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Saturday, January 17, 2009

House of Horrors Update

So, as most of you know, Frances and I moved the day after Bee was born. (Not on purpose. Bee was three weeks early.) As many of you know, the house greeted us with minor but annoying plumbing difficulties. Have I ever posted the picture of water coming out of the kitchen light fixture? (Shudder.)

Well, in the past two weeks the plumbers have been back. Last week, the sewer main line backed up in the basement. Not as bad as it sounds, but unpleasant. (More than half the basement is finished, with carpet. The carpet was not destroyed, but it was a distinct possibility.)

Then, two nights ago, at some point, the furnace decided to stop working. It was just like, you know, the coldest night in 10 years or so in the DC area.

I woke up yesterday and . . . my nose was cold. Odd, I thought. But then, it is very cold outside. I am strangely insensitive to cold. Frances and Bee being out of town, I showered and got ready for work. Just as I was about to leave, I thought, well, better check what the temperature is on the thermostat. 53 degrees. That's what it was in the house. 53. I walked around and felt the radiators. Stone cold.

I was able to get a repairman out (technically, I guess he was a plumber, which makes for four plumbers in less than seven months). It didn't cost that much, and the house is warm and toasty now.

What will break next? Thoughts?

3 Comments:

At 1:27 PM, Blogger fronesis said...

Plumbing is bad, but it's third on the list that's always in my head when owning a house - foundation and roof come first, and electrical stuff is probably 4th after plumbing. After that, the worry factor drops off precipitously.

 
At 7:34 PM, Blogger Wilson said...

That's pretty amazing and lucky you were able to get it fixed so quickly...I remember when I was in high school it was a particularly bad winter and our furnace broke. we had to spend two nights at my grandparent's house.

 
At 6:03 PM, Blogger Paul said...

Turd floating in the basement! Ah, what fun. By the way, what did the home inspector say in his/her report (there was a home inspection, was there not)? Home inspectors are usually pretty prescient in my experience, so that's a good place to look for problems you can expect down the line. Also, I don't know DC mores, but in these frigid parts it's SOP to require the seller to pay for an insurance policy against defects for the first year of a mortgage -- did you guys get that? If so, the insurance should be paying for some of the problems after a deductible.

 

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