My husband had checked out the work of the guys who put in the french
drain and weep holes and said the cinder blocks looked dry from the
inside which was positive. Joe, who I think supervised the work, had
told us that his guys are usually disappointed when they do weep holes
because water just dribbles out or doesn't come out at all. They were
not to be disappointed in our basement...we heard water shot out of
our walls and into the french drain...even a little on the floor
because there was so much water stored in our walls. haha....we aim
to please! We thought the guys were done with everything, the mold,
asbestos, and waterproofing but it turns out they left one pipe
unconnected to where were going to drain the water on a backup basis.
Our guy from Global Safety Contracting did a walk through of the house
and was surprised the pipe was missing and also told us that he'd get
us back our step-ladder which one of the companies probably thought
was their own and took.
So the rain was really bad on Thursday night and we were a little
excited to see how well the waterproofing in the basement worked. My
husband (J) went to the house Friday to meet up with the people who
were hooking up the open pipe and was met with a flood in the
basement. :( There was apparently 1-2 inches of water all over the
floor and by the sump pump one of the guys could feel current in the
water and by another side there was a live wire which had current
running through it. Water and electricity??? NOT GOOD. The power was
also really dim and we noticed that in some rooms when we turned on
one light it affected the light in other rooms. The guys helped clean
up the water and we took electricity from our extremely kind neighbor
to run the sump pump at full power. That night we had an electrician
come in who told us our electricity was never properly grounded. From
what I gather (which could be inaccurate) people usually ground
electricity through their water pipes. Since our water pipes are a
combo of copper and pex (? a plastic piping?) the ground was lost
somewhere along the line. The electrician was professional, honest,
and highly recommended from our guy at Global Safety Contracting. We
may have him come in again to clean up all the loose wiring in the
basement.
Which brings me to a point of annoyance. We STILL have not received
the 'licensed electrician" report that we were supposed to get at
closing from the seller. Our lawyer claimed she saw it at closing
when she met with the seller's attorney before we got to the office,
but couldn't find it when we asked for it. So we let it slide and she
told us it would be with our closing package that she sent to us a
week later. It's been a few weeks and we have been asking for it.
After two people getting mildly shocked in the basement Friday and us
not knowing what the h*ll was wrong with the electrical in the house,
I called the lawyer whose assistant proceeded to tell me that she
hadn't contacted the other lawyer about it because she was worried he
would ask about us not having given them the invoice to get our storm
door fixed now that the movers had backed out of fixing it and told us
to do it ourselves and send them the invoice. I politely told her
that to me, we needed the electrician report because it caused a flood
in our basement. She said she'd get back to me in a few minutes. Two
HOURS later she still hadn't called and gave me attitude when I called
her a second time. She told me she called the other attorney and
they're working on it and then started to talk about how he asked her
about the storm door which she "knew" he would and started to imply
that it was such a toll on her....which is when I made it VERY clear
that we should not have closed without the electrician's report and
that two people were shocked in our basement and I thought it was
unacceptable that we did not have the electrician's report. I told
her I did not care that the other attorney was asking about the storm
door invoice because we had originally agreed that the mover was going
to take care of everything and that now that J and I were responsible
for taking care of everything they could wait to get their money or
call a handyman themselves to have it fixed. Ugh. The incompetence
of some people is horrifying.
On Saturday we had two different chimney companies come in. One rated
on local community forums and one as a referral from our guy at Global
Safety Contracting. Previously we had someone come in from another
chimney company who had told us that we were in need of a new
stainless steel flue liner and a cleaning. He told us the terra cotta
lining in our chimney was broken and all the tiles were falling in on
each other and that we needed a new liner to keep those tiles in place
or we were going to have serious problems. First up, the local
recommendation...we found this individual pretty honest with us and he
didn't tell us we needed a new liner. We apparently needed the
chimney repointed, new flashing, a cleaning in both flues, a rain cap,
and a new seal over the tube that goes from the flue to our gas
heater. The second guy we liked a lot. He was honest, told us all we
needed was new flashing and a cleaning (along with the seal), and
offered to take down our antenna (yes, we still had a tv antenna). He
also offered to install a rain cap for us for free if we went out and
bought it. His price also came in lower than all other companies so
we hired him on the spot.
While he started work, our neighbors came out! I had run out to the
local coffee shop to pick up some tea and cookies for our neighbor for
allowing us to user her electricity and apparently she had a ton of
family over for the holidays. It turns out her son is an arson
investigator up in New Hampshire and liked the work our chimney guy
did on our house so much that he hired them to look at our neighbor's
house! They were also so helpful telling us about the history of the
house and the neighborhood and how they used to play in our side yard
and the husband of the seller who had passed away many years ago. He
tended to the garden in the back corner of our property and supposedly
his garden was amazing and gorgeous. Eep! Big shoes to fill!
