Tuesday, July 1, 2008

A Rotten Deal

On Monday June 30th, a work crew came to start a little home improvement project. The dining room window had a broken crank, it didn't seal right and we thought it leaked a little bit, too. So we thought we'd get it replaced do that we'd be all snug for next winter. Turns out the window leaked A LOT bit with some major damage to the structure of the house. This lead to a full inspection of all the windows, a little more dryrot detection, and a snowball effect on the scope of the project.







Final damage: we are replacing almost every window in the house and getting new siding. I spent a few days coping with major depression from all this. Yes, I knew the house was ugly inside and needed major updating, but I had good faith in the bones of the house. And then there was the stress of cost and having almost every room in the house disrupted. And the back landscaping project that I had considered a real possibility for this summer was now totally out the window, so to speak. ;) It doesn't help that standard window sizing and code issues means some of the window configurations are going to have to change a bit, too. It may be change for the better, but I do NOT embrace change easily.

My angst and anger has subsided somewhat in the last week. I like our contractor and the guy working on our house (no matter what his prison record is - yes, I am serious. This project is full of surprises!) We are getting all the trim inside our house done as part of this gig and new exterior paint as well (color suggestions??). And so I feel like when the project is done a lot of the major updating projects we wanted to accomplish will be checked off the list...or at least that is what I am telling myself! it also makes me feel better about neglecting the garden this year, because the guys are tromping it to shreds. I told them the Japanese maple was the only plant I really wanted them to be careful of - seems they have taken me quite literally on that one! But that just means I get to buy more plants (when my piggy bank recovers anyway).

2 comments:

  1. Ugh. Have you asked your home inspector how they missed this?

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  2. Oh guys, I am sorry! That sucks. But I agree with Craig. What do you really get for $400 except a nice binder full of bull from the home inspectors that generally don't know didly anyway. How about good neighbor green?

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