Tuesday, May 06, 2003
Sagging Floors, Massive Infants--Is There a Connection?
Dale: It's been approximately forever since I've blogged here. Sorry 'bout that. Been busy.
First, there's the house, which is threatening to cost me more money. The first problem was electrical. When we bought Stately Price Manor, the seller filled out a disclosure statement indicating that the electrical system was A-OK.
T'wasn't.
Didn't meet that little thing called the city code. Had to have several things fixed, or get fined. Lovely! We summoned four electricians to our house, one of whom was a member of our parish. Care to guess who gave us what I will charitably describe as a misrepresentation as to what the city inspectors required? That's right--our brother in Christ tried to convince us that we needed 14 things fixed under the code, not the six on the list. The inspector was puzzled by Brother Electrician's list, and said no, just fix the six things cited on the letter.
What's the word I'm looking for? Words? Scatological combos?
If you need electrical work done in northeast Metro Detroit, please e-mail me so I can tell you who to avoid like he's an STD. We got an estimate from one of my late father-in-law's old customers, which came in at about 40% of Brother Electrician's--a savings of $700. It was done in a day. The next day, the City inspector gave the work his benediction, and we're set.
We learned an interesting fact about Stately Price Manor as the electricians were working on the list--our house is cinder block. Surprised us, because it's clad with vinyl siding. I have to admit I like the idea, though. All the attractiveness of vinyl, all the element-defying power of concrete.
Next I have to beat the money I spent on code compliance out of the seller. Small claims court, here we come.
Next house item: Appears we have a sagging floor. I'd love to assign the blame to the Crown Prince, who now weighs 16 lbs, 6 oz., and looks like the Michelin Man without the muscle tone. But I began to notice the problem beforehand, which nixes that. Twice I crawled into the crawl space, but couldn't see anything obviously wrong, which was a relief. Once again, A Trained Professional was summoned to Stately Price Manor, and said the problem appeared to be settling footings. Happens all the time, he said, and ours wasn't an extreme case.
There are two solutions: the $100 solution, which involves jacking up the house, and putting steel spacing plates on the offending footing(s). However, this does nothing to solve the settling problem, and merely buys you a couple years or so before the problem recurs. The other is the One Large solution, and requires pouring new footings in our "constricted" crawl space. However, it is much more permanent. I liked carpentry guy immediately, largely because he didn't just give us the expensive version. I'm still mulling which option to take. If you have any experience with this, or suggestions, drop us a line.
Finally, our furnace went out about a month ago. I had just changed out the furnace filters, and had to leave. It never kicked back on. I came home, and it was getting very cold (it was still dropping into the 30s at night late last week--Michigan!). Calling a furnace guy on a Saturday night is expensive. How expensive? I'd have gotten a better deal from the Gambino crime family. I was over a barrel, and summoned the repairman. I have two young children who are not getting cold. Period.
Another honest guy! It was an idiot fix--literally flipping a tripped cutoff switch. Appropriate, because it was an idiot who tripped it--the guy who wrote what you're reading right now. The repairman had mercy, and knocked a big chunk off the bill.
Since then, nothing serious of late has needed fixing here at the Manor.
But I'm sure the house is working on that as you read this.
Dale: It's been approximately forever since I've blogged here. Sorry 'bout that. Been busy.
First, there's the house, which is threatening to cost me more money. The first problem was electrical. When we bought Stately Price Manor, the seller filled out a disclosure statement indicating that the electrical system was A-OK.
T'wasn't.
Didn't meet that little thing called the city code. Had to have several things fixed, or get fined. Lovely! We summoned four electricians to our house, one of whom was a member of our parish. Care to guess who gave us what I will charitably describe as a misrepresentation as to what the city inspectors required? That's right--our brother in Christ tried to convince us that we needed 14 things fixed under the code, not the six on the list. The inspector was puzzled by Brother Electrician's list, and said no, just fix the six things cited on the letter.
What's the word I'm looking for? Words? Scatological combos?
If you need electrical work done in northeast Metro Detroit, please e-mail me so I can tell you who to avoid like he's an STD. We got an estimate from one of my late father-in-law's old customers, which came in at about 40% of Brother Electrician's--a savings of $700. It was done in a day. The next day, the City inspector gave the work his benediction, and we're set.
We learned an interesting fact about Stately Price Manor as the electricians were working on the list--our house is cinder block. Surprised us, because it's clad with vinyl siding. I have to admit I like the idea, though. All the attractiveness of vinyl, all the element-defying power of concrete.
Next I have to beat the money I spent on code compliance out of the seller. Small claims court, here we come.
Next house item: Appears we have a sagging floor. I'd love to assign the blame to the Crown Prince, who now weighs 16 lbs, 6 oz., and looks like the Michelin Man without the muscle tone. But I began to notice the problem beforehand, which nixes that. Twice I crawled into the crawl space, but couldn't see anything obviously wrong, which was a relief. Once again, A Trained Professional was summoned to Stately Price Manor, and said the problem appeared to be settling footings. Happens all the time, he said, and ours wasn't an extreme case.
There are two solutions: the $100 solution, which involves jacking up the house, and putting steel spacing plates on the offending footing(s). However, this does nothing to solve the settling problem, and merely buys you a couple years or so before the problem recurs. The other is the One Large solution, and requires pouring new footings in our "constricted" crawl space. However, it is much more permanent. I liked carpentry guy immediately, largely because he didn't just give us the expensive version. I'm still mulling which option to take. If you have any experience with this, or suggestions, drop us a line.
Finally, our furnace went out about a month ago. I had just changed out the furnace filters, and had to leave. It never kicked back on. I came home, and it was getting very cold (it was still dropping into the 30s at night late last week--Michigan!). Calling a furnace guy on a Saturday night is expensive. How expensive? I'd have gotten a better deal from the Gambino crime family. I was over a barrel, and summoned the repairman. I have two young children who are not getting cold. Period.
Another honest guy! It was an idiot fix--literally flipping a tripped cutoff switch. Appropriate, because it was an idiot who tripped it--the guy who wrote what you're reading right now. The repairman had mercy, and knocked a big chunk off the bill.
Since then, nothing serious of late has needed fixing here at the Manor.
But I'm sure the house is working on that as you read this.
