A Ladder, a Lunch, and a Whole Lotta Rain

The home inspection. Gotta have one. Gotta do it. But you don't expect your your inspector to break your house!

Ummm hmmm. On Monday, Howard and I headed to the dog park because the buyer's home inspector was scheduled to come give my house the once-over. I know I've taken pretty good care of my house, and I made minor repairs before getting it on the market, but there's a bit of breath-holding as one awaits the report of the "expert." Is there any hidden problem with the house? Has my foundation unknowingly begun to move? What do things look like from atop the home? (I was on my roof once in eight years---never again!)

The inspector was scheduled to leave by 11:30, so around 11:45, Howard and I make our return. Nope---still a truck there. I kill more time, starving by now, going to grab a bite. Back by the house---still there. Okay, so I go park at the school and grade a paper in the car. And yes, poor Howard is bored silly. Back by the house---still there. It's 12:50 by now, and I'm a little irritated. But in some cases, it's just not worth a fuss. So I go back to the parking lot and read through more papers. Finally, a bit after 1, I make another pass, and the coast is clear: he's gone!

Upon getting home, though, I was greeted with a note from the inspector. "Dear Homeowner, . . . " The gist? He broke my house. That's right---the inspector broke my house. And his note was left to tell me that I had to fix it.

Hmph.

Okay, so the details---the ladder going into my attic broke. Now, according to my neighbor, the inspector was quite a large man. According to the inspector, the age of the ladder's wood (21 years) and heat from the attic caused the wood to be brittle. Granted, that makes me worry about any house with wood in the attic; what, should I expect all of it to break? That's just plain goofy.

And of course, most friends (and even my real estate agent) cry, "Make the inspector pay for it!" But when it comes down to it, and when I weighed the pros and cons of pursuing such a thing, it's not worth it. My agent, very frustrated with the situation (the inspector---not me), said, "Jana, you think like a lawyer." Well, indeed, I should. ;-)

Is that the end of it? Alas, not quite. The buyer finally sent the addendum to our sales contract, asking for repairs based on the inspection. And I had to laugh---a few of the things were on the original inspection when I bought the house in '99! (1) Install GFI plugs in the bathrooms. (The plugs say they are GFCI, but I'm not sure which outlet has the trip; they're on a connected circuit.) (No worries---I have an electrician friend who's going to do that for me.) (2) Replace the sprayer on the sink sprayer-thingy. It was slow when I moved in, on the inspection, but one of those things I replaced myself after buying. After eight years, deposits again slow the spray; easy to repair or replace. (3) Put the screen back on the bathroom window (easy---it's in my garage). And (4) the ladder.

Yes---replace the ladder into the attic. But not with just any ladder---she wants it to be a metal ladder (no doubt at the inspector's urging.) I tell my agent I'll put in what was there; I'm not going to start upgrading the house. The buyer comes back with "she'll pay the difference in cost." (The inspector misled her to think an aluminum one would be only $20 more expensive. Wrong. Those are about $100 more expensive; a steel one is about $40 over the wooden.) But I worry about putting in a much heavier ladder (steel) than was there (wooden); installing a similar thing is one thing, but making changes could be way diferent. But the buyer's persistent and beginning to irritate my agent and me with too many specifications over this %#$@* ladder.

Negotiations, baby! When someone wants to watch your every move and tell you just how to do something and be persnickity about it all, hovering and such, give them what they want. Well, in a way. I told my agent, "Tell her that I understand her desire to have what she wants, so I'd be more than happy to pay her the cost of the ladder and a little for installation, so this way, she can do it in a way that she'll be most happy with."---in the sweetest voice possible, showing how reasonable we're being.

And as expected, she essentially said, "never mind. Just put in a wooden one."

True---when someone hovers too much, allow them to take over. Usually they don't want that much control and will get their nose out of it. :-)

Oh---and to top it all off, the inpsector came back to the house Tuesday for the termite inspection and caused more trouble. (I still haven't found out why he didn't do the termite inspection on Monday.) I had to attend a CLE (continuing legal education) all afternoon, spending three joyful hours watching videos of people talk about ethics in practicing law, filing suits, fee agreements, blah, blah, blah. (I get credit for all required CLEs through teaching---except the requried annual three hours' ethics credit. But--- check! Covered through August 2008 now.)

Anyway, so I left Howard home in his house (his crate). All's fine. I return home Tuesday evening, let Howard out of the crate, then go deal with emails and the buyer's addendum. Thirty or so minutes later, I'm frustrated, irritated, and in need of a break. Okay, I should take Howard out front and maybe go on a walk.

Where's Howard?

The house is quiet, the windows have no dog peering outside, and the bed's empty. Where's Howard?

A quick look in the backyard----

Breathe. Deep cleansing breathe. The inspector had left my gate open. And I have a dog door. So when Howard went into the yard, like he always does----voila! Open gate. Gone dog.

Doggonnit.

I grab the leash, my shoes, my keys---and I'm in the car, on the path he's known to take. At the end of my street, I look down both streets----there he is. Whew! He's happily running in the area of the track near the school, having a good ol' time. I pull up, open the passenger door, excitedly yell, "Howard!" and he looks at me as if, "Hey! There you are! You're missing all the fun!" I can't help but shake my head. He's so darned cute. I say, "Load up!" and---once finding the opening in the fence around the track---he promptly jumps into the car, wet from the belly down, though, from his fun romping.

Still, as anyone might know now---this inspector is not my favorite person. (Nor that of my agent; she'll certainly never use him.)

Other than that, yesterday was quite nice---once the rain quit. Around 9am, the view out my window made me think it was night! Darn rain. But hopefully we'll be drying out in time for Saturday---when I'll spend a little time outdoors at a Fort Worth locale. More on that later.

Ah---and Lunch! I drove over to Dallas yesterday for a tasty and great lunch at Hattie's in Oak Cliff, where they have the best sweet potato fries! The occasion? Lunch with folks from the court where I used to work. Several coworkers came in addition to the judge I worked for my last year there. It's always great to see them--fabulous folks! We had a great lunch, catching up some, and me getting fond farewells. They really are good people. I was fortunate to spend three years there.

And that lunch marked my first official set of many good-byes to come. This next month will be full of those things---good-bye lunches, dinners, gatherings. I'm so blessed to have so many wonderful people in my life and to have made so many friends in the twelve years I've been in North Texas. Truly blessed.

So, goodbye, Fifth Court. You're a wonderful group of hard-working and intelligent people---all of you. I learned so much while there, and truly, it was great to be among folks as nerdy as me! :-)

Afterwards, I took a set of papers to school to get copies of 'em all before they go back to students, then headed for a massage---finally! Through all the house readying, showing, selling, etc., I hadn't taken that time for me. It was relaxing, but just that. I plan to schedule a deep-tissue one soon and not just relax those knots, but maybe actually get rid of some of 'em.

And I'm even half-way through the other set of papers. The end of these is in sight. A dozen more briefs to grade, grades to figure, and an office to pack. And that's that!

Then I'd better turn my attention to getting my second article finished and reading a LOT about contract law!