Tidbits
Sleepover at Ikea - Maybe this is the only way to get to the $1 early enough…
A ramen bath - Japanese spa with special baths resembling instant noodles. I wanna play!
Old age homes for dogs - 1) Old dogs don’t like to be abandoned at strange places. 2) Playing with young puppies will probably cause the older dogs to die faster due to exhaustion.
A remote-controlled pigeon - Oh the poor thing…
An article on a brilliant method of teaching grade schoolers about bats and rabies. I smell a lawsuit.
Will trade beer for Crumpler bags. Tempted by the beanbag and messenger bags…
Photos
Another Season, Another Problem with the House
January 18, 2007, 2:59 am
It seems like as we go through each season, we find something else broken or wrong with the house:
Summer
- “Fix" the AC
- Combat the army of dandelions that took over the backyard
- Fend of the bees that like to make hives under our deck
Fall
- Heavy rainfall creating our own personal pond in the backyard.
Winter
- Leak in the water pipes in the basement when the line feeding outside froze. (And yes, damnit, we shut off the water valve before winter, and it STILL happened)
Actually, I think the previous owners were to blame for most of our problems. It seemed like most of their “do-it-themselves” projects were shabby work, and we are left to clean up and pay for them. First, they installed the exhaust vent for the dryer backwards. Then, because the guy wanted the faucet in the backyard to be higher off the ground, he made his own, using a compression shut off valve. This, we learned, is BAD to use for points leading outside the house, as the pipes are not connected to the valve by solder, but by just tighening the ring around the connection (compress, see). They are easy to install, but should not be trusted for heavy duty responsibilities.
So of course, the cheapo valve did not come with any drain, and thus we had no way of emptying the section from the valve to the outside even when we shut off the water. It didn’t help matters that the outer pipe wasn’t tilted to encourage water to flow out, instead, it was the other way around so water collected on the wrong end, at the valve. And the temperature dropped to below freezing these two days, the water in the pipe froze, and pop goes the outer pipe. Which, by itself, wouldn’t have been too bad since there’s no running water on that side of the valve, except when the pipe popped out of the valve, it also damaged the shut-off seal, causing it to make frizzle noises and leak.
Leak is always better than spew of course, and I think the housing Gods for the following blessing:
- Nelson was actually home when the ceiling started leaking, because he just happen to catch the flu yesterday, and was home from work. And just happen to be sleeping in bed, the bed which just happens to be right under the leak...
- That the shut off valve did get damaged when the outer pipe popped off, otherwise in the spring, we would prolly not noticed the other end missing from the shut-off valve, would have turned the water on, and a full blast of water would have shot out into the ceiling, much like opening the faucet inside the house.
Still, another $200 down the hole. We were debating whether to just replace the valve ourselves, or get the professional to do it. I think we made the right decision to call someone in, because a) we learned that using compression valve is BAD, b) the mouth of the outer pipe was damaged and so the whole thing needed to be replaced, and c) the guy let us know there’s a gas line running beside the pipe. I don’t dare imagine what would have happen sending careless and inexperienced Mike up there with a soldering iron, waving an open flame around a gas line…
How come things like this don’t happen to OTHER people??? I swear House 2.0 will have to be brand new, so we have better control over all these do-it-yourself projects. The previous owner did the basement himself, I think, so the bathroom better not be the next to go.. Or maybe he did the gas line to the backyard. We should email him asking what else he did himself, so we can take preemptive measures…
Tagged: House
Comments (4)
Hopefully your house won’t turn out to be a death trap. You guys don’t seem like the handiest people (no offense!), so, yes, call in the professional. I’d say anything majorly structural or anything involving electricity or water probably involves a professional, for me!
..and a soldering iron doesn’t have an open flame, does it? Certainly you mean blowtorch? Then again, what do I know!
See, I think that’s why I bought a new car, too. Not because I don’t know what fixups might be on the old one (though it could have been in some nasty accidents, and with that privacy stuff you can’t know, now), but because I don’t know what might just break down here or there.
‘course, with a new house, you can still encounter those risks if you buy from a crappy building company.
Hehe, I think my house has pretty hardy construction, it’s what the previous owner added himself that’s faulty. Hehe, and we may not be *that* handy, but I think we do alright. If only things just work out the way they should.. I mean that air vent, who would have known?? :D
As for new houses, a lot of the major problems should present itself in the first few years, and there’s some regulation body out there that will cover repairs if they present themselves in time.
No, I don’t think it’s a blow torch. But it’s still high heat near gas lines…
Or you can’t find out about any past accidents with cars anymore?
I forget, do you guys own a stud finder? If not, buy one? 
I find mine so useful! Basically, I can’t drill holes in any of my outward-facing walls because there’s concrete right behind. Joy.
Nope, this privacy act thing prevents disclosure of that kind of information. It’s kinda dumb if you ask me. Perhaps enough people will complain in time, and they will remove restrictions on some parts of the information.
We had a stud finder. We used it when we were putting up that coat rack. Needless to say, it was returned…
And yet they have a checklist that you can ask a house seller to fill out. Of course, it’s also sort of worthless cause they can lie on it and say “they were not aware of any problems”, and you’ll have a hard time proving otherwise if you want to sue them.
© Maggie Tam 2007-2009 www.onechopstick.ca
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