Adventures in Home Ownership

Tim & Angie are enjoying the "ups" and "downs" of home ownership. First off, we had the place inspected before they moved in, and the inspector noted that the electrical outlets were all wired incorrectly, so the price was re-negotiated appropriately, and Ben spent several hours rewiring everything. Evidently, our inspector was most adept at recognizing electrical issues. But it seems that the guy who sold the townhouse was quite adept at "cheaping out" on many things. (He bought it at foreclosure and cleaned it up to sell.) The dishwasher is brand new but wasn't draining. A simple $60 payment to the home warranty company for a service call revealed that the "knockout plug" on the disposal hadn't been removed to allow water to get through. And the disposal itself was full of rocks, which Ben was able to clean out. The brand new garage door wasn't working right, but adding a garage door opener solved that problem. The most interesting mishap occurred when Angie used the new whirlpool tub upstairs, then came downstairs to find a rain shower in the dining room...so another $60 home warranty payment for the plumber's time educated us in how a bathtub can be installed improperly (the seal behind the overflow valve wasn't tightened). At this point there's a large hole in the dining room ceiling, where we removed the wet sheetrock, and we're looking for a contractor to replace the (improperly installed---what else?) brand new shower valve in that bathroom, which will involve tearing out the wall above the tub and replacing the tile all the way around. And did I mention that the neighbors three doors down have a habit of disregarding the townhome association rules regarding their dogs? They have three dogs, and they put them on chains in the front yard (against the rules) and let them bark at all hours of the night, even when Tim wants to sleep with the windows open. (The silver lining here is that those folks have their unit on the market and should be moving out soon.) So the excitement has worn off a bit, but I think they're glad to be out of our house, and I know I'm enjoying getting my house in order again (but I won't be able to finish until Tim completely empties his room!).