Nothing is being done at the house due to below freezing temperatures outside and at freezing temperatures inside. I can't cap my third floor plumbing lines until it is above 40 degrees since the cpvc cement won't cure properly. Besides, that will only take five minutes to do. The smoothing of the parlor walls requires the joint compound being able to dry and not freeze onto the walls. I can't do any mortar or cement work. I can strip paint from wood though! How exciting!
Besides what does anyone care about what is happening at this place? It seems that more people are interested in what's going on with my neighbors house than mine. I had over 250 visits to this blog yesterday. On any normal day when I talk about my place I'm lucky if I get 120 hits and until yesterday my all time high was 160. Maybe I should blog about other peoples houses!
Still no sign of the owner of the house next door. I thought about calling the real estate agent to let them know about the problem but then I started thinking even more. I have already made three phone calls to the owner. The first at 10PM when I noticed water in MY basement. The second at 10:15 PM after I called the water department emergency # to inform him that I am getting his water shut off and the third at 12:10 AM to say that the water was finally turned off after some difficulty and that at one point I had to enter the house to see if I could shut the water off from inside but there was 3 feet of water in his basement. If the owner is on vacation and hasn't got my messages then whos problem is it? Not mine. If he can't be bothered to get over here, whos problem is that? Not mine.
Now, if they do get over here, pump out the water and use fans to dry out the house I know the guy won't put any money into fixing the place properly so I have to deal with the uncertainty of the quality of neighbor that I get. If I sit back, let his furnace and water heater rust and allow toxic mold to infest the walls and hope that the foundation cracks making the place uninhabitable then maybe it will be condemned and have to be removed at which point I offer to buy the place.
Hmmm, decisions, decisions. What would Jesus do? What would Flying Spaghetti Monster do? More importantly, what would YOU do?
From log house to farmhouse. Farmhouse to townhouse. Townhouse to apartment house. Apartment house to crack house. Crack house to our house. Our house to our home.
I wouldn't feel too bad about all the interest that the neighbor's house generated. It's the schadenfreude principle of home improvement at work. The Devil Queen generates far more interest when I post about money woes, forclosure, and bodily harm. People just like suffering.
ReplyDeleteAs for the neighbor's house, if the price was right, I'd buy the damn thing.
In Savannah, Georgia, it isn't unusal for folk to by up whole row of Victorian homes. They'll start fixing the homes up at one end of the row and work their way down the street. They sell them as they go. By the time the row is finished, the property value has gone up about 500-600%.
If you see your kid in college 16 some odd years from now, it may be an idea.
How do you know how many people visit your site? I just set up my blog but I don't see anything on blogger that would let me know that. Please let me know, thanks!
ReplyDeleteHomeimprovementninja.blogspot.com
homeimprovementninja-
ReplyDeletecheck out sitemeter. it's really fun to see what people google to end up at your page, too.
Oh now, I always read your blog.
ReplyDeleteIt's just amazing that while we're busting tail to keep our houses together, other folks are letting theirs go down the drain.
Wow, I missed your post yesterday (I wasn't one of the 250!) and I guess I missed a dandy of a story. Yikes!
ReplyDeleteHow's your own basement wall coming along with all that water seeping in? Doesn't sound fun at all.
Crack a window next door and give it a day... let's go ice skating!
ReplyDelete