New Home Adventures

We have a lovely new home in a fantastic area. Big yard, swimming pool, 5 minutes from the mall and in a great school district for the eventual kidlets. Unfortunately, we're discovering that it's a lot more of a fixer-upper than we had bargained for. They let the place go a little, and it's also a pretty old house, so we've got a lot of work to do. I'll be posting about our adventures bit by bit - there have been dozens of stories so far, and I'm sure I'll have enough for a whole lot of blogging this summer.

We need a new air conditioner, because ours isn't working right (when it works at all). Luckily, we have a home warranty! Unluckily, they are stinking weasels and refused to cover any repair or replacement because the last tech who serviced it messed up and overloaded it with freon. This was long before we moved in, obviously. Who knows how they can get away with this, but we argued with them for over a month and got nowhere but frustrated. It would feel so good to take them to court or something, but making it into a legal battle will take more money and energy than we can manage right now. And fine print's a bitch - they'd probably win.

So. Got a few estimates for replacing the unit. We even got one from the warranty company, who's happy enough to do the work as long as the money comes from our pockets. Even the best estimates are in the thousands, which sucks, but we resigned ourselves to kissing our money goodbye and wishing it well. But when the company we were going with came over to have a better look at the situation, they said we need to cut a hole in the ceiling to get at the old air handler. It looks like it was installed many many years ago when the roof was being replaced, and they just stuck it in from outside. The access hole we have in the closet isn't big enough for the guys to work with. And, of course, they upped the price because our attic's so tiny and they'll need two days to install everything. Back to calling for more estimates. Meanwhile, a handyman is coming tomorrow to hack at the ceiling anyway, because unless we can find a midget HVAC crew, we need a bigger access hatch.

I'm trying not to be discouraged, but at this point we'll have the a/c unit installed by September.

I guess whatever doesn't kill you makes you stronger. I'm going to be goddamn IronMan by the end of this year.