I can't think of a title.
This is just a quickquick post to catch you up on some of the week's exciting events.
Last last Friday, just after I wrote my last post, Kevin and I received a letter from an Ohio lawyer asking us to place $3,500 into an envelope and send it to him (as if that was a possibility!). Why? The assholes who bought our house claimed that, because we hadn't fixed the sump pump, the basement had flooded and cost them $2,500 in damages, plus $250 for a dehumidifier, and $650 for lost rent. Pay up! it said.
Here's the problem: We DID fix the sump pump on September 9. That was the last day for any serious rain in central Ohio before they closed on the house on September 21. Kevin was in the house until the morning of September 10. The sump pump worked when he tested it, and there was no flooding from the rains on the 9th. In fact, there was never any flooding in that basement, which is why we had no idea that the sump pump didn't work in the first place, and why we used the basement as a living room, and why we even kept stuff on the floor in the utility room, where the only trouble we ever had was some basic dampness in the worst of rainy times.
Anyway, I spent most of all that weekend stressing about it. Once I got over taking it personally ("God! What TF do we have to do?! I labeled the paint cans for the various rooms! I laundered the lace curtains that were there when we moved in so they could use them! Bitches!!"), then I was just irked. The women who bought our house are lesbians. I am prejudiced in favor of gays and lesbians and, frankly, expected more from them. Perhaps I should let them off of their pedestal. Anyhoo, the real owner of the house drives a big white Amurrican truck with greatly oversized tires and a huge windshield sticker that says "Country Girl".
I kept thinking about that stupid sticker, and thinking about how badly she got it wrong. Country people don't sniff a little basement mold and run to a lawyer with a list of bogus charges and . . . charges.
It's in our lawyer's hands now, but we are pretty much at peace. Ohio is a "buyer beware" state. They made a list of fixes to be made after their inspector looked at the place. We signed the contract that said we'll fix them, and Kevin did just that. There was nothing in the basement between Sept 10 and Sept 21. Apparently, they didn't have the sense to actually walk through the house before the closing. Wouldn't YOU check to make sure everything had been fixed? Wouldn't YOU check on the house you're about to buy that hadn't been occupied in nearly 5 months? If they had, we would have had a chance to address any damage--dubious though it may be--that had been done. They didn't, there was no fraud, so they should be screwed.
I was going to send those jerks a Christmas card! Now I'm just going to call our former neighbors--who DID get Christmas cards--and warn those real, helpful country people about their crazy ass litigious new neighbors.
What else? I was really busy at the tourism office, getting ready and then having the 4-hour budget meeting. My mom came to visit over the weekend, leaving Tuesday from St. Louis instead of KC because of "Ice Storm '07", so dubbed by our over-eager local meterologists. (It was a nasty storm, though, but we missed the worst of it.) As usual, it was a great visit, and she got a lot of good time with the kiddos.
I made some girly little aprons to sell in the local vintage gift shop. The owner and I share a similar aesthetic. I have a lot of whimsical, bright, or otherwise inappropriate-for-our-home-decor-or-for-boys fabric, and now I have an outlet for the stuff I've always wanted to make with it. She loved my bright quilts, and she loved the little green and pink aprons with the animal print straps.
Money update: We have $466 and change in BOTH bank accounts, and about 4 times that amount in unpaid bills. We'll be OK, we decided, but this is the lean time fo sho. Although I like winter and even ice storms, I'm looking forward to spring when the granite starts blooming again.
Til next time, dear reader.
A very busy Lulu
Last last Friday, just after I wrote my last post, Kevin and I received a letter from an Ohio lawyer asking us to place $3,500 into an envelope and send it to him (as if that was a possibility!). Why? The assholes who bought our house claimed that, because we hadn't fixed the sump pump, the basement had flooded and cost them $2,500 in damages, plus $250 for a dehumidifier, and $650 for lost rent. Pay up! it said.
Here's the problem: We DID fix the sump pump on September 9. That was the last day for any serious rain in central Ohio before they closed on the house on September 21. Kevin was in the house until the morning of September 10. The sump pump worked when he tested it, and there was no flooding from the rains on the 9th. In fact, there was never any flooding in that basement, which is why we had no idea that the sump pump didn't work in the first place, and why we used the basement as a living room, and why we even kept stuff on the floor in the utility room, where the only trouble we ever had was some basic dampness in the worst of rainy times.
Anyway, I spent most of all that weekend stressing about it. Once I got over taking it personally ("God! What TF do we have to do?! I labeled the paint cans for the various rooms! I laundered the lace curtains that were there when we moved in so they could use them! Bitches!!"), then I was just irked. The women who bought our house are lesbians. I am prejudiced in favor of gays and lesbians and, frankly, expected more from them. Perhaps I should let them off of their pedestal. Anyhoo, the real owner of the house drives a big white Amurrican truck with greatly oversized tires and a huge windshield sticker that says "Country Girl".
I kept thinking about that stupid sticker, and thinking about how badly she got it wrong. Country people don't sniff a little basement mold and run to a lawyer with a list of bogus charges and . . . charges.
It's in our lawyer's hands now, but we are pretty much at peace. Ohio is a "buyer beware" state. They made a list of fixes to be made after their inspector looked at the place. We signed the contract that said we'll fix them, and Kevin did just that. There was nothing in the basement between Sept 10 and Sept 21. Apparently, they didn't have the sense to actually walk through the house before the closing. Wouldn't YOU check to make sure everything had been fixed? Wouldn't YOU check on the house you're about to buy that hadn't been occupied in nearly 5 months? If they had, we would have had a chance to address any damage--dubious though it may be--that had been done. They didn't, there was no fraud, so they should be screwed.
I was going to send those jerks a Christmas card! Now I'm just going to call our former neighbors--who DID get Christmas cards--and warn those real, helpful country people about their crazy ass litigious new neighbors.
What else? I was really busy at the tourism office, getting ready and then having the 4-hour budget meeting. My mom came to visit over the weekend, leaving Tuesday from St. Louis instead of KC because of "Ice Storm '07", so dubbed by our over-eager local meterologists. (It was a nasty storm, though, but we missed the worst of it.) As usual, it was a great visit, and she got a lot of good time with the kiddos.
I made some girly little aprons to sell in the local vintage gift shop. The owner and I share a similar aesthetic. I have a lot of whimsical, bright, or otherwise inappropriate-for-our-home-decor-or-for-boys fabric, and now I have an outlet for the stuff I've always wanted to make with it. She loved my bright quilts, and she loved the little green and pink aprons with the animal print straps.
Money update: We have $466 and change in BOTH bank accounts, and about 4 times that amount in unpaid bills. We'll be OK, we decided, but this is the lean time fo sho. Although I like winter and even ice storms, I'm looking forward to spring when the granite starts blooming again.
Til next time, dear reader.
A very busy Lulu
posted by lulu | 6:08 AM
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