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The Last 10 days-ish
Dec. 5th, 2024 03:02 pmLet's start with AAAARRRRRGGGGHHHH!
We called a plumber to take care of issues with the seal around our toilets. They came by on 15 November. It was supposed to be a $600 fix. Then, it went up to $1000 because more problems than we'd realized were found. Then, they said, pay us $300 for the little bit we were able to do, but we needed a more in depth estimate because things were bad.
The estimator came on 19 November, and there was so much moisture -- the house had been feeling a bit dank -- that we needed industrial drying fans and a fairly major overhaul of both bathrooms' plumbing. Apparently, there's the reason it's called a U-Bend in the UK; it's not supposed to look like the Gordian Knot. The previous owners in 'updating' the house had made major mistakes: different types of pipe jerry-rigged together, PVC and corrugated steel in the same sink trap doesn't work. The bathtub overflow/drain had been put in wrong and with gaskets that let water go directly under the house because they had DRILLED INTO THE PVC to 'attach it' in the crawl space. The three holes were each about the size of a quarter.
Industrial fans went in. We went into a hotel on 25 November. Our contractor came by the next day and accused the estimators of using too many fans to overcharge our insurance. He gave us a fair estimate, and, as we'd literally discovered only an hour earlier that the buyers had pulled out from our house, agreed to float the cost until the house sold. In the event, his estimate was reasonable and we'll be able to pay it, though things will be a might tight in the ter Brugghe household until we find new buyers.
The buyers pulling out should have meant that we got the Earnest Money they put up guaranteeing that they would not pull out after a certain date. We were on contingency and their buyers had pulled out. Originally they asked to work with us to buy the property with a later timeline, so pulling out entirely was a shock.
We don't get the Earnest Money. I think our Realtor has been leading us around by the nose. Sis really likes her because she helped when the family first got to Savannah and Dad liked her. I'm furious.
The original estimate for finishing the bathrooms was 13 December. When our contractor found out that Sis had surgery scheduled for yesterday, he put more workers on it. In taking up the floors to correct the issues we had, he discovered that some of the damp was because the prior owners -- who advertised the house with completely renovated bathrooms -- had not put in the flooring correctly. We picked and purchased new floor tile for that bathroom on Monday. Since Monday was Dad's birthday, we'd planned to go to the cemetery, but we ended up buying tile instead.
Anyway, more problems were found, but the contractor fixed them. He's kept images for our insurance, but we're not certain if the claim will be approved as these weren't problems from Helene or other natural disaster.
We've been told we can't sue the prior owners even though it was their shoddy work that created this problem. We can't sue the Inspector who didn't catch these issues either.
Sis had her rotator cuff surgery yesterday. The bathrooms weren't finished yesterday thanks to the extra problems being found, but we were able to leave the hotel today. [BTW -- 4, count them FOUR, fire alarms went off at the hotel in the night over the last three days. Not the most restful stay we've had.] She's recovering nicely. Her new shower floor looks nice. I can have a bath if I want. Our toilets won't leak. The dogs can come home on Saturday, per her doctor.
If I succeeded in embedding the image, you can see the pattern of my new floor tiles. It seemed appropriate that we found a NATO compass rose on Dad's birthday. He loved his time at NATO.
We called a plumber to take care of issues with the seal around our toilets. They came by on 15 November. It was supposed to be a $600 fix. Then, it went up to $1000 because more problems than we'd realized were found. Then, they said, pay us $300 for the little bit we were able to do, but we needed a more in depth estimate because things were bad.
The estimator came on 19 November, and there was so much moisture -- the house had been feeling a bit dank -- that we needed industrial drying fans and a fairly major overhaul of both bathrooms' plumbing. Apparently, there's the reason it's called a U-Bend in the UK; it's not supposed to look like the Gordian Knot. The previous owners in 'updating' the house had made major mistakes: different types of pipe jerry-rigged together, PVC and corrugated steel in the same sink trap doesn't work. The bathtub overflow/drain had been put in wrong and with gaskets that let water go directly under the house because they had DRILLED INTO THE PVC to 'attach it' in the crawl space. The three holes were each about the size of a quarter.
Industrial fans went in. We went into a hotel on 25 November. Our contractor came by the next day and accused the estimators of using too many fans to overcharge our insurance. He gave us a fair estimate, and, as we'd literally discovered only an hour earlier that the buyers had pulled out from our house, agreed to float the cost until the house sold. In the event, his estimate was reasonable and we'll be able to pay it, though things will be a might tight in the ter Brugghe household until we find new buyers.
The buyers pulling out should have meant that we got the Earnest Money they put up guaranteeing that they would not pull out after a certain date. We were on contingency and their buyers had pulled out. Originally they asked to work with us to buy the property with a later timeline, so pulling out entirely was a shock.
We don't get the Earnest Money. I think our Realtor has been leading us around by the nose. Sis really likes her because she helped when the family first got to Savannah and Dad liked her. I'm furious.
The original estimate for finishing the bathrooms was 13 December. When our contractor found out that Sis had surgery scheduled for yesterday, he put more workers on it. In taking up the floors to correct the issues we had, he discovered that some of the damp was because the prior owners -- who advertised the house with completely renovated bathrooms -- had not put in the flooring correctly. We picked and purchased new floor tile for that bathroom on Monday. Since Monday was Dad's birthday, we'd planned to go to the cemetery, but we ended up buying tile instead.
Anyway, more problems were found, but the contractor fixed them. He's kept images for our insurance, but we're not certain if the claim will be approved as these weren't problems from Helene or other natural disaster.
We've been told we can't sue the prior owners even though it was their shoddy work that created this problem. We can't sue the Inspector who didn't catch these issues either.
Sis had her rotator cuff surgery yesterday. The bathrooms weren't finished yesterday thanks to the extra problems being found, but we were able to leave the hotel today. [BTW -- 4, count them FOUR, fire alarms went off at the hotel in the night over the last three days. Not the most restful stay we've had.] She's recovering nicely. Her new shower floor looks nice. I can have a bath if I want. Our toilets won't leak. The dogs can come home on Saturday, per her doctor.
If I succeeded in embedding the image, you can see the pattern of my new floor tiles. It seemed appropriate that we found a NATO compass rose on Dad's birthday. He loved his time at NATO.
