Saturday, August 7, 2010

One step forward, two steps back . . .

The cable guy came Thursday evening and replaced the line all the way from the road to the house.  Our house sits far enough back from the road that there is a second telephone pole about halfway between the road and the house.  During Gustaf, the line from that second pole to the house was knocked down.  When they replaced it, the cable people just put in a connection at that second post and ran a new line just from there.  When the guy came out this time, he found that the line had water in it, apparently because that joint at the pole was leaking, so whenever it rained the signal would go out.  So he replaced the whole line and now the signal is perfect.  But then when he came inside to check the signal here, the router wouldn't work.  Since it worked fine when he first got here and checked the line signal, he got a new one out of the truck and put that in.  He said he would tell the office that he put in a 'test router" then he would just "forget" it because he isn't supposed to replace routers.  We very much appreciate his help!  Additionally, he reset the wireless signal for me.  The computer guy from my office set up our wireless network for me originally, but by the time I got a laptop and needed the wireless connection, I had forgotten the password he put in and so had he!  And I didn't know it could be reset until the cable guy did it for me Thursday.  Thanks!
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Mark has been doing so well with the barn/fencing project.  Now suddenly we are looking at mega-bucks to repair Mark's bathroom.  We have a custom shower with a solid base that joins to the sides of the shower all the way down at floor level.  Never gave that a thought.  But the only thing keeping the water in was a seam of grout.  The shower sits between Mark's bathroom with mine, so there are doors on both sides about 6 inches high with ledges that extend into the shower a couple inches over each door so you can't see the base seam anywhere along those areas under the doors.  Apparently the grout seam under Mark's door began to leak a long LONG time back - maybe when we had the house leveled years ago.  Anyway, the water has been running out UNDER the flooring (so he couldn't see it) but above the subfloor, causing the subfloor to rot.  Now his floor "gives" when you walk on it.  Actually, it not only "gives," but it feels like your foot is going to go clear through when you step on it at this point!  So we're going to have to remove the vanity and toilet from his bath and pull up the floor and replace the subfloor.  That's bad enough, but the leak has apparently been going on long enough that the rotted subfloor extends out past his bathroom and into our bedroom where the floor also feels like it's rotted now!  I don't know if it's going to be possible to replace what needs replaced while leaving that wall between his bath and the bedroom intact or not.  If we have to take that wall down to replace the floor it's going to be VERY expensive.  So as soon as Mark gets home this time he's going to take his bathroom apart so we can see exactly what we're dealing with. 

We got a bid last week, but because it's not possible to know exactly what needs done until the floor is pulled up, the amount was ridiculous.  I'm hoping once we get the problems exposed we will be able to get some additional (more reasonable) bids.

While the guy who bid the bathroom repair was here, he also bid on completing the barn by running water lines and putting in a french drain, running electricity, and putting in outlets and exhaust fans and water heater hook-ups.  Phew!  Mark may feel as old as I do, but I'm afraid he will have no choice but to do this work himself - hopefully soon, before we fall apart!  We just don't have that kind of cash and we do NOT want to take out a second mortgage at retirement!  That might be okay if we planned to sell the place and downsize soon, but once all this stuff is done I want to stay here and enjoy it for a decade or two and we can't be making TWO house payments on our retirement income.  Scary.

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