Rita’s House

Well, what fun we have had this past week at Rita’s House! Mom had her surgery the 28th of August (her 6th major surgery since 8/2004), came home for recuperation on the 30th again with me as caregiver. Water leak somewhere between the house and the $$$$$$meter made us have to turn off our water. Plumbers are working day & night since the tornado hit us in April of this year, so they are booking two weeks in advance.

Weather is cooling off so we called the chimney sweep to get our wood stove ready for winter. Discovered our rooftop piping was out of code (not tall enough), interior box was illegal this past few years, and interior piping was all put together upside down (thus the little black powder mess on top of the stove!)

Major overhaul on the stove pipe, new parts, bringing it all into code ($$$$$ certified chimney sweep has been kind, but he’s been here for nearly 5 hours making repairs as fast as he can!) Our whole house is in serious need of some updating, too many things have been done by the “handyman” who lived here, whomever that was back in the 80’s & 90’s.

Mom has been a trooper about all of it. I use buckets dipped in the bathtub I filled to flush the toilet, and we both decided we didn’t want the attic to catch fire this winter, so agreed to the wood stove repairs/remodel.

Plumber was also very nice and apologetic. He put us on the priority list after I used the ol’ “80 yr. old woman just out of the hospital” routine, and the fact that I have difficulty at 60 (hehe) turning that darned oddball water meter OFF and ON. Funny thing is, there is no shutoff valve at the house! We have cement parking/driveway between us and the meter- so the leak is likey UNDER all that! No telling what that will cost, nor what we will do all winter without water if it’s beyond our budget!

Just another day at Rita’s House.