Saturday, December 24, 2011

Killjoy

I know I'm lucky to have a roof over my head, food in the fridge, a warm bed, etc., but it's not feeling like such a holly jolly Christmas right now.

I hate, hate, hate, hate, HATE being a home-owner and this place will be the death of me, financially speaking.

The caved-in flat roof was bad.  Then came the water damage, which was pretty aggravating.  Incorrectly installed drywall throughout the whole second floor that started coming apart a couple months after we moved in?  Yep, I've got that.  A second and third roof leak that will necessitate an entire new roof and replacement of several now peeling and cracking plaster and lathe walls?  Check.  Tuck-pointing and concrete work that barely lasted a month and then crumbled away?  Super.  A cracked drain vent pipe is causing a nice leak in my second bedroom too and we've also got a nice leaking window upstairs.

Now what new joys await us on this glorious Christmas Eve?

A backed up main drain pipe, which is flooding sewage into my basement and keeping us from using our water.

Seriously, never buy a rehabbed home.  Just don't do it.  Learn from my mistake.



8 comments:

  1. Nick--- We saw your blog yesterday and today and feel your pain. We can't help out financially, but we do have 3 olive drab wool army blankets that were my dad's for WW2. If you would like to come choose 1 of them (1 has a repair)for free, we would love to pass it on to an apprecitive owner. We're in Kirkwood; any friend of Mr. Mod's is friend of us.

    cluelesscampers@hotmail.com

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  2. Hey Anonymous. It's great to know that there are people out there who care. Thank you for your kindness, but probably the best thing that you can do is to dissuade any potential home-buyers you come across from purchasing a rehab or doing business with either of these companies. Perhaps if we can prevent others from having the same experience, we can earn ourselves some good karma.

    Times are pretty tough right now and everything seems really daunting and insurmountable, but we'll eventually get through it.

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  3. I can't be there to do anything to help...but I will join my voice with yours in the big FU to Omega Realty and Pillar to Post Home Inspection. Will it make you feel better if a bunch of us yell with you?

    I feel your pain. Christmas is here...and my toilet is spraying water inside the tank and leaking down the side, so if you need to go to the bathroom at my house this holiday season, you have to turn the water back on at the wall, which I've made more convenient (if less sightly) by attaching a vise grip to the knob.

    A Merry Christmas and hopes of a better New Year to all of us with leaks, broken furnaces, electrical problems, appliances that have konked out and God-knows-what-else.

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  4. Sounds like you got a free upgrade to a bidet there Dana. You could practically call that a feature.

    Hopefully 2012 will turn out to be a better year for homeowners everywhere.

    Hope you and your family have a very merry (and dry) Christmas.

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  5. D*mn Nick...when it rains it pours. One day you'll look back and laugh...well...maybe not laugh. Chuckle...hmmmm, that might be too strong a word. Snicker? No...well, you'll look back and do something. I just hope it isn't cry. I can help ya out with a couple Paint By Numbers! Next time I see ya. Promise.

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  6. hahaha Nick...Now you're starting to think like a realtor! I guess the vise grip could be called "unique bathroom hardware."

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  7. oh my, that totally sucks, i just cant imagine. we are all really at the mercy of these home inspection folks when buying a home. we hire them because we trust them to know more than we do about house stuff. but some of them just want to get in and out and get paid and are not thorough. people who do this type of thing have not so fun stuff coming there way eventually. you guys just try to keep your heads up and doing the right thing and all will work out in the end.
    a big 'ol middle finger to those peeps for selling you a bum house!

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  8. omg, I just started reading your blog and when I got to this post I FEEL FOR YOU!! I'm so sorry! If it makes you feel any better, I had to put a new roof on my house on December 23. Now I have to deal with fixing the peeling plaster ceiling in my dining room (which is how I discovered the attic leak = roof leak). I decided to refuse the insurance claim money and save the claim for something REALLY big and important. I don't want my rates to go up for something I could probably have fixed for <$500 (I hope).

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