Both of us here at MuRefuge are retired now and aging, so we often hire others to assist or preform tasks for necessary maintenance. Historically we have been extremely fortunate to have workers who are respectful, careful, hard working with integrity focusing on the entire process of whatever the project. That history came to an screeching halt recently, providing us with an ugly glimpse of the reality of our unhealthy culture.
Here at MuRefuge the project from hell has finally been completed. The failed siding on our home needed replacing and we went with A-1 Builders, owner Craig Mason. This contractor has chosen men to wok for him who are slobs . . . dropping cigarette butts about and smoking so the second hand smoke drifted into our living space, playing loud music on portable boom boxes that followed them around the house, leaving nails in the driveway, throwing lumber from their scaffolding onto the nearby native Manzanita bushes and any other vegetation growing within twenty+ feet of the house, no tarp was used on our driveway so all the spray painting and oil leaking vehicles have left the asphalt marked, paint splatters on the entryway slate, cracked slate from thoughtlessly dropped equipment.
We live in rural residential Sebastopol . . . in the country with many wild creatures (this is after all a Backyard Wildlife Habitat!) so we put in a request, after the first day when the screens covering the vents to beneath the house were left laying on the ground, that they be tacked up each night so skunks, etc. wouldn’t move into our crawl space. Follow through . . . nada! Gates left open upon their departure . . . we have a dog.
Talking with our neighbors, we live on a dead end road with nine dwellings scattered along the gravel road, one man while outside playing with his twin toddlers commented, " I could hear the "f" word about every other word. The sounds really carry here." And of course, several neighbors gave their negative thoughts on the boom boxes as well as the erratic parking along the one lane gravel road, which I had advised against the very first day the workers arrived.
Talking with our neighbors, we live on a dead end road with nine dwellings scattered along the gravel road, one man while outside playing with his twin toddlers commented, " I could hear the "f" word about every other word. The sounds really carry here." And of course, several neighbors gave their negative thoughts on the boom boxes as well as the erratic parking along the one lane gravel road, which I had advised against the very first day the workers arrived.
I pruned back to the ground in most cases all the natives I had planted, which were flourishing, around the perimeter of the house. I requested the workers step lightly. Alas, all the vegetation was trampled, even a work station was set up on top of the native iris and alumroot in the front of the house not far from the driveway where I had asked they set up for the work to be done on the front of the house.
One morning while I was rescuing a pruned back but trampled clematis, Craig had the audacity to tell me to get out of his way so he could carry Hardy Plank to the work station located on top of mulched natives. I lost it! His only remark was, “we are focused on getting the siding up.” True, AND honoring the almost 20 years of creating MuRefuge would have been appreciated. His work is valuable and mine is not?
All the items removed from the outside of the house like hose racks, cloths line, hummingbird feeders, doorbell, etc. were just dropped into the dormant flower beds or onto the slate or just where ever. When it came to reassembling all these, of course, screws, bolts, etc. were missing or rusted since we had several rain storms during this almost month long project and some screws were dropped into cavities that filled with rain.
The last day these workers were here Dwight just wanted them out of here, so he took on replacing all of the screws and such to reassemble the outside of the house. The final touches Craig had agreed to take care of, like securing the door he put in, were not done. Dwight said, “Okay, I’ll take care of it, just to have their toxic energy leave MuRefuge.”
This very difficult process has illustrated clearly the difference between goal oriented vs. process oriented perspectives. And put in our faces the existing prevalent “rape and pillage” mentality of the dark side of patriarchy in our culture.
One person I shared my tale of whoa with remarked, “They seem to have an expression of evil glee while actively destroying plants.” Another, “plants just aren’t in their perspective.” Obviously others have had similar experiences to ours here at MuRefuge with A-1 Builders, owner Craig Mason. Would we use A-! Builders in the future? NO! AND we have shared this difficult month with the individual who recommended this contractor to us. He has removed this contractor from his referral list.
