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BC. Thursday: The House Inspection. Thursday we had our house inspection, yet another step in the seemingly infinite series of requirements to sell your house. Or, rather, I should say: the requirements to sell your house for its true value. Because our realtor said that house inspections used to be done after an offer was accepted, but then the buyer would often use that as an excuse to shake down the seller for money because of some deficiency that was found. Truth to tell, we did that when we bought the house and discovered we'd have to replace the entire roof, so my step-mom hardballed the sellers to reduce the price of the house appropriately.
I was kind of stressed out by the house inspection. Every slanted floor, regular creak, and cracking plaster was starting to get to me, because they all indicated problems that might be just below the surface that we couldn't see, and after painting the exterior and committing to painting the interior we're getting to the point where we couldn't stand another big surprise expenditure without it impacting our ability to furnish our new house in Hawaii.
But David came out on Thursday, and he was great. Shockingly knowledgeable, and shockingly in-tune with the house, able to turn up any minor defect with ease. And, he explained it all articulately. I kinda wish I could shadow him for a week. Besides getting to see the insides of all kinds of neat houses, I could also get a master's course in house design.
He explained the defects as we came across them, and it was all small stuff. Sometimes he'd say "which is typical for a house of this age" and sometimes he'd say "which is actually in surprisingly good shape" or "you really added to the value of your house when you did it." Very comforting, so my fears of a huge, costly problem with the house were mostly gone by the time he exited.
He did find some minor (hopefully minor) pest problems, so we'll still have to find out if there are costs we should deal with after the pest inspection, but I don't have visions of a cracked foundation or something any more.
We got the report today, and he mentioned a few defects with our floor heater than I hadn't heard before that our realtor wants fixed because they sound "scary". (And apparently if something "sounds scary" is the determiner of whether you fix it, or just add it to the disclosures.) And, we need to paper some work that TIm the toolman did installing hatches on our crawl space, because David also mentioned some past history of rodents there. (I expect raccoons, actually.) But that's it. A few things for my overflowing list. (In fact, I wrote down the whole list this evening because these knew items pushed it over into the too-much-to-keep-in-my-head zone.) But not a lot.
AD. Saturday & Sunday: Hanging with Kimberly. I cancelled my gaming on Saturday as soon as Kimberly was confirmed for her surgery on Friday. And, I'm happy I did, because we found out that she'd be on a soft diet for three days, while her colon started to get better. So I had to do much running on Saturday to Safeway and Trader Joe's to pick up enough soft foods to practically overflow the freezer. (Which fortunately gave her nice variety.) And, Kimberly was still in some notable pain on Saturday, so I wouldn't have wanted to be out.
By Sunday, things were more normative, other than Kimberly being understandably withdrawn, but I still hung around the house, other than a trip out to the library to do one of my regular book exchanges. (What will the libraries be like in Kauai? Not nearly as good, I fear.)
AD. Monday: Hiking the Hills. Kimberly was doing well enough by Monday that I was able to get out and enjoy Veteran's Day, as I'd hoped. I took the bus up to Tilden Park (or close to Tilden Park: the driver seemed entirely bewildered that I'd ask if he was on a holiday schedule, so he didn't go into the Park). Then I had a very nice hike down and over to Jewel Lake, then alongside Wildcat Creek, then up to the ridge line, then over to the fire trails behind the campus, and down to South Berkeley. About 14 miles or so total.
Eric V. called while I was up in the hills and asked if I wanted to go out just to talk and I did. So after dinner with Kimberly, I headed out, and we had a relaxing time at Au Coquelet, which neither of us had been to in some years.
AD. Tuesday: Dentistry. Finally, today, after putting in three quarters of a day of work, I headed out to my dentist for a last checkup. See, this is one of the problems I'm running into: I'm not just getting us ready to move and the house ready to sell. I'm also having to do all these things that I want to do before we leave Berkeley, like last repairs to my laptop and to my teeth.
Unfortunately, my dentist wants to do a fix, which means yet one more appointment on my overbooked schedule. It's these stupid old silver fillings that butchers put in in the '80s. They expand over time and crack teeth. So she swapped out one for me early this year, when I got a chip on that tooth. And there's this other one that's got some cracklines and she's been keeping an eye on. She says that usually she'd just take a look at it again in 6 months, but that it's eventually going to need to be refilled. And we both prefer she do it. So one last delightful bit of dentistry and one more afternoon blown next week.
And that is life, for the moment broken in two by Kimberly's surgery last week. The house inspection BC seems like a million years ago. But the flurry of events is picking up again, and we're rushing ever onward.
I was kind of stressed out by the house inspection. Every slanted floor, regular creak, and cracking plaster was starting to get to me, because they all indicated problems that might be just below the surface that we couldn't see, and after painting the exterior and committing to painting the interior we're getting to the point where we couldn't stand another big surprise expenditure without it impacting our ability to furnish our new house in Hawaii.
But David came out on Thursday, and he was great. Shockingly knowledgeable, and shockingly in-tune with the house, able to turn up any minor defect with ease. And, he explained it all articulately. I kinda wish I could shadow him for a week. Besides getting to see the insides of all kinds of neat houses, I could also get a master's course in house design.
He explained the defects as we came across them, and it was all small stuff. Sometimes he'd say "which is typical for a house of this age" and sometimes he'd say "which is actually in surprisingly good shape" or "you really added to the value of your house when you did it." Very comforting, so my fears of a huge, costly problem with the house were mostly gone by the time he exited.
He did find some minor (hopefully minor) pest problems, so we'll still have to find out if there are costs we should deal with after the pest inspection, but I don't have visions of a cracked foundation or something any more.
We got the report today, and he mentioned a few defects with our floor heater than I hadn't heard before that our realtor wants fixed because they sound "scary". (And apparently if something "sounds scary" is the determiner of whether you fix it, or just add it to the disclosures.) And, we need to paper some work that TIm the toolman did installing hatches on our crawl space, because David also mentioned some past history of rodents there. (I expect raccoons, actually.) But that's it. A few things for my overflowing list. (In fact, I wrote down the whole list this evening because these knew items pushed it over into the too-much-to-keep-in-my-head zone.) But not a lot.
AD. Saturday & Sunday: Hanging with Kimberly. I cancelled my gaming on Saturday as soon as Kimberly was confirmed for her surgery on Friday. And, I'm happy I did, because we found out that she'd be on a soft diet for three days, while her colon started to get better. So I had to do much running on Saturday to Safeway and Trader Joe's to pick up enough soft foods to practically overflow the freezer. (Which fortunately gave her nice variety.) And, Kimberly was still in some notable pain on Saturday, so I wouldn't have wanted to be out.
By Sunday, things were more normative, other than Kimberly being understandably withdrawn, but I still hung around the house, other than a trip out to the library to do one of my regular book exchanges. (What will the libraries be like in Kauai? Not nearly as good, I fear.)
AD. Monday: Hiking the Hills. Kimberly was doing well enough by Monday that I was able to get out and enjoy Veteran's Day, as I'd hoped. I took the bus up to Tilden Park (or close to Tilden Park: the driver seemed entirely bewildered that I'd ask if he was on a holiday schedule, so he didn't go into the Park). Then I had a very nice hike down and over to Jewel Lake, then alongside Wildcat Creek, then up to the ridge line, then over to the fire trails behind the campus, and down to South Berkeley. About 14 miles or so total.
Eric V. called while I was up in the hills and asked if I wanted to go out just to talk and I did. So after dinner with Kimberly, I headed out, and we had a relaxing time at Au Coquelet, which neither of us had been to in some years.
AD. Tuesday: Dentistry. Finally, today, after putting in three quarters of a day of work, I headed out to my dentist for a last checkup. See, this is one of the problems I'm running into: I'm not just getting us ready to move and the house ready to sell. I'm also having to do all these things that I want to do before we leave Berkeley, like last repairs to my laptop and to my teeth.
Unfortunately, my dentist wants to do a fix, which means yet one more appointment on my overbooked schedule. It's these stupid old silver fillings that butchers put in in the '80s. They expand over time and crack teeth. So she swapped out one for me early this year, when I got a chip on that tooth. And there's this other one that's got some cracklines and she's been keeping an eye on. She says that usually she'd just take a look at it again in 6 months, but that it's eventually going to need to be refilled. And we both prefer she do it. So one last delightful bit of dentistry and one more afternoon blown next week.
And that is life, for the moment broken in two by Kimberly's surgery last week. The house inspection BC seems like a million years ago. But the flurry of events is picking up again, and we're rushing ever onward.