House in Progress Diary

That is a very long life for a mower. Especially an electric mower... POPS"30"

That is too funny! Red flags all over the place at closing! Too bad you couldn't have digested that letter before you signed- I do not like the tone. Our first old house was an old lady house and we got a free lawnmower, too, and a rambling handwritten letter warning us about crickets and the like! That lawnmower died, too- a Sears, even!

So what happened to your sewer line and your oven? I thought at least your sewer line was fresh after the man came to clean it out. Spill!

Well, she seemed to be making it quite clear that it will be your responsibility to mow the lawn while she rented the house during that time when she was supposed to be cleaning out her junk. Had to show that to hubby because we can relate. We bought our house from his mother and it was FULL of family 'stuff'. (We call it 'stuff', not treasures, unless you would call for instance a real and actual full size furry buffalo/bison head with a shellaced nose and shiny scary glass eyes, which was in a 10 x 12 bedroom, but which is now tucked away in the crawl space, a 'treasure'...)
Lauren

I just stumbled across your website yesterday and love it.

I agree with Murphy's Law. Yesterday, we had the A/C repairman out for the second time in as many weeks (the first due to lightning frying the wiring on the outside unit - pre 4th of July Fireworks from our unit), and he notices that there is water, not from the A/C but from the hot water heater. I have a brand new 50 gallon in the garage for my Friday Night Party (also so I don't screw something up and have no hot water in the morning.)

Can't wait to read more.

The beloved orange lawnmower has gone to a far, far better place, we think. *Sniff*

Twenty-five years of service without ever being cleaned between Years #10 and #24 (approximately). It was a brave and courageous appliance. It saw its colleagues being showered with cash and attention, and wanted a little some of that. Went a little too far.

Poor thing.

The hot water heater was a casualty of the Winter of '93-'94...it went wild with jealousy after the attention that the plumbing, the electrical box, the sump pump, the front screen door, the furnace, and many door knobs were receiving. After the metal bookcase thumbed its nose in defiance at the "And let that be a lesson to the rest of you!" tear-off episode, I think things got a little chaotic there for awhile. Mechanical items throwing themselves off of this sinking ship right and left.

The sewers were made "fresh" after the beginning of the "stinky summer" and the oven, well, let's just say this. When a frozen pizza asks--nay--DEMANDS--that you cook it at 425 degrees, don't you think that pizza is being a bit inflexible? What if your oven is an oven of mystery? An oven of surprise? Capable of temperatures as low as 125 degrees and as high as 525 degrees...but unwilling to commit to the setting you've chosen for it.

And there you have the reason we overuse the previously mentioned grill as well as the microwave and crockpot for warm meals. I fixed the grill using a nutpick. I'm baffled by the oven.

Lauren : "...actual full size furry buffalo/bison head with a shellaced nose and shiny scary glass eyes..."

Lauren, somewhere a Bennigan's or T.G.I.Fridays is mourning their loss...no buffalo for them to hang New Year's hats on. So sad. So sad. (Ahem...this wasn't a family pet, right? Just curious.)

I'm sure he was someone's somebody special! The sad part is that we took no 'before' pictures - I just can't accurately describe how large a presence a real buffalo head is inside a 10x12 bedroom! I had almost forgotten about it as it was the first thing to go - and by 'go' I mean into the crawlspace which is full of boxes of family 'stuff' because it's not ours to get rid off. We'll have to deal with it later after all the restoring and repairing is finished (hahahaha). Regarding Murphys law - I rely on the wisdom of Rosanne Rosannadana to get us through, "It's always somethin, if it's not one thing it's anotha...."

Sorry to hear about your lawnmower. I'm sure grass everywhere in your yard is rejoicing.

We got an electric mower from the Salvation Army for next to nothing. My little old lady neighbor still uses one of those non-electrical, non-motorized ones on her postage stamp piece o' the planet.

My sister and her husband bought a house last year from another 40ish couple and apparently the wife wasn't too happy about leaving -- when my sister took posession of the house in late may of '03, EVERY FLOWER AROUND THE WHOLE HOUSE HAD BEEN DECAPITATED! They had also been promised the blueprints would be included with the house; they were found mostly burned in the fireplace.

On a side note, we got a home warranty with our house and it has come in very handy. We thought our water heater had a leak (it didn't -- the AC was not draining right and it was a puddle of condensation) and called the warranty company, who told us to choose a plumber from their list. The plumber came out, movedd the AC drain tube to the drain in the floor, and then completely re-ran all the plumbing for 10 feet on every side of the water heater. Like 4 hours of work. He also tested for gas leaks throughout the house and fixed two: one behind the stove, and one in the basement. Total cost? $50 deductible.

phil--That's excellent! We tried to negotiate for a warranty here since it was "For Sale By Owner" and we knew that there would be problems. We were able to get the overall price down, but no warranty :(

We actually wanted to involve a buyer's agent but she was pretty clear...no agents. Just the lawyers. Luckily we had a very savvy real estate lawyer who has purchased and restored his own old house.

I've always had respect for very, very good real estate agents. For the condo (buying and selling), we had a fabulous one and this experience made me appreciate him all the more. If only to play the "heavy" and shield us from the more stressful aspects of the negotiating. I was in tears quite a bit and ready to walk away more than once. Yikes! So I'm not eager to repeat that anytime soon...

Take care, jm

Plumbing problems often come in groups, I've noticed. Our only remaining toilet has failed in multiple ways, leading to water streaming down through the ceiling of a room below. This is in the same bathroom where the hot water in the tub leaks so bad we have to turn off the supply in the basement until just before we shower. This is in our 1909 home in Minneapolis (see my house blog at http://www.coult.net/irving for more on the "fun" we're having).