. Of course damage was wide spread in this area, as bad as Katrina in '05 but we didn't get the big media coverage as we are only 1 of 4 storms to hit Florida that year and the Southeast Asia Tsunami soon took the headlines. Communications were out, not even cel system worked so it was several weeks later I finally got thru to the builder. I told him I was concerned about the integrity of the rest of the home and that the front roof was in dire need of shoring up.

The contractor on the job was WEST CALHOUN CONSTRUCTION, a local builder of high repute. In fact West is the current "BUILDER OF THE YEAR, 2005" chosen by the Home Builders Association of West Florida (of which he just also happens to be - Treasurer!) West Calhoun himself came out to look and I pointed out some obvious discrepancy I had noted. He said, and I quote "I only did what the Tracys asked me to do".Mr calhoun sent a crew out several days later who jammed 2 4X4's in under the deck. I received a bill for labor and materials. Repeated efforts to get them to help with repairs or deal with these discrepancies went unanswered. OF COURSE I DO NOT HAVE A COPY OF THE CONTRACT TO ARGUE THE ISSUE SO ALL THE FOLLOWING IS SPECULATIVE. YOU BE THE JUDGE.

ISSUES SURROUNDING THE CONSTRUCTION OF OUR HOME.

The construction of the addition outer foundation was a second block wall with 1/2" J bolts installed with concrete about every 3 feet. A 2X10 was attached to this series of bolts with 2 inch by 2 inch square washers and hex nuts. Even tho this is a salt waterfront home these were not even galvanized. In order to install the rafters for the 6 foot porches and the 12 foot front deck and sun room a 2X12 was nailed to the inner sill, a 2X2 nailed to it at the bottom and the 2X10 rafter (some notched 2x12's were used for the 12 foot span) set on this 2X2, toe-nailed and set on the outer sill. The 6X6 support posts were erected on this sill plate and, around the periphery of the sill plate a 2X12 outer band was installed by end nailing it to (some of) the rafters. NONE OF THESE RAFTERS OR SUPPORT POSTS WERE ATTACHED IN ANY WAY TO THE OUTER SILL PLATE!! No straps, no hurricane ties, not one frigging nail!! So when the water rose the 12 foot sections had enough buoyancy to start to float, eventually dislodging the inner band nailed to the old houses sill plate and it broke up into a number of big pieces. The picture above shows the outside west front corner post off the plate and 3/4 inch from the entire front collapsing like the side did when all of it's posts skated away. Only the entire weight of the front roof now on this last post, now 3 1/2 inches lower (there was a short piece of 2X8 under it to shim the roof level)kept this from total collapse. You can see the imprint of the rafters where they sat. No nails, nothing. The other picture shows both ends of a roof support for the sun room. It was not attached at the bottom at all (other than maybe 4 nails into the band - which was not attached to the sill either)and the top was LAG SCREWED to the ceiling rafter, not thru bolted (as I ASSumed when I bought the place) so it just pulled right out. In looking at these pictures, also note an interesting point. Nothing is BROKEN. All the structure pulled apart. I cleaned most of the deck lumber and reused it. Removal of the old sill plate on reconstruction revealed no concrete or re bar was in place other than just enough to hold the J bolts. Should have been poured solid. I have all the drawings for this house, they show proper strapping and attaching. Not done. Shows six footings and a 2X12 center beam under the sun room. Not there. There are a number other problems I won't go into here.

Of course this is all subject to litigation. I haven't done real well because I have been left to do all the legwork. The attorneys don't even think it worth persuing, unless I can make it a no brainer. Then they will take a cut. Lets see them live for 14 months in the surviving upstairs master bedroom with 13 cats and 3 dogs. No kitchen. No air and 95/95 temp and humidity. I slept on the floor. Bet Wes didn't. But I was lucky. Read on - THE 3 STOOGES COME ON STAGE - KEN, HARVEY and HARRY THE RAT.

Calvin Coolidge (President of the United States)