When we bought our house, we were given a home warranty from American Home Shield whose slogan is “Our goal is to help relieve the hassle of repairing air conditioner, furnace, plumbing and appliance problems.” In reality, their goal seems to be to delay, to frustrate, and deny culpability.

We submitted a repair request a month ago for a non-functioning gas pack, which is a combined furnace and air conditioner. We’re still without either. AHS has not, as yet, sent the part to the HVAC company to repair the AC. I’ve taken two days off to meet the HVAC technician who stood me up both times and didn’t call.

Perhaps mine is a problem of expectation management. Perhaps I should expect incompetence and stone-walling as the status quo from an insurance company. After all, every time I make a service request I’m eating into their profit margin. I’m not suggesting that it is their business strategy to frustrate policy holders until they give up and pay out-of-pocket for service, but it makes business sense.

Either way, my suspicions seem to have been confirmed- home warranties are feel-good tokens given to home buyers by home sellers who don’t want to pay for repairs. I should have stood my ground with the sellers, but that’s water under the bridge and I have more pressing concerns. The nighttime temperatures are supposed to be in the low 30’s this week.

Brandi was out of town last week at the Mid-Atlantic Chapter Conference of the Medical Library Association and I started work on the screen porch. I think the materials will cost about $500 including $80 for a ceiling fan with a light kit.

I figure I’ve spent about 10 hours shopping, scraping, wire-brushing, priming, and painting. The painting is about half done, unless I decide on two coats, which I probably will. I wish I had thought to tint the primer.

The leaves a few hours of painting, including the lumber, I think. Then I’ll frame in the walls, staple on the screen, and apply the molding. Finally, mix, sit, sip. Sans bugs.

Brandi’s dad was here for about 8 days and we spent a four day weekend in Washington, DC. Pictures to follow probably. We did several Smithsonian museums and went to Library of Congress. I had forgotten that IKEA is just off the interstate on the way home. It’s visibility from said road cost me about $350. We got some good stuff, though. We’re actually considering an IKEA Kitchen now.

I’m getting ready to go to Champaign-Urbana for a couple of days on a recruiting trip to my alma mater. From there I’ll rent a car and spend a couple of days with my family.

None of this has lent itself to completing work on the house. The current projects include weather-stripping doors, installing a bathroom fan and GFI outlets in the bathroom, and improving ventilation in the attic. We just realized that there is nothing between the hearth in our living room and the sky above the chimney. I’m stunned that no one has corrected that in the over 50 years that the house has existed. Amazing. Pictures of it soon, too.

We’re in our new house, everything is unpacked and put away, and we’ve had our first house guest, Vince. We’ve already dropped some money at home improvement stores in the area and ripped up some drywall. So, that bell has been rung. Time to build a screen porch.

Interestingly, we were all eating dinner at our dining room table and we watched a tree frog on the outside of the dining room window eating moths attracted to the light. I thought that was a nice bonus.

The sellers agreed to and did complete one of the repair items. I’m really disappointed in the way things have been handled. Bad karma. I guess money beats integrity every time. Either way, though, we’re closing today. That means Brandi and I are buying our first house today! Last night at 10 o’clock I was crawling through the (very low) crawlspace of the house confirming that the repairs were made. It’s amazing how many camel crickets live in there. I also saw a tree frog on the side of the house, which I’ll interpret as a good sign.

Anyway, we’re moving on Friday the 1st with the help of Trosa Moving, whom we’ve heard great things about. We also bought a great 1950’s table on Raleigh/Durham Craigslist for $65. I think it’s the bee’s knees.

It seems the sellers have opted to renege on the signed request for repairs. We don’t think we can afford to buy the house and make the repairs so we may have to withdraw from the contract. Our attorney assures us that we’re due our ernest money back and that, due to the signed agreement, we won’t be the ones breaking the contract. We really liked the house, but there are scores of others in that price range.

I don’t think the sellers have considered that they’re legally obligated to disclose the problems we discovered to other potential buyers. Luckily, we haven’t ended our lease yet and we only have about $600 in this house right now. I’d hate to see the deal fall through, but we just can’t accept the risk associated with the unrepaired items. One or the other of the two unresolved issues would have to be fixed.

Tomorrow is the final walk through for the new house. We’ll be meeting our inspector, who will reinspect all of the items on the request for repairs that the sellers agreed to fix (everything we requested), as well as our agent, whom we haven’t seen in quite some time. Brandi and I were driving past the house this weekend and saw that the sellers were out in the yard so we stopped to introduce ourselves. They seem very thoughtful in their preparations to turn the house over to us, which allays some of my fears resulting in the lack of communication of late.

Also, we’ve shown our current house to a couple for the second time. I believe they’ve decided to rent it so we won’t be responsible for the rent for long after we move. That’s tremendous news.

If the house turns out fine we’ll go to the closing attorney’s office tomorrow and sign the papers effectively finishing the deal. It seems a bit anticlimactic, but that means we don’t have to take another day off for the closing on the 30th. We’ll be unpacking in our new house in less than a week if everything goes according to the plan.

We’ve been told that the sellers have agreed to fix or have fixed everything on our list of repairs. Pending a second inspection of said items we’re very close to buying a house. Our closing date is August 30. We’ve started packing and our house is becoming progressively uncomfortable. We’re also looking for moving help and will soon solicit estimates.

We also have some carpet to replace at our current residence. It seems Siva doesn’t tolerate confinement well. It’s a shame that Zuzu is so disapproving of Siva’s continued occupancy.

We haven’t decided what we plan to do about the floors. The finish is pretty worn in a few places, but the cost to refinish our around 950 square feet of white oak is obscene. Ellis Hardwood Floors gave us the bid of $1,804 and Accent Hardwoods bid $2,500. Accent also tried to convince me to lay white oak flooring on the treads of the spiral stairs, in the attic, and in the kitchen. Brandi joked that Accent should have offered to do the driveway, too, since they were pitching everything else. Tim Ellis was the honest farmer and the guy from Accent was the shady used-car salesman.

They each said that the work would take a week to complete. I suppose it partially depends on how much the sellers are willing to take responsibility for in the inspection report.

The appraisal came back today and the credit union gave us official confirmation on the mortgage. The general inspection is due tomorrow and then we’ll probably have to negotiate with the sellers to fix or replace items named on the report. This is almost the last hurdle to clear, I think. It’s time for us to start thinking about packing, I suppose.

Also, we have on estimate to refinish the floors, $1804.50, and we’re expecting another any day. In addition, we’d have to count the cost of staying in our rental for an extra week while the work is completed. Pretty expensive.