If the purchase of my new house and the slow pace of moving down the block was easy, then the sale of my old house has been plagued with one obstacle after another. It started out well enough, placing it on the market about a week before a North Carolina trip with my sister/realtor. There was lots of activity and interest, and while we were on the road, I signed a contract.
On return from the trip, my first shower was not a hot one, but lukewarm. The pilot light on the hot water heater was off, and I couldn’t get it to light. When I told my realtor/sister, she informed me that I had a free home warranty policy on the house while it was on the market. I started the process, and a plumber came out and said that the entire hot water heater system needed to be replaced and updated. It was twenty years old so I wasn’t surprised. However, I was surprised at my out of pocket portion, roughly half the total cost, even with a home warranty policy. But whatever, it was half what I would have paid without the policy. But the home warranty company entered my address incorrectly, and there wasn’t a simple fix to correct that mistake. I had to re-enter the claim, basically starting over. In the meantime, I was taking showers in my new house down the street as I continued to move boxes and smaller furniture items. It took three weeks to get that new hot water heater—on the official move-in date to my new house.
I was glad that the new owners would have the benefit of this new appliance, but another issue cropped up. Their inspection didn’t reveal much, but they also had a separate sewer line inspection. This is routine in my neighborhood of one hundred year old houses that use terra cotta sewage pipes. Because the sewer line inspection that I commissioned prior to my purchase seven years ago was clean, I wasn’t worried. But there was a break in the line. It wasn’t blocked. I never knew there was an issue, but raw sewage was seeping into the ground. To complicate matters, I learned that my line exits the back of my property then travels through my backyard neighbor’s property before emptying into the sewer on the street behind mine. Luckily, I had purchased and been paying faithfully for insurance to cover such a catastrophe. But again, it was a double-edged sword as I had to deal with the insurance company and not the plumber directly. The first plumber they sent said his company would not be able to fix this. So they sent a second company, but they said that they needed to do another camera inspection first. They were able to pinpoint the break at a three feet depth in my neighbor’s side yard. I had to get their permission to proceed.
(In communicating with this neighbor that I still have never met, I was given a wrong phone number for the spouse. As I was texting about what was found and what the remedy would entail, I was cussed out in all caps to quit texting this wrong number. Lord, I did not need that interaction!)
The break was in a very awkward location, and the small tractor the plumbers brought would not be able to get into the tight spot, so they had to dig by hand. Obviously, I couldn’t run water or flush while work was being done, but I forgot once, and by habit, flushed the toilet. I immediately heard shouting and mild swearing from the digging site As I was walking over to apologize, I heard one of them say, “My shoes are soaking in it now.” I was embarrassed and contrite. So, two weeks after the buyers’ sewer inspection, the line was fixed, but the buyers had bailed by that point because it initially appeared that the fix was going to be extremely difficult.
Because I thought I had a solid contract on the old house, I had scheduled movers for four days after my return from a family beach vacation, the same day the hot water heater was replaced and a day after the sewer line was repaired. As I said, the move was easy, but now, because the old house doesn’t show as well without my furniture in it, I am contemplating painting the walls and refinishing the floors to spruce it up, or staging it, before trying to sell it again.
Whew, I’m still tired!