You Will Need to Raise the House Two Inches -- jcarolek

The old farmhouse project has been an interesting one so far.  I can assure you, everything costs at least double what I think it should cost, and every tradesman I have perform some work for me, leaves me with more work to do.  There is a law of the universe in there somewhere, but the precise wording of that law eludes me just now.  Suffice to say, it is akin to Murphy's Law -- if it can go wrong, so it shall.


I have hired all kinds of folks to help me get to a point where I can live in the apartment over the garage and work on the old farmhouse in my leisure.  I have tried to "go local" helping sustain the local economy.  So far I have had:


1. about a dozen loads of "road dirt" and gravel delivered to the property in an attempt to create driveable roads on the property -- good guy, friendly, personable... had to pull his dump truck out of the mud twice, forgot to raise his trailer jack stand when he was leaving, after using his tractor to create my roads, and dug a nice deep groove down the center of my approximately 500 foot long driveway....oh well, what's one more rut?

2. gutters installed on the old farmhouse and the modern garage to help divert the water away from the foundations and route it out to what will, one day, be the pond....nice enough guy, clearly NOT a long-term gutter installation guy, despite his truck advertising that promotes his talents...put the ends on backwards, and had one corner, a very critical corner of the guttering, that leaked badly....came back twice to repair it without luck...and told me, "Judy, you will need to raise the house two inches to get the gutter corner to not leak..."  Yes, yes, of course I thought he was kidding... he was not...he was quite serious!  Well, I might well be raising the house to repair the failing floor joists, but I seriously doubt I will be raising the house to correct a gutter installation.....


3. a water softening system installed -- got a pretty good deal on Craigslist, and the guy installed it while I was at church one Sunday...bartered with him, getting a discount on the system and installation in return for selling him the swingset that was on the property....when I got to the site to see the work he'd done, it was pretty good...OK, one of the pipe connections leaked, but other than that, AND the fact that he took the old water softener without asking (I had him return it to me) AND the fact that he left my poor wet yard with two MORE gigantic, ugly ditches from where HIS truck sank trying to get the swingset out....well, maybe NOT such a good deal on Craigslist, after all....


4. an office trailer I bought for my eBay operation from a guy on Craigslist, moved to the property ....got a decent deal, my new neighbors offered to move it to my property, and the seller promised to have everything in working order so it could be towed...again, I was at church when the actual move occurred...and the seller had NOT fixed the trailer jack stand so it could be adjusted...so, it was more work for the guys moving it, AND yet another thing to fix....not high priority, so it will settle to the bottom of the to-do list...

5. a new pressure tank installed -- mine gave out about two weeks after I started living here...the plumber was very good and reasonably priced and did clean up after himself...but he took the head from my old water softener...he DID ask later, if it was OK that he took it, but really... what is with these people?


6. hughesnet high speed satellite service moved from my old house to this property....installer declared the dish already mounted on the chimney here would not work... needed to install a new pole....OK...$125 for a $20 pole...seriously... AND he ran the cable right across one of my open tranches I had dug for water diversion...now I get to either creatively go under the cable, or find a way to lengthen the cable... UGH... job cost me twice what was quoted, the guy put the pole in a different location from what I authorized....


7. carport installed next to the garage....12 X 31 lean-to style....after waiting more than six weeks from the date of ordering, last Tuesday was my big installation day...three industrious men arrived and I showed them where I wanted it...they asked if they could start the front, about 20 inches forward from where I had marked, and I deferred to their expertise....I left for my 3-hour meeting with my divorce attorney and returned to find a lovely carport....with one of the legs positioned DIRECTLY in the middle of the walk-through door to the garage...UMMMMM.....I really could not believe my eyes, but it was so, and the three industrious men were long gone.... I wrote a letter of complaint to Carolina Carports, including photos of the clever installation, and today, having received no response from the company, pulled up the 2 1/2 foot pegs and had a friend with a winch move the whole building back 20 inches...

And...just BECAUSE mine is a Murphy's Law kind of life, Friday, at the P/L hearing for my divorce, the judge would not hear any "fault" arguments (that has to wait for the "equitable distribution hearing")...and did NOT look at the sheet I was required to complete that specified all of my monthly income and bills...all he cared about was my salary, John's salary, mortgage payments and car payments... and with that, he ruled that I have to pay John, the man who NEVER would work during our marriage, $2200 per month in spousal support, retroactive to February 15, 2010...and maintain his health insurance for him at my expense....UMMMM...where exactly am I supposed to come up with this money, I wonder??? Well, OK, I suppose I will be able to write more blog entries from a jail cell when they incarcerate me for non-payment of "spousal support."  GEEZ!


Well, but today was another day...I got the opportunity to work myself ragged to afford to maintain John's lifestyle, while I try to make livable the old farmhouse....so I can MAYBE sell the other house....so I can lessen my financial burden....while John sits on his butt, doing nothing, as he has for more than 10 years now...claiming, "I cannot leave my comfort zone" as his latest excuse for not being able to work...


I dunno, maybe it's just me, but this is one wacko world....tradesmen that charge thousands for work that is pathetically performed, attorney's who want to settle so badly, they allow crazy awards to deadbeat leaches, and deadbeat leaches who SERIOUSLY act as if they are OWED something because they managed to be abusive, drunks who refused to contribute to the acquisition of the assets they now CLAIM as 50% theirs, and the Commonwealth of Virginia, who stipulates that "the award of spousal support is not to punish the spouse paying the support, but to lessen the financial impact of divorce on the spouse with the lower salary.".....UMMMMM... well, OK, but Really, isn't this sort of like the guy who wants me to raise the house to fix his poorly installed gutters?


But, I am sure, one day I will look back on all of this and have a good laugh....


Nevertheless, I am enjoying the old farmhouse and the couple of goats that are WAY more trouble than I am sure they are worth!