Homeowner Thread

With our pandemic stimulus, pandemic "can't go anywhere" savings, salary increases, insurance decreases, a modest recent inheritance, and a new found if conservative "screw it" attitude toward the long term, we've decided we want to upgrade our backyard. We have a large backyard, which is nice for kids and dogs, but the patio is pathetic even after the extension we did when we first moved in 8 years ago. Not only is it small, especially once you put a table and two grills on it, but it doesn't look very good, and it's positioned so that at peak evening dining hours, the sun glares into the space at a perfect horizontal. 

So, we're planning to greatly extend it by more than doubling the patio space, adding a built in counter along one of the walls with enclosed storage below, roofing the entire thing, and adding retractable screens the full length of the western edge so we can block the sun/wind and still enjoy the space on sunnier days. I've pretty much planned the layout I want around 1) the grills I have and 2) the grills I still plan to get.

It's gonna cost a lot. It's gonna be good.

Finally had the restoration company out today and got the news that the insurance will likely not be covering the roof. Really really wish they'd have told me this during the months of no communication and I could have started the process now. Winter was so bad here I imagine I'll be hard pressed to get the roof replacement done before the snow flies again only starting estimates now.

On the brighter side I'm getting all the fire facing windows replaced most likely.

Well, I broke our toilet. The lever that lifts the plunger broke, so I ordered a new one. Not 2 seconds into gently trying to turn the nut to remove the old lever did the tank crack and water starts dripping out the bottom. Guess I'm buying a whole new toilet. This one was a good 70 years old anyway anyway. Not sure how to install it, but pretty sure my FIL has done a couple. Maybe I'll just hire a professional. We've got a couple other weird plumbing issues as well. Bunch of shitty old faucets need fixing and I never have any idea what the replacement parts are.

Yeah, we have a company we've used in the past and liked. They seemed to have reasonable prices too, especially compared to some of those massive plumbing companies where you're already down $150 before they walk in the door.

You know, it's just a hit to my masculine pride or whatever. Being a dude is dumb.

Before we left on our trip, the contractor asked to come out one last time with her designer to look at the space again. We couldn't get anything scheduled in time, but we told them they were welcome to come out while we were gone. They never reached out again, so a couple days after we returned we asked them if they ever came out or had any questions. We also asked when the work would begin, now that we're back in town and permitting has come through. Our contact said they did come out and the designer saw the project a little differently. They had a new estimate for the work .... to the tune of an additional $5700.

Uh .... no. Not in budget, plus we've already agreed to a price. We knew and expected there could be some additional costs. For one thing, the original estimate doesn't include dirt. But this is more than a 25% increase on the project, with no explanation yet given as to why. Just that the designer "saw it differently." So the Mrs. came back at them pretty hard. Why didn't this designer review the site before we signed a contract? What does "seeing it differently" even mean? Are you proposing a different, more expensive design, or are you saying the original concept cannot be done within the estimate? Or not done at all for some reason? And if not, why? How are we going to move forward with this?

No response for a couple days. We we're planning to call yesterday when they finally texted back to say they would have more information for us soon. Still waiting.

The motor for the blower on our air conditioning unit broke. Over $1000 for parts and labor to fix, or we can go with $7600 for a new unit which would come with a 10-year warrantee and be more efficient. Only we’re looking at least another week in Florida without A/C. I’d go up to NC until they could install it, but unfortunately, both our daughter and our border have work, and I don’t feel like they should have to deal with the installers. I’m sending my wife and son up anyway, and I’ll follow next week, hopefully.

Pleased to report that I managed to get an offer signed on a house at $20K under the original list price, with no concessions and a $1500 seller credit to do repairs.

Toilet shopping is really annoying

Yeah, I'm not using a plumber, I've installed a number of toilets in my life though this will be the first one in this house. There's just a lot of unnecessary variety and I want something that flushes well as the main reason I hate the current one is it's underpowered, low flow doesn't have to mean no flush power. Also most of the rankings out there mention ones I can't get in Canada.

The main reason is that the people who flipped the house put in tiny round bowls and I'm tired of dealing with them.

We have air conditioning again.

Yeah I've been meaning to a while now

This has not started yet. We don't know when this will start. Our contact said maybe today, but we never got confirmation or follow up when we asked for an update or if we would be having any kind of logistics discussion. To discuss things like:

- There's a bunch of shit in our backyard (toys, patio set, grills), will y'all be moving this stuff? And we don't care about the toys, but the grills are expensive and heavy, where are you going to put them?

- What do we need to do about our dog?  (I mean, I know the answer is close his pet door during the day and instead schedule taking him out, but I still want to hear it from them.) Will there be multi-day stretches of zero-access to the backyard, such as when concrete is setting?

- Just generally how will the process be? What will happen in what order? What days will they be working and at what hours? Presumably they'll need access to the bathroom, which of course is fine, but again, just some more info.

In other news, I was visiting family in North Carolina last weekend and apparently there was real torrential rain in Maryland. (Of course these things happen when nobody is home.) It was so heavy it washed over the French drains I buried around the back pad a couple years ago, leaked through the sliding glass door and got the carpet wet. It wasn't bad to clean up, but it does show there is a limit to how much water my system can handle. I think I need some kind of miniature sump pump to put on the back cement pad if there is extreme weather in the forecast.