Sprinkler systems, termites, bedroom sets and other potential disasters

Daily blog posts seem to be a thing of the past for me. I'll give you a partial weekend update. This weekend was Inspection Weekend. It went well. It was also Refrigerator-Washer-Drier-Bedroom-Set weekend and that went less well, but not a disaster. All that effort did grind me down to a nubbin though. When does this get to be over? I'd like to play golf again before I die.

We were out at the new house on Saturday morning: Wife driving; me navigating. I failed my end of the bargain and we were 20 minutes late getting to the house. Our ever(normally)-trustworthy sat-nav really has trouble in area around our new house. She thinks roads are there that are not, thinks roads aren't there that are --- like our street. Eventually I found the house though ... after forcing Wife's hands to unclamp from the steering wheel and taking control myself.

Inspector Mike from MasterCraft and his daughter-side-kick Leslie were hard at work. They seemed pretty thorough with usual disclaimer that they could only test the things they could see and didn't take anything apart to look under the covers. Here's the short list of items ... or my interpretation of same:

One of hot water heater vents isn't seated properly on roof. (Surprise: we have two hot water heaters.)

Damaged shingles and shingles separated in front. (Wife caught the latter item.)

Gap in roof flashing at front.

Gas flame out of log starter in fire place is HUGE. He advises caution. (I saw it. He's not kidding. When he cranked it open you could feel the heat halfway across the room. You could cook a steer over the flame and heat the whole house ... or burn it all down.)

Compressed insulation in the attic in one place.

Attic stairs not properly installed.

Cover on electrical receptical on patio is upside-down.

Grounding wire to gas pipe is connected to insulation, not to pipe itself. (What COULD the installer have been thinking?)

No heating or cooling in downstairs half bath or in master bedroom toilet. (OK, will keep people from spending too much time there.)

MAJOR ITEM: Walls on both sides of upstairs bathroom have been cut into and not completely repaired. They even left a gaping hole in one wall. We can't figure out what was going on there, but it doesn't look good.

Dishwasher door rubs on cabinet. Ho-hum.

Gas cooktop appears set for grill mode, but has burners instead. Fan comes on when you light the burner. Ho-hum.

Cover for drier vent isn't firmly attached. (Need that fixed to keep the birds out.)

Looks like a leak in the sprinkler system in backyard. Some sprinkler heads not working properly.

Termite (Wood-Destroying-Insect) Inspector Chaz came an hour or so later. He did his thing and said, "Only seventh time in my career I didn't find one thing to complain about. No branches touching house, no fences butting against walls, no foliage too high, no dirt mounded too close to foundation. You're good to go."

Then Alarm-System Melanie shows from Brinks Security. She checks all the security contacts and declares system working. She says we have one of the coolest touch panels going at the back (garage) door. It will not only do all the security stuff, it will answer your telephone and tell you how many voicemails you have when you walk in the door. It'll turn your lights on and off while you're gone to make people think you're home. It'll greet you when you walk in the door. How cool is that? Of course, I'll foul it up and have police called every time I go in or out, but they'll get used to it. Fee (if we go with Brinks): $30/month.

Cleaners show up. That was unexpected. A small army descend into the house, start work, then decide we're in their way and all leave again -- the leader saying, "I'll be back." with Mexican not Austrian accent.

My big concern is the cabling. It's not obvious to me that they've yet run all the cabling for telephones, internet, cable TV, etc. I'm going to bug builder about that.

Wife has done her own inspection. I conservatively estimate 100 items on board. Everything from paint dings to rotting fence slats. I pitty the builder, but Wife's got no remorse and I'll just stand and look stern.

We finally wear out (actually I wear out) and head out. As we're leaving the cleaners show up. (Were they waiting down the street for us to leave?)

We decide to drive around the area. We're both hungry by now. We don't find suitable place to eat, but do discover some shopping centers. As we near the main expressway for the area we find a big mall with Walmart (what else?), Circuit City, Toys R Us, PetSmart(PetsMart?) and Fingers Furniture.

We also find, please don't puke, International House of Pancakes. Strange as it may seem breakfast sounds good at about 3pm. Wife's never eaten at IHOP; I don't imagine a good outcome. I'm happily surprised. Wife says, "I'm hungry." And then proceeds to eat, I kid you not, a sirlion steak, three poached eggs, two pancakes, a load of hash browns, and a strawberry milkshake. Hungry? Sweet jeeminy. Where did that little girl put all that food?

We discover that Fingers is going out of business and having a big sale. We find a couple bedroom sets we like. Unfortunately neither of us like the same ones. We mark them for "look again later" -- gambling they'll still be there.

We hit Circuit City for prices on new TVs: you can spend how ever much is in you pocket. I also discover that they have a service ($100) in which they'll come to your house, survey the situation, and make recommendations on how to handle your audio and video needs. If you buy more than $400 from Circuit City, they'll apply the cost of the survey to the purchase. I may have to do that because I don't know jack about the current state of audio/video.

We go home and I'm past ready.

That's Saturday. Sunday is fodder for another post.