A week of House stuff

I realize now that my busy life is how I cope with stress and not the cause of stress. The house is plenty of stress all by itself--it doesn't need any help. Let's review:

Mold in the wall of Adam's room. I had the guys come out to give me an estimate to remove it this week. They want to remove four feet of wall and that's what they'll give me an estimate for, but if they find more mold, then they'll take a wider area and it will cost more. So give me an estimate for 8 feet I tell them--let me know the most I'm facing here. We can't do that they tell me. But the estimate includes patching the wall back up, right. No we don't do that. By the way, they ask is there plaster under the dry wall. Yes. Ok, we'll need to test for asbestos. Let's just assume there's asbestos and go from there. No, we need a test. Can you recommend someone who will fix the wall, so I can get an estimate from them. Sure, but they will only be able to estimate what it will cost to fix a four foot hole and we might take more. But you don't know how much, I got it.

The termite guy came back on Monday morning when I wasn't there. I could tell he'd been there because the crawl space cover was not on properly (my handy dandy fed ex envelope didn't cover the hole.) But the real reason that I could tell he'd been there is because the floor in the living room feels stronger. Yippee.

The gas man came on Monday also. Our gas bill has exploded, but not from the high cost of gas--our usage is through the roof, so they offered to check all our appliances for free while assuring me that if there was a leak, I would know it. We had to leave the dog in the back yard and the key under the mat. When I got back to my office from court, there was a message from the gardener saying that he'd be there today to get the rotten fruit off the trees. TODAY--but the dog is outside. Our gardener has no inhibition against letting the dog out and often leaves the gate open. So I jump in the car and rush home. The gardener has not been in the back yard yet and the gas man is done, so the dog goes back in the house. The gas man leaves a ticket that says we need service on one of the heaters--great.

The plumber came about three weeks ago to fix the toilet and it's never worked right. First the plumber just didn't show up at all and the next time he called in sick, so Tuesday was the third appointment. I left instructions to call me at my office and I'd meet them at the house. Nothing. Tuesday night there's a message on the phone at home saying they were on their way and later someone gives me a card that was stuck in the door, they'd been there, where was I. I was furious--why didn't they call my office--ugh. So I called and they were mad at me for not being there and promised to try to fit me in on Wednesday. They called the office while I was at lunch at Kiwanis and so I couldn't answer the phone, but Josh was at the house taking care of Caitlyn so he would let them in. Except when they came to the door, Josh was in the back and by the time he got to the door, the guy was gone. So he called them and they came back and I was there by then. So they look at the toilet and I'm thinking expensive job, fix the pressure in the whole house, time for a new toilet--houses are very stressful. They fixed the toilet wrong the first time, no charge to fix it right. And we're done. It really is never as bad as it seems.

Tomorrow is the dryer. I hope they remember to call me at the office. Maybe I should take the day off of work to be there. Not being able to address the mountain of work that is my desk is another excellent candidate for stress.