Now What?

Hi All!

You have read all about our recent troubles with the hot water tank and the phone. You have read about my stomach issues. I can't recall if I told you about the front door not latching correctly or not. Well, all I can say is . . . now what???

Yesterday, before he left for work, Hubby took me out to the garage to show me something. When we were out there he pointed to the garage door opener button and pointed out that for some reason, it sticks at times. If it sticks, the "rolling code" or whatever it is called, is continually working making it impossible for someone to open the garage door from the outside with a remote. Apparently, I pressed the button, it stuck, and he couldn't get into the garage on Tuesday. Oops! I received a nice little demonstration on how to make sure that the button isn't stuck so that doesn't happen again. Let's just say Hubby wasn't too happy.

Then . . . after speech (which I will tell you about in a minute) I stopped by the post office to pickup a certified letter that the postman had tried to deliver the day before. The letter was from the Foundation Warranty company. With a slightly sick feeling in my stomach, I opened the letter and browsed it before pulling out of the parking lot of the post office. Can you guess what it said?

The crack in our foundation is NOT covered. Surprise, surprise!

Actually, Hubby and I figured that would be the result. We can take the company to arbitration (at our cost if we lose) if we don't like the decision. The decision, by the way, is based on the fact that no doors are impaired (the crack is in the middle of the house which is pretty open with no doors!) and that the property has "mature trees in the proximity of the foundation," "the front planting beds have marginal to poor drainage," and " the downspouts are discharging at the foundation."

Let me take each of those on one by one. First of all -the trees were planted by the builder, the canopy is not near the roof line of the house and that means that the root system isn't near the foundation, and since the homeowners association requires trees on the property we don't have much choice about having the trees. Now, if the builder had told us that we couldn't let the trees reach maturity because it would void our foundation warranty (which was never said), we would have made sure to rip them out before they were mature! Ridiculous!

Next, the front planting beds have no drainage problems. There is never any standing water anywhere in the beds and certainly not near the foundation. So that indicates marginal to poor drainage? Excuse me?

Finally the downspouts. Okay, the downspouts do come down the house and turn out at the foundation. They have the traditional bend directing the water away from the house. They have splash blocks which further direct the water away from the foundation. Apparently we are supposed to add extensions onto the downspouts which are at least two feet long so that the water goes that far from the house. Can you imagine having two feet of downspout in the yard? Really?

Anyway, Hubby and I are not happy about the decision. Now we need to decide if we try arbitration or if we just fix everything at our own expense. What a hassle!

Oh well!

Moving on to happier topics . . . at my speech appointment yesterday Susan said that I was back to the point where I was before I "fell off the exercise wagon." This is good news because my voice was doing really well and it is now back to that level! YEAH! That is good news for me. Susan made sure that I understood how important exercises and massage are in maintaining the progress I have made. Believe me - I know! I know!

Trisha

Voice Update: Well, I pretty much said it all in the post. I am doing well. Praise God!