As the Window Leaks…

When we first looked at this house on our search, the only thing we didn’t like about it was the water damaged window and wall around it. When we came back to it to consider writing an offer on it, we figured as long as the window and wall were fixed at the seller’s expense, we’d be golden.

There had been an ice dam (though no one can seem to remember what year) in the winter and the association sent someone out to knock it down.

And that was all they did.

Damaging the roof in the process.

The seller’s disclosure said the window stopped leaking after the ice dam was knocked down.

One of the first major rain storms we had after we moved in, it leaked. A lot.

Bob and I were in the loft on our computers and I thought I heard water dripping.

DRIPPING.

WATER.

So I looked over the wall to the window below and I could see it dripping from the frame.

A towel on the window frame and a plastic shower curtain on the floor were our temporary fix.

We informed our real estate agent of the fun and she got the ball rolling with the seller’s side and the association to get somebody over here to look at the damage.

One afternoon there was a pow-wow in the living room around the window with our agent, the selling agent, the association manager, and her contractor of choice. Not much was resolved. It was “we need to decide whose insurance is going to pay for all this and we’ll get to fixing somethingsomeday.”

I don’t care whose insurance pays for it—the seller’s or the association’s—as long as it gets FIXED in a timely fashion. Although we are WAY beyond timely at this point.

We didn’t hear anything until the selling bank sent someone out to take pictures of the house for an appraisal.

The guy was very…opinionated…about the water damage and told me horror stories about mold. Which he was apparently having a reaction to while he was in my house.

At the time I had no idea what exactly his job title was, so I didn’t know if he knew what he was talking about or not.

Turns out he was in no position to be telling me how to take care of my mold problem.

There was a bit of D!R!A!M!A! with crossed communications between agents and the association and it was all sorted by the end of the day. (But I do not take lightly to being accused of things we did not do, MISS MANAGER.) But I’ve been irked ever since the first meeting with the association, et al, because they gave me the strong impression they had no intentions of fixing the damaged wall.

The dry wall that has been thoroughly watered God knows how many times. It looks terrible, and it would probably require a thorough coat of Kilz to properly paint over it. And if the window keeps leaking…it’s pretty much futile.

Also, I want to make gaddamn sure that there is no mold in the wall.

The next time the window leaked, we called the contractor and he was out the next day with an infrared camera to try to trace the leak. He found nothing. He sent his “people” out and they replaced six feet worth of shingles, believing if they replaced what was damaged from removing the ice dam it would fix the problem.

It didn’t fix anything. The window kept leaking.

After a few infrared camera searches, trips up into the attic, removing the soffit outside above the window, and…I don’t even remember what else at this point…the window still leaked. So they tore out the drywall above the window. And then they took the hose up on the roof to try to make it leak. They found…something…and decided a gutter fix was in order. Problem solved!

It leaked again.

But with the wall torn out, we could see it was coming from where the wall and ceiling meet and definitely not the window itself.

In between the gutter “fix” and the latest leak, we had our professional house inspection. He did a lot of poking around and while in the attic, he found a gap in the sheathing in the area above the window. When it leaked again and Bob called the contractor, he told him about the find. The contractor said it’s supposed to be like that, but they’d look at the picture from the inspector when they came to work on things again—just to make sure they were both talking about the same thing.

When they showed up, nobody bothered to come in the house, or even knock on the door. They just ripped off a bunch of shingles and changed the gutter and…who knows what else…and left.

We’ve had one…maybe two?…bad rain storms now since the gutter fix and I don’t think the window leaked. With any luck it is, in fact, fixed.

At least now I know they’ll be fixing part of the wall. I have a sinking suspicion it’s going to be a fight to get them to fix the whole wall…you know, the part that has the most damage.

And now we’re rapidly approaching the selling bank imposed closing deadline. We still need an FHA appraisal to see if they’ll even approve the final loan. The only thing that is going to fuck that up is the unfixed window.

We now have an absolute deadline for when the appraisal needs to be done. So we NEED the window and wall completely FIXED BEFORE the appraisal can happen, or FHA won’t “pass” the house for a loan. And that will delay closing. Which wouldn’t be as big of a crisis if the selling bank didn’t set an absolute deadline on when they’re willing to close by. I can only presume that if we don’t close by that deadline, the deal will fall through, and we—will be completely fucked.

We just need to light a fire under someone’s ass to get this DONE. Which means the contractor needs to get his ass (or his lackeys) over here and FINISH WHAT HE STARTED.

Thank gawd Bob is the one actually handling all this because I would be in a fucking padded room by now.

Instead I just swear a lot.

More than usual.

If that’s even possible.

Something to say?