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<\/a>\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0 The Money Pit<\/strong><\/p><\/div>\n I forgot to write a blog this week until yesterday, coming this close to ruining our six-year perfect record<\/strong> of posting a blog every week.\u00a0 I have no excuse other than I’ve been very busy being fitted for a straight jacket.\u00a0 It was either that or make good use of our new knife sharpener to split open a vein or two.\u00a0 What, you might ask, has caused me such angst?\u00a0 The joys of homeownership<\/strong>.\u00a0 Those of you who have a home will understand.\u00a0 For those of you who rent…keep renting.\u00a0 Trust me, it is NOT money down the drain.\u00a0 I’ll tell you what is money down the drain – a MONEY PIT of a house, that’s what.<\/p>\n Our issues started at the beginning of the summer when our brand-spanking new irrigation system<\/strong> (which cost more than my entire college education) sprang a leak in the manifold.\u00a0 I thought manifolds only existed in cars but this was not the only thing I was to learn over the summer.\u00a0 We quickly turned off the water before we flooded the neighborhood.\u00a0 Our landscape people came out and fixed it and we sighed with relief that it had happened before we left on summer vacation. Hah!\u00a0 Little did we know the fun was just starting.<\/p>\n In July we took off for 10 days to Mammoth Lakes.\u00a0 When we arrived home I noticed that the alarm system didn’t sound<\/strong> as I opened the door.\u00a0 Turns out, the connector points had worn out in a couple of places.\u00a0 Luckily no one with ill intent swung by our place to relieve us of our valuables, although in retrospect there are a few items I surely wish they had taken.\u00a0 ADT came out and informed us that not only were the connectors bad but our keypads were also outdated<\/strong>.\u00a0 Great.\u00a0 New keypads, a new motion detector and a few contact points installed and we were good to go.<\/p>\n Or so we thought.\u00a0 The next week I began to notice that most everything I baked was turning out pretty bad.\u00a0 As in, inedible.\u00a0 Now, this is not unusual for my cooking.\u00a0 I’ve produced more disasters<\/strong> than Hurricane Alley.\u00a0 But even my go-to recipes were not turning out.\u00a0 So, our appliance repair person came out and told me the oven just wasn’t reaching temperature.\u00a0 Long story short, we needed a new sensor (which of course had to be ordered) and he HOPED that would solve it.\u00a0 Luckily, it was “just” the sensor and he got it back up and running.\u00a0 He also told me that the oven really needs about 15-20 minutes longer<\/strong> than it indicates for the entire oven surface to be at temperature.\u00a0 So…I learned something new as I wrote out another check.\u00a0 My cooking, however, did not improve.<\/p>\n \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0 Our new “stupid” TV<\/strong><\/p><\/div>\n Since our next vacation was cancelled due to wildfire smoke I decided we should use the money to get a new 4K TV<\/strong> installed.\u00a0 You know, something ultra tech that would have some “smart” features to take us automatically to Netflix or Amazon.\u00a0 So I called the A\/V people we’ve used for years and ordered one up.\u00a0 They came the next week to install it, only to find that the cabinet space it goes in to was too small for the new TV.\u00a0 They installed it anyway, with part of the surround protruding <\/strong>when they left the job.\u00a0 Not only that, they informed me that we couldn’t use the “smart” remote because our surround sound cables (which run across the room in the ceiling) are not compatible with the new requirements of the Samsung audio cables.\u00a0 They suggested we rip open the ceiling<\/strong> to run new cables.\u00a0 Uh…that’s not going to happen.\u00a0 So they came up with the brilliant idea of installing a Roku player to replace our Blu-ray streamer since the Roku is easier to navigate and would work with the sound system.\u00a0 In went the Roku, which worked for approximately three days<\/strong> before it died.\u00a0 At this point it was either divorce court or the Roku so I had them come rip it out and we are now back to our Blu-ray streamer and using a new, expensive “smart” TV with the old “stupid” remote and streamer.\u00a0 But I’m not divorced, so there’s that.<\/p>\n Then, just to add some fun to the mix, someone in Argentina stole my credit card number and opened up several Netflix accounts<\/strong>.\u00a0 When I reported it to Netflix they said next time I should just give the person a gift card rather than lend them my credit card number (!).\u00a0 Long story short, I reported it to the bank as fraud<\/strong> and had to re-set all of my automatic payments.\u00a0 I don’t think Netflix hires “geniuses”.<\/p>\n Next, the air conditioner<\/strong> on the hot (southwestern) side of the house went out.\u00a0 Over the subsequent three weeks we had two repairmen who spent untold hours trying to fix it.\u00a0 Finally, after 18 years of using the same company we lost faith and called a friend who had a relative in the business.\u00a0 It always helps to “know a guy”.\u00a0 They came out and, sure enough, we have some issues that are going to require a work around next spring before we use the A\/C.\u00a0 Again, college educations are being wasted on household repairs.\u00a0 But on the bright side, we’ve had the coldest, rainiest October<\/strong> in history so I thought we’d dodged a bullet.<\/p>\n \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0 Another “smart” device<\/strong><\/p><\/div>\n That is until 10 days ago when my garage door opener refused to close<\/strong> when I left the house.\u00a0 So, in the aforementioned rain I had to get out of my car and manually close it.\u00a0 So… one more call to one more vendor.\u00a0 Turns out the logic board had failed.<\/strong>\u00a0 Finally, something I can relate to – my logic board fails all the time.\u00a0 However, since it was one of three openers there is a high likelihood that the others will fail sometime soon.\u00a0 The next day we had three new garage door openers and we were thrilled to learn that they are wi-fi enabled<\/strong>.\u00a0 You simply download the Liftmaster app and then you can control the garage doors from anywhere.\u00a0 I thought of the countless times I’ve left the house and then was sure that I’d left the door open.\u00a0 This simple little app<\/strong> could fix all that.\u00a0 I should have known better.\u00a0 The “simple” app would not connect to their wifi system.\u00a0 I called Tech Support.\u00a0 No help.\u00a0 The next day I tried again, spent an hour with a very nice guy but no luck.\u00a0 The next day the owner of the garage door company and I spent 90 minutes on the phone with their tech “wizards”.\u00a0 Nope.\u00a0 Nada.\u00a0 Not Happening.\u00a0 It has now been elevated to their super-geeks<\/strong> who are supposed to call me any time now to help figure it out.\u00a0 My dreams of using an app to open and close the garage doors have withered away, along with my patience, resolve and self-esteem.<\/p>\n On the up side, I think I finally understand what is happening.\u00a0 With the upcoming holiday our house has decided to do a mash up between Halloween <\/em>and Nightmare on Elm Street. \u00a0<\/em>I think I’m going to opt for\u00a0A Cabin in the Woods.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" By Suzanne Sparrow Watson I forgot to write a blog this week until yesterday, coming this close to ruining our six-year perfect record of posting a blog every week.\u00a0 I have no excuse other than I’ve been very busy being … read more![\"\"](\"https:\/\/fromabirdseyeview.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/TV-300x169.jpg\")
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