[senior citizen]

THIS FOLLOWING STORY IS TOO FUNNY TO BE MADE UP....SO I THOUGHT I'D SHARE IT. THANK GOD I AM NOT A DEPRESSIVE TYPE PERSONALITY.
I just sent the below email to our kids and other family members and friends.....
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Well, I always knew I had precognition. This morning I said to my husband, “I hope that airconditioner doesn’t fall out of the window”.

He just told that to Joe, the carpenter who’s been finishing up the odd jobs such as putting the airconditioners back and making “side panels” for them.

By now you’ve figured out that one of the three bedroom airconditioners did fall out of the second floor window, prior to him screwing it in....

It’s a little “banged up” but they think they can take the dents out. Dad said it works. What a day. Reminds me of that movie, “The Money Pit”.

But at least our toilet and sink are back in the master bathroom and we can once again take a shower in there. The fixtures had been sitting in our bedroom for over a week............when "one loose tile" repair turned out to necessitate the entire tile floor removal, new cement board put down and all new tile laid, grouted, etc.........

So much for having all the painting and windows and all the “little jobs” Dad kept adding onto their list...DONE while we were gone the two weeks in Maine. Didn’t happen. However, the bathroom tile floor came out great......looks brand new. They do really nice work......but “things happen”.

DAD JUST SAID , “He was going to lift the window just a bit so that Dad could get his fingers on the top edge of it so it wouldn’t fall out....and because they are nice new easy gliding windows, he pushed up on the window and the airconditioner JUST VANISHED OUT THE WINDOW......it hit the blue stone along the edge of the house, which took a lot of the shock and the air conditoner is working as Dad plugged it in downstairs; some of the frame is bent which has to be straightened; it’s in front of the garage right now.........so Dad put a note on it so our garbage man doesn’t take it..........that will be a good one if they do. Tomorrow is garbage pickup day. The way things are going, it could happen....as they come early.

Luckily it did not hit the siding on the house............it fell straight out.............I’m just glad it didn’t fall out of the front window as it would have fallen onto our car. Or, on the FEDEX man’s head as he delivered a package.

It fell out the side window of the middle bedroom..... They had to drive over to Albany, New York yesterday to pick up the replacement window for the one that arrived here broken. The rest of the ten replacement windows for upstairs were fine and installed when we were on vacation,.

It’s just one thing after another. Today was supposed to be the last day.........then I could call the guy to clean our furnace before the carpet installer lays the resilient flooring down here and installs the carpeting up in the three bedrooms.....................now it looks like the carpenters will be returning tomorrow?

I’m going to take the week off to shred some papers; Dad shredded his inventory yesterday...........then call the carpet installer towards end of September as our carpeting is just sitting in the warehouse at the furniture store..........he was ready to do it in early September which had been the "plan" when he did our main living area back in early summer........

In October Dad is repairing and painting the shed and re arranging the garage, etc. while I tackle this lower level...............the year has flown by.............all of this decluttering and donating stuff to the Salvation Army has gone well............until the vacation timeframe "home repairs"......which seemed like a good idea , to be done when we were gone......but the carpenter had a problem in another house with sewage overflowing..........glad that wasn't us.........but his problem caused a scheduling conflict. They are nice talented young men whom we've used for many projects such as our three season sun room, the new roof with snow and ice glides, the deck, the kitchen, etc., the bathrooms, etc....but this has been a definite bad luck cycle for them...........

What a year. Maybe we are not supposed to move??? The house is looking like new now with all the decluttering and all the rooms painted......carpeted, ETC Downstairs looks great and upstairs is almost there. I'm just happy we didn't kill anyone with the airconditioner.

The big one down in the main level is in the wall......but those three just sat in the windows. Thanks for listening.............

[Boudicca]

toooooo funny. Glad it was not MY house, but sure was funny to read about yours

[lovsthosebigdogs]

Oh my! I'm exhausted just hearing about all of it. Hope it's smooth sailing from here on. Good thing you can laugh; not sure I could keep laughing unless it was hysterical laughter.
We're in the process now. Sure hope ours isn't a repeat of THAT story! Yikes!!!

[senior citizen]

Originally Posted by shrandell;7***96

toooooo funny. Glad it was not MY house, but sure was funny to read about yours

I'm glad it was NOT your house either........

When it rains, it pours.......workmen working outdoors is not too bad, but when they are inside every day, it's quite another thing. They are nice young men.........but...

I think what bothered me the most was having our master bathroom taken apart. They had to remove the sink and toilet in order to do the tile floor over. The hallway bathroom does have a whirlpool tub and "rain shower" but I prefer our regular walk in stall shower......just a creature of habit I guess. We also have a half a bath down here, but it's not the same.

A young friend whose husband has been in construction told me it reminded her of stories he'd bring home to tell her......

""Sounds so familiar from things he would tell me from his job sites. Things always come up, go wrong, get added on and take longer than they should to get finished!""

[senior citizen]

Originally Posted by lovsthosebigdogs

Oh my! I'm exhausted just hearing about all of it. Hope it's smooth sailing from here on. Good thing you can laugh; not sure I could keep laughing unless it was hysterical laughter.
We're in the process now. Sure hope ours isn't a repeat of THAT story! Yikes!!!

It was exhausting.....especially today.....believe me.
I'm just glad nobody got killed when the airconditioner fell out of the window.

I keep telling my husband that all of this "sprucing up" will not get us one more dollar in profit when we sell.....as home prices are NOT high in Vermont compared to New Jersey, Connecticut, Long Island, N.Y., Boston suburbs, etc. and so on......the carpeting to neutralize I agree with, the fresh painting o.k.......but not all the new replacement windows, etc.

I do think the home will sell fast based on things we added for our own pleasure along the way...........but time will tell.

Enjoy your process !!! Keep me posted. We can laugh or cry together.

[asianthree]

you have to say enough is enough...you never win on a money pit house

[senior citizen]

Originally Posted by asianthree

you have to say enough is enough...you never win on a money pit house

That was just a joke. If you saw the movie, the house in the "Money Pit" was a huge old old old monstrosity which they got at a good price. Too good to be true price. When all the contractors descended on the place, it literally began to fall apart. From top to bottom. Movie was hilarious.

Our home is modern by comparison and very updated.........just wanted to put it on "fresh" for any potential buyers.......been watching too many of those HGTV shows......that's for sure.

After reading Kate Rogers post about how HOT it is in The Villages, I'm now hoping it either sells fast in May...........or does not sell until October.

I do remember the brutal heat in Florida............but the majority of TV'rs keep saying it isn't hot. Maybe it's just hot to those from New Hampshire and Vermont???? We have also had nights in the 30's and 40's and days in the 70's but tomorrow, one more day of 90 and high humidity is predicted then back to the cool crisp weather.

[CaptJohn]

Good story, Senior! I have remodeled several houses myself. I always carefully make the estimates of materials, what I'll do myself, what I'll hire out. Then when I've got the final figures as close as possible, I multiply by 3 and it usually works out fine! (it took a few to learn that, though!).

[TrudyM]

At least you don't sound discouraged. And you aren't as dumb as we are. We are very bad at finding good contractors, and end up redoing the work or fixing the goofs ourselves. The result is we try to do most of it ourselves. I am great at tearing things out and getting them 90% done but it is the other 10% on all the projects over the last 6 years that we have to finish and I am not making good headway. Not to mention 3 filing cabinets of papers to sort Scan and shred. We gave up on putting the house on the market this year but hope to make next spring. Hope the market is still hot then. Our realtor is having a heart attack because we are waiting.

Best of luck to you.

[senior citizen]

Thank you John and also thank you to Trudy......

Our carpenters are out of here, finally, after calking all the new windows on the outside.
We haven't been given the bill yet.........but that really wasn't the issue as they are always "fair"........when I referred to "The Money Pit" I meant how things kept going wrong...........like it was supposed to be done while we were gone the two weeks, but we returned to a part of our bathroom floor torn up (for one small loose tile area).....then having that bathroom "out of commission" for so long.........then the airconditioner falling out the second floor window, etc..........in a small town, we know all of our "guys" and they are really nice...........but they JUGGLE many customers which is a pet peeve of ours. My husband even remarked how quickly THE VILLAGES HOMES go up....and how fast they work. But alls well that ends well.

Trudy, I hear you........IF it's as exhausting "prepping to move" from a big house to a smaller house.......I can only imagine how tiring it will be to move into the next place.
THANK YOU BOTH...........