...the house is SOLD! Furthermore, possession date is sneaking right up ... the 20th. Now it's just a matter of removing our last belongings, selling some stuff ... pretty simple.
Only on the 15th:
...a pipe froze and burst. That caused hot water to shoot all over the place, taking down the kitchen ceiling. And draining down into the basement.
Some aspects of this are amusing ... like kitchen drawers that can apparently hold a full load of water (all 3 did this).
...or like the light fixture that is dripping water. Well okay, that's not so funny.
And some things are actually quite beautiful. This sculpted lady, who can no longer see out of her window because of all the frost (the house was incredibly humid, all the windows from basement to third floor were frosted over) ... seems to be looking down at the chaos from her safe little perch. Of course, she always sits in the same spot, looking at the same thing ... it just kinda looked meaningful the other day.
Finding the Bright Side
The bright side? Sure, there is always a bright side.
About the original disaster:
-bright side - we seem to have caught the problem quickly - it could have caused much, much more damage
-down side - uh-oh, we should have read our insurance policy closer - it's not covered.
About finding tradespeople to fix this mess up:
-bright side - we were really lucky & found an electrician who could come promptly, a drywaller who was willing to cancel his weekend plans to help us, and the plumbers, who came on the afternoon of the 16th.
-down side - the plumber found 3 breaks in the pipe, fixed them, and knowing there were at least 2 more, was called out on another emergency. Thus, we had to resume our plumbing thing (which had to come before the drywalling of course) on the weekend, at over time rates. $102/hour ... ouch. Three hours & three more pipe bursts later, however, no more drips. (Well, there never were drips - just sprays). Other down side - the box that houses the bathroom pipes in some aesthetic fashion had to be ripped up to fix the plumbing, thus we need to re-build one.
About our progress:
-bright side - our very kind drywaller was so accommodating, and he worked around everything else ... everything was going just dandy
-down side - ...until the furnace stopped working. The furnace motor seized up, probably the crap (dust etc) in the air from the incident was the final nail in its coffin. This, of course, occurred on Sunday. What's that you say? More plumber overtime? Why yes!
-bright side - it can be fixed with a new motor
-down side - a new motor & labour to install it will be around $500 ... a nice gift to the new owner
Today:
-bright side - the night went by uneventfully. There are many space heaters in there. No more frozen pipes, please!
-down side - the motor is proving harder to find than originally thought, and we will not have a working furnace until tomorrow.
About the house sale:
-bright side - it seems to still be on.
-down side - the possession date is extended several days, while we fix up the mess - hopefully we're done by the new date.
We're tired. And more than that, we're weary. Hopefully things will take an upturn, and no more little surprises will await us.
2 comments:
Additional Bright Side: Cheryl's ability to find positives in every situation is contagious and should force me to feel less sorry for myself and my own bad week.
Downside: It isn't as easy as Cheryl makes it look. ;-)
Update: things are doing fine. The work at the house is almost done - should be totally done by the end of the weekend.
House sale seems to be going through without a hitch - probably on Tuesday or so?
So, all's well that ends well, they say!
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