December 14, 1998

Happy December:

This is my 8th year doing this newsletter -- can you believe it?

WE BOUGHT A HOUSE AND THE HOUSE WON

After looking on and off for close to six months (and that after about a year of psyching up for it) we found a house in the upper Lincoln neighborhood in Vancouver. In spite of the horrors of first time house-buying, we like our house and are happy to be here and settled in.

Of course the drawback to settling in is that you start noticing these little things that just aren't quite right. And, think about it, how absurd is it that you look at a house for an hour or maybe look at it twice and then decide to get in hock up to your eyeballs for 30 years? And dontcha love the home inspector? The first thing he does is give you a form to sign that you understand there are problems he might not find and hard cheese for you.

Not to suggest that Bob and I are Mr. and Ms. Fix-It of the Known Universe, but someone probably should have broken it to this house's previous owners' that they weren't either.

They did all kinds of things themselves, and it shows. Like, how about cutting a big square hole and installing a small round light fixture? (actually did this twice in the same room) and then there is this rod for hanging clothes in the laundry room that is too close to the wall so when you hang stuff up the hanger hits the wall and tilts. So when we went to do our first big project we went to the professionals.

HOME DESPOT, I MEAN, GNOME DEPOT, SUCKS

We are not sold on Home Depot despite the many glowing reviews we've heard from family and friends. Sorry, I don't care what you or the commercials say, those clerks couldn't pour pee out of a boot with the instructions printed on the heel. At least, the guys in Millwork at Jantzen Beach couldn't. As of this writing, we've been in there five times and have never seen anything that even resembles competence from those people. We've watched them go through the same song and dance with nobody knowing how the computer works or where our paperwork is and any questions sends the entire staff into drooling catatonia. I eventually snapped -- they wanted us to pay for the entire job up front and there was no way I was going to hand over all my money and then be at their mercy so I threw a major hissy fit and was able to negotiate a better deal. At this point we have the windows but we're missing some doo-hickeys so I guess we aren't finished yet.

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PHOTO: Whole family helping Pam and Bob movie into new house. PHOTOGRAPHER: Auntie Aileen.

Posted: 4.18.99
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