The Joy of Home Repairs

The previous owners of our home had obviously become aware of a significant dip in the kitchen floor (2nd floor of the house), and put a 6" x 6" wooden post under the beam which runs across the garage.

Unfortunately, they didn't get it quite vertical. So ... after 13 months in the house, it had begun to delaminate.

But I digress.

We discovered a stain on the ceiling of the family room (1st floor), and determined that a waste line which runs above that ceiling was leaking. Only a little, but still a leak.

So I contacted the home warranty company, which we've kept paid-up, and reported the leak.

To keep the story from meandering, let's just say that the plumber they sent knew how to fix a leak, but didn't know how to locate it.

So he cut holes in the second floor walls: behind the washing machine, behind the refrigerator, under the kitchen sink ... and managed to cut the 240-volt power line to the dryer.

And then, only when he couldn't find a source of the leak on the 2nd floor, went downstairs to cut a hole in the ceiling. Whereupon said Nimrod the Plumber discovered a cracked joint in the waste line.

Which meant that all the holes upstairs were completely unnecessary.

Meanwhile, we had engaged our own contractor to fix the column in the garage.

So.

The leak was fixed, an electrician came bright and early this morning to repair the power to the dryer. And the contractor we hired is downstairs, fastening the new, truly vertical column to the beam, which has already removed the slight dip in the kitchen floor.

He also put metal louvers over the soffits, to replace the light steel mesh which was allowing squirrels into the attic above the 3rd floor ... but that's another story.

So the dryer works, the 2nd floor no longer sags, and the drywaller will be here next week to patch the holes made by Nimrod. (What? Yes, I could repair the holes. But the home warranty's plumber made them, so I shouldn't have to fix his mistake.)


All you who already own homes are probably nodding and saying, "Ayup ... sounds familiar." But it's our first major repair ... and we know it won't be the last.