Return to blogging

Well, my calendar says that today is Election Day, so I thought it would be as good a time as any to start blogging again.

So...how's it going, all? Things are OK here, all things considered.

I have a house now. A house with very little furniture and a lot of work that needs to be done. But since I don't know beans about buying furniture and I try to avoid work whenever possible - here I am.

My new house is actually an old house. Although there have been several additions through the years, I'm told that the original part is 80+ years old, dating back to the 1920's.

I knew when I bought the house that I was in for some pretty significant maintenance and remodeling. All-in-all, it's in decent shape, but a few problems have popped up that I didn't count on.

For instance, I didn't know that part of the floor under my bathroom had rotted out; nor did I know that the cause of the rot - a leak in the plumbing - was still active when I moved in. I also didn't realize that a previous owner had cut off a floor joist in order to install a furnace - without doing anything at all to properly support the cut-off joist.

As it turns out, those two things are the major culprits for the sagging floors and doorways that I repeatedly asked about during my home inspection. Unfortunately, I managed to hire the biggest dumbass of a home inspector in Madison County to do my pre-closing inspection. He assured me that "that's old settling - this is an old house - nothing to worry about." Yeah, right.

A word to the wise: if and when you purchase a house, never, ever hire a home inspector recommended by your Realtor®. I don't care if you think you have the best Realtor® in the world; there's just too big of a conflict of interest there to take the chance. Now, in case you're tempted to respond, "Ummm...yeah...any idiot should know that," there's something you should know: I'm not just any idiot.

Looking on the bright side, I love my neighborhood, and in spite of all its problems, I love my house. It's a good house. It just needs a little fixing up here and there. Come to think of it, I could use a little bit of that myself.