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If I were those homeowners, I'd definitely be asking for $ back bc stuff has to be torn up due to obvious negligence. That is one of the reasons I worry about hiring contractors. You never know for sure if they are going to screw you over. Even ones with good reputations sometimes get lazy or subcontract people who are lazy or incompetent. When the federal government was having a new building constructed in Guam, my father kept going over to review the work and kept finding illegal immigrants who didn't know what they were doing & they were messing things up. He kept having to arrest them AND the people who hired them & the project took a LOT longer than it should have because of having to constantly replace contractors and redo work that was done improperly. Yeah, they were so stupid they hired illegal immigrants to construct the building for the Immigration & Naturalization Service. But that's Guam for you. LOL.

This morning I got up and my brother and I took his cat Namir to the vet-- only to discover they are no longer open on Saturdays. Their website said they were open until noon, but they have removed saturday hours from the door and did not make any announcements about it prior. Poor kitty had to ride in the truck for nothing. He seemed ok about it at least. He's in pain from fighting other cats. Unfortunately, none of the other local vets are open on weekends either.

I finally closed my window because it was a little too cold, but I have 7 cats and one of the dogs in here with me. One of the cats and the other dog are in Mom's room. I mistook the cat for the other dog and let him into her room and then saw the dog and realized the mistake too late. the cat is the same color and about the same size as the dog. He climbed where I can't reach him, but is happily sleeping under a heat vent in the ceiling. The dog is sleeping on top of Mom. She stayed up all night so will sleep most of the day.

I'm trying to motivate myself to do something productive today but I'm tired. I went to bed before midnight last night and slept through the night but am still sleepy.
 
Sadly, my clients vetted the GC (full background check) only AFTER they started having trouble. Live and learn. Apparently, they tell me, he's had a criminal record and plenty of BBB complaints, state complaints, etc. No recourse with him sadly, but as a general handyman AND a home inspector I'll be helping them navigate the next steps. I don't hold much promise for the magic concrete dissolver to suddenly clear a plug in the trap. They seem to be remarkably calm about the whole thing, man if it were my house I'd hunt that GC guy down and make his life a living hell.

I did a little bit more research and found that there are a number of "foundation repair" specialists that do "tunneling under the foundation" to fix just this very thing: bad plumbing. The trick will be to find the correct person, and one with a GC license that can work with a plumber to do it all together.

I've got no personal skin in the game other than not wanting a client to go through the cost and heartache of demo on a recently completed bathroom. So, by Monday I'll hear about any results with the chemical method. Then I'll point them to a few foundation specialists and see if any are game for this.
 
The scummy ripoff contractors rolled through here after some hurricanes. I think over 30 were arrested. A lot of people gave a downpayment & never saw the contractors again.

I woke up this morning to smell something burning. Like crumbs in a toaster. Turns out mom put the heat back on because it got down under 60 finally. I've set it for 65 and no higher than that because it will keep her room warm enough without overheating the rest of the house. So the heat part works. Outside compressor is still silent.

Trying to figure out what I want for breakfast and am trying to motivate myself to get up again. I already fed the kitties.
 
Zanne said:
I woke up this morning to smell something burning. Like crumbs in a toaster. Turns out mom put the heat back on because it got down under 60 finally. I've set it for 65 and no higher than that because it will keep her room warm enough without overheating the rest of the house. So the heat part works. Outside compressor is still silent.
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The fact that outside compressor isn’t running says you are on resistive, emergency heat and that’s costing you a bundle in kilowatt/hrs.

In Maryland freezing my “nubbins” off at a birdwatching raptor festival.
 

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Yeah, I need to keep calling the AC guy to see if he'll send someone out. Actually got a bill from him the other day. Mom opened it and then realized it was put in the wrong box. It was addressed to the local credit union. I dropped it off with them today & explained the mistake. They were cool with it and thanked me for bringing it in. Their box isn't even remotely close to mine so I have no idea how that happened.

Had to order a new microwave bc even though the outlet was replaced, the microwave was toast. No ground wire in that outlet unfortunately. Will need to rectify that later.

Ran into my friend (who replaced the outlet for me-- which was a pita bc it was stuck in there and it broke to pieces) and he had his daughter with him bc she was sick. She climbed on my brother's shoulders and we walked around the store together. Forgot to get eggs but got a blanket for mom and some other stuff.

I woke up with 10 cats in the room. I can't see how many are in here right now.

I'm about to go cook something but am trying to convince the cats that their personal butt-warmer needs to get up. LOL.
 
Dare not touch the puppetmaster!

We baked fish and steamed broccoli for dinner last night, then headed to our city council meeting. When we came back home, it smelled like a sewer line had broken. Not to worry, it was just the smell from dinner!
 
havasu said:
Dare not touch the puppetmaster!

We baked fish and steamed broccoli for dinner last night, then headed to our city council meeting. When we came back home, it smelled like a sewer line had broken. Not to worry, it was just the smell from dinner!
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And if you are genetically disposed, eating some asparagus can make for some really rank-smelling you-know-what.
 
I've never noticed any odor after eating asparagus.

Today sucked. We couldn't get Namir to the vet all weekend bc they were closed Friday through Monday. Finally got him in asap & they said he needed to stay for awhile so they could give him fluids but that he might have a virus or something. So we went to the store an hour away and I was about to go into the Fedex place to mail something to my sister when Mom called and said the vet said Namir was having seizures and had swelling around the brain and there was no way to save him & he was really suffering. He's only about 2 years old. My brother is absolutely devastated. Namir was his baby. I burst into tears and felt like an idiot in the fedex office. I explained why & the clerk was nice about it. We got our stuff at samsclub and went back to the vet to pay. Got back home and unloaded groceries. My brother was hugging one of the other cats and sobbing. Namir was such a sweet cat. Still don't know exactly what the problem was and the vet misdiagnoses all the time. But we are down to 14 cats now.
 
Zanne said:
I've never noticed any odor after eating asparagus.
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My better half says you have to be genetically disposed to "smell the smell" much in the same way you need to be genetically disposed to be able to curl your tongue (I am unable) and tie the stem of a cherry into a knot inside your mouth (I can't do that either).

More importantly, I am sorry for your brother's loss.
 
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