Wayne Kubasek, time to open the Kimono!

Not only is the cost of these lobby makeover nearly 4 times what it should be, the board refuses to comply with our declaration and Illinois law and provide us copies of estimates contracts, etc.

Why is the board  afraid of  transparency?  I can only think of one reason -a few people are making off with our money just like they do with the elevator work last year.  More on that one later   

I measured the square footage of the lobbies of the 60 side and 70 side plus the community room.  It comes out to about 800 ft.²   Consider that $230,000 divided by 800 ft.² is around $300 a square foot,  an outrageous amount of money to do a light makeover of a condo lobby.  We aren't getting much at all for the money we coughed up.  No fancy video intercom with key fobs. No plumbing, no electrical, no HVAC.  No demolition of walls or ceilings.  No new doors or windows. It's a purely cosmetic job.  They didn't even replace the baseboard heaters.  They simply slapped a coat of paint on them without even stripping them to bare metal.  They did the same thing too the elevator cabs.  The painted over the existing 10 layers of paint a left us with finishes that resemble an orange peel.  It's not how painters are supposed to do it.  The cabs should have been stripped of the old layers of paint made to look new with professional spray coatings, not some guy with a paintbrush.  

Those involved have cut every corner possible to maximize the amount left to steal.  

Before I begin to break down the costs, keep in mind that our last reserve study in 2022, allocated a total of $55,000 for the renovation of the lobbies and all of the resident corridors  That's right.  The lobbies and 16 corridors was budgeted to cost $55,000.  That cost was provided by professional engineers and consultants.  Somehow that $55,000 grew to  $230,000 budget for just the lobbies? No work on the corridors at all.  Take a deep breath folks, that the smell of fraud.  Fraud by vendors and neighbors who are supposed to put members first, not steal from them.  

No, let'slook at some actual numbers from some trusted resources.  

First of all, while limestone noir, there's nothing special about the tile itself. It's the most common stone in the world limestone, and the walls of the Venetian plaster sounds fancy. It's really just plaster with some additional materials in it that harden it and make it shiny. It's put on the walls, the same way as your woould plaster.