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Saturday, January 20, 2007

Oh My Goodness Gracious,

I feel better after letting that rant out. (See immediately previous post). I really do.

I didn't even tell y'all everything, and I still feel better.

However, thinking about it today, I realized that I totally gypped my readers by not providing photographic evidence!

So, without further ado:

This is a photo of the tree that was damaged during the December 1st ice storm that I took during the walkthough just a few days before closing:



Click on it to see the bigger version to get a detailed view of some of the damage.

This photo here, also taken during the walkthrough, shows a wider view of the extensive damage, and also shows how close the tree is to the power lines:



This is a picture of part of the tree lying in my yard after the January ice storm, on top of my phone and cable line, taken the day the branch fell:



Yes, I know my fence is rusty. Thank you. We'll be replacing it eventually. Sometime after we get around to fixing this:



Which is the nice hole the cable line left when it was yanked out of the house.

Thank you, real estate agent who refused to negotiate with the sellers over trimming the tree that was damaged while the house was under contract. Thank you very, very much. I've always wanted to learn how to hang new siding!


Ah, now, moving right along, let's check out my bathroom! (It's a tradition here, after all).



Come on, click! This really has to be viewed full-size to get the full effect. Here you see the remains of the ancient towel rack the sellers oh-so-skillfully re-replaced the nice one we'd seen during the house showing with. The one that fell down the very first time we tried to hang a towel on it. If you look not-too-carefully, you can see the poor spackling job they did to attempt to hide the holes where the nice towel rack had been.

And this would be why the re-hung old towel rack would not stay up:



See that gaping hole in the wall there behind the towel rack hardware? Uh huh. This is what happens when you remove a towel rack carelessly, spackle the old hole poorly, and then attempt to re-hang the old towel rack half-assed-ly in the exact same poorly spackled spot.

And now, the piece de resistance:





See that empty screw-hole in that first pic? Did the sellers bother to screw this cheap replacement toilet paper holder in after they damaged the wall ripping the nice one out? Oh, no. They glued it in. Crappily. Apparently, we buyers are not even worthy of a pair of screws.

9 comments:

Sherri said...

Well, at least you're feeling better. In my house, the old man hid everything pretty well so the bitterness didn't set in until about six months later, when all the cracks started to peek through. He'd patched everything pretty well.

But I tell you what, even with these annoying fix-it things, there is NOTHING I don't like about owning my own home. I hope you find this to be true as well.

You could look at this as an opportunity to bond with your new house. ;-)

Anonymous said...

I can see why you'd be pissed. (Deep breaths)

On the positive side... You have a great big back yard though. And THAT will be something your little man will LOVE come spring. (And think of the Easter eggs hiding here and there!)

But still, yes that is SUCKY. And your real estate agent should have been your advocate. (That's what that commission they get is for.)

Jaelithe said...

It is true. That is only half of my backyard. The yard is awesome. If any of you remember my posts about the inordinate amount of time and money I spent on my teeny tiny patio garden at my apartment, well . . .

Be prepared for me to disappear for pretty much the month of April ;)

Anonymous said...

Yikes! I hope that you can get stuff fixed up better with out too much trouble.

Anonymous said...

Oooh look at all that garden space!!!

Your sellers sucked. Almost as much as our builder. Mike spent a good chunk of the weekend putting tongue and groove flooring down in the upstairs hallway because our builders didn't get the roof on before it rained and our upstairs subfloor was ruined. Did they bother to replace the warped floor? No. They just hid it under carpeting, which did not conceal the squeaks. And the carpet didn't like to stay down either. It started to wrinkle.

And that's after the builder installed our tub crooked so that water would sit in the corners and eat through the caulking and soak into the walls and the floor, eventually dripping through the floor and through the ceiling to the floor below.

Oh, and they didn't seal a pipe in our attic that connects to a vent in the roof, and the pipe fell off. So the elements were coming in through that vent and soaking into the ceiling in Gabe's room. There's no insulation in the attic over his room and the drywall sports a two to three foot diameter circle of mold.

Shoddy builders suck. Inexperienced carpenters masquerading as home sellers also suck.

I feel your pain.

/my own rant.

bren j. said...

I clicked over from Bub & Pie's blog and the Husband and I enjoyed reading some of your posts (my favourite being the chocolate milk conversation).

But this house deal sucks! Have you no legal recourse?? Maybe the laws are different in Canada, but here in Maine, there are clauses written in the contract specifically to keep things like this from happening - even little things like taking fixtures. (We just bought our first house in October.)

We say, forget the letter to your old apt. people, write a letter to your real estate agent!

Best of luck with settling in though - and happy gardening!

Jaelithe said...

Honestly, Andrea, every time I have started to get really mad about this, I have said to myself, "Well, at least I didn't buy a NEW home and then find out that the professional builders had messed it up, like Andrea."

I don't know that it's any consolation to know that your house has become a symbol in my head of the ultimate shady bait-and-switch housebuying deal . . .

Jaelithe said...

Oh, and very nice to meet you Bren. Thanks for stopping by! I actually live in Missouri, though. I guess all this associating I've been doing with Canadians online is starting to make people think I'm one of them . . .

(Shh. Don't tell my government I'm considering defection to Canada. The FBI will come and confiscate my croissants!)

bren j. said...

Jaelithe - I'm actually Canadian myself, I just happened to fall madly in love with an American boy in college....so now, here I am.

So I suppose these contracts all just vary from state to state then and it's a good thing you have events like vomiting to distract you from your house-woes. :)

And after reading your two latest posts, I've discovered two things:
1) When this child gets here, it better reserve it's puking for when Dad gets home from work. I am far too squeamish for my good when it comes to projectile bodily fluids.
2) I'm not feeling that great today, but Mint Thins! Oh! Mint Thins! Note to self: Must Find Girl Guide ASAP!!