Subject: The Scoop
Hey Ya'll,
Did you think we fell off the face of the planet never
to return? That's ridiculous, everyone knows that the
earth is round and you can't fall off?!?!?! You can,
however, fall down. So be careful, make sure your
shoes are tied and never run with scissors in your
hand (free advise to live by).
Here is the scoop. Kristin and her mother arrived at
our new house on Friday 6/15/01 at about 1:00 am. Upon
arrival, they noticed that the carpet was wet in the
Florida room (suddenly we are a little hesitant to put
the pool table out there!). Kristin also noticed that
the previous owners did not do a very good job of
painting the interior walls. In fact, Kristin went so
far as to say that the paint job was.......um....what
is the word I am looking for.....BAD!!! Yeah, that's
it, bad. (The next time they paint their house, they
should try using masking tape to prevent the paint
from getting onto the trim. It would also be a good
idea to take the blinds off of the windows so as to
not get paint on them as well.) Needless to say,
Kristin and her mother spent the next 36 hours
painting an empty house and waiting for the arrival of
her new husband (that's me), her father and brother
and a 26 foot moving van packed to the rafters.
When we arrived on Saturday night (the drive was easy,
put the moving truck in fifth gear, put the gas pedal
to the floor and stand on it), the carpet was dry so
we unloaded the truck and hit the sack for the night.
On Sunday, we spent the day moving things in and
trying to solve our Florida room leak problem. It
appeared to be caused by a poorly placed patio square
that led rain water from a downspout back to the
corner of the Florida room. Removed the patio square
and installed a flexible downspout extension to direct
the rain water to a nearby drainage well. Whew!!!!!
Problem solved.
Got some rain that afternoon and the carpet stayed
dry. So far, so good.
Got a REAL Florida rain storm on Thursday (high winds
and heavy rain) and the roof leaked like a sieve. The
storm lasted for about 30 minutes and we used bowls,
buckets, and garbage cans to catch 40-45 gallons of
incoming water and pour it onto the lawn. (do you
think the carpet was wet again?). The previous owners
said that they never had a problem (hmmmm...that's
weird). I doubt that they did know about it because if
they did, they could have gotten a higher price for
the house by advertising that it had a built in
slip-n-slide!!!!!
I'm sure you can imagine the plethora of phone calls
that followed. And as of today, we have had no
response and hence no resolution. More on that mess
later.
Meanwhile, Dr Yonker (that's my wife) has started her
orientation at the hospital and will actually start
working on 7/2/01. I, on the other hand, have been a
stay at home dad, without the dad part. This amounts
to being a slacker and I think I have found my calling
in life!!!!
Actually, I have been busy around the house. You can
probably imagine how many things around here are in
need of attention (refer to previous owners' painting
efforts described above). Let me give you a few
examples and you can tell me if I am way off base
here:
1. Should your garden hoses leak in three different
places when you turn them on?
2. should you protect the water shut off valve to the
house so that it doesn't get corroded and you can
actually shut off the water to your house when you
need to (hence the term "water shut off" valve)?
3. When you put a patio onto the back of your house,
shouldn't you angle it so that water runs away from
the house?
4. When you plant bushes, are you responsible for
trimming them..............EVER?
5. When you plant a garden, does it weed itself?
6. When you build a shed and put electrical outlets
and light fixtures in it, do you have to connect the
wires to an electrical source or will the shed have
power by default?
7. When you have garbage (plastic bags, metal pipes,
plastic containers, old wood, etc), can you put it
into your garden to help it grow?
Ok, ok, I'll stop whining and get back to work. I
think you get the idea. I'm not a slacker, really, I'm
not.
Haven't played any golf yet (Kristin won't let
me...just kidding) but we did go to the beach
yesterday.
That's enough for now. Hope all of you are well.
XOXOXOXO
KYI KYII