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Welcome to the "House" category...

So, since we talked last, we've done the following to the house:

• Put in weeping tile and sealed the foundation. No major cracks found (and no structural problems). We'd highly recommend Kuyper's if you need weeping tile in Edmonton. They're great people, FAST and leave the yard looking clean when they're done. They also treat their workers extremely well (paid lunches, coffee breaks, etc).


• Replaced the furnace. The furnace that was in the house was a 35 year old Flamemaster. We now - thanks to nepotism - have a nice high-efficiency Keep-Right furnace, running at 92% efficiency.


• Ripped down the ugly wallpaper in the downstairs living, bath, and dining rooms.


• Replaced the light fixture in the upstairs walk-in closet.


• Replaced the main plumbing stack. This was a completely unexpected expense; the previous owner obviously knew about it, but it wasn't disclosed. We woke up Thursday morning to sewage in the laundry room downstairs.


• Ripped out the subfloor in the basement bedroom. It should never have been put in there in the first place, and had suffered water damage.


• Ripped out most of the back deck. Sadly, we had to for the foundation guys. We're rebuilding it (differently) in the new year.


• Replaced the clothesline in the back yard. Clotheslines are nifty and fun.

The final thing we've done is actually quite a contentious issue. One of the conditions of the house purchase, that was written into the contract, was that a leaky faucet in the main floor bathroom was to be repaired. It was supposed to be done immediately, but the seller decided not to do it until we took off conditions.

After we moved in, one of the first things we noticed was that the faucet was - surprise, surprise - still dripping (though not as much). The handle had simply been tightened as much as possible to reduce the leak. Our realtor, Ed Siffledeen, had already been ignoring us after having taken off conditions, and has basically taken the seller's side, saying that the faucet was fixed. After a little bit of coersion, he has agreed to talk to the seller one more time, this time with a receipt showing work done.

It's not as though $250 (the cost of the repair) is going to go a long way towards the total cost of fixing the home up. At this point, it's the principle of the matter. Something was supposed to be fixed before we took possession, and it wasn't. If we were really concerned about going for money, we'd be hounding the guy about the main stack. If the seller doesn't give us the money for the repair, we'll have to sue him. Which is so much fun.

As a separate issue with the realtor himself, many of his claims have fallen through. When we made an offer on the house, there was a "rebate" rider offered by the seller to be given after the possession date; we were a bit wary of the idea, but Ed told us over and over again that it wasn't an issue, that it was done all the time, and not to worry about it. No surprise in retrospect, there of course was a problem with it, because it wasn't communicated to the seller's lawyers, who wrote the deal up such that the rebate was taken off the purchase price (which is bad news from a mortgage perspective).

He also swore left right and center that he'd get us his "special contractors" for roofing and heating to give us a deal. To date, we've heard nothing from his "special people" and all requests for their names so we can call them ourselves are met with "don't worry about it... I'll call them for you." I "reminded" him again today in the midst of yelling at him that he'd promised us these guys, but I highly doubt anything will come of it.

I realize that much of this is just realtor bullshit. Despite the fact he is working dual agency on this house (representing both the seller and us), he just hasn't done a great job of looking after our interests. He did get us a good price on the house -- but I truly feel that it wasn't for our benefit, but for his own (since he often repeated that he didn't want to be relisting the house in the new year).

In non-aggravating house news, the house is starting to be more livable... most of the boxes are unpacked, and we've set the furniture up where it's ultimately going to live. Once I get my camera back (I have to send it in for warranty), I'll take a tour of the place and post some photos for those of you who haven't seen it yet. Everyone's welcome to stop by and take a look at the place, but we send the warning that you may have to work on something if you do come by. :)

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