Turbulence 2006 (part 2)

Filed under AFK on February 21, 2006
Tagged: home repairs

I mentioned yesterday that our house was almost 30 years old. We went into it knowing it would be a project house, on top of the regular maintenance that comes with owning a home. I think we did a fair job keeping up with things, as well as tackling a couple remodels. Still, we expected the eventual home inspection would catch something. There were three things that completely blindsided us.

January was the wettest month in over 30 years. Right before the home inspection, we noticed a water stain in the upper corner of our living room.

Our roof is halfway through its lifespan. Moss has always been a problem, and there were some high winds at the end of the month. I figured there was a hole in the shingles somewhere. Fortunately, a contractor friend came out, located the leak in the chimney, and repaired it before the inspection.

The inspection caught an electrical issue that had been in existence when we bought the house, but was not caught during our inspection. The house is heated by two methods: a heat pump/furnance and wall units. The wall units were part of the original build. When the heat pump was added, it was wired to the same circuit breaker as the wall units. This is called double tapping, and causes the overloaded circuit to overheat. The repairs weren’t cheap, but it was more frustrating to pay for someone else’s mistake.

One of the outside hose spigots drips, so it was no surprise when it came up on the inspection checklist. This was something well within my realm, so I spent a Saturday morning replacing it. I was a little surprised to see an 8-inch section of copper tubing soldered onto the spigot when I pulled it out. Apparently, the spigot was winterized. The valve was actually at the far end of the tubing, putting it inside the walls far enough to supposedly protect it from severe temperature drops. The downside to this is that you can’t really see the connection where it screws in. I bought a replacement, taped the threads and tightened it down by hand until it was scraping paint off the siding. Then I turned back on the water and tested the spigot. No more dripping.

We’ve had sub-freezing temperatures since Friday. It even snowed last night. On Saturday morning, as we left the house to pick up the moving van, my wife noticed a large icicle hanging from the siding where it met the foundation, right below the spigot. When we got back, I checked the crawlspace under the house and found a couple small pools of water near the spigot. The final clue something was wrong was the water stain in the bottom corner of the office.

I feared a pipe had burst in the cold. Unfortunately, after cutting away the drywall to investigate, I learned the leak was my fault. I hadn’t tightened the spigot enough. We dried the carpet and the wood, wrenched the spigot a couple more turns, and replaced the sheetrock. The paint was literally still drying when the buyer and her inspector returned for their follow up tour.

By themselves, these three things, while a strain on the budget, would in no way constitute a major source of stress. However, added to the ordeals surrounding our buyer, they created an environment of anxiety that made us wonder what would go wrong next.

Tomorrow, I’ll tell you what did.