The Itsy Bitsy Spider

We don't have a digital video camera, so this is off of my cell phone.
Wyatt has been really into singing lately.
Enjoy!

The Saga Continues...(the crackpot was right edition)

So, do you remember this post in which I told a tale of a "crackpot", "friend", "home-inspector", "contractor-guy" that came over and told that poor young couple that our house was built very poorly. Something that I forgot to mention in that last post (mainly because it's all technical mumbo-jumbo to me) is that he also said that the span of the floor joists are too long. We all laughed at him (to ourselves, because we've never met him) and said that there was no way that he could tell that just by looking at it.

Well, as it turns out, the crackpot was right!

We started to investigate that fractured floor joist and they sent a rep from the floor joist manufacturer to inspect. His diagnosis. The entire hallway floor is failing. So, we started to do some research. Our builder had left all of their plans and the signed off inspections at the house. (I'm pretty sure they weren't supposed to do that)
Upon looking at the plans, Ryan discovered that they installed the wrong type of floor joists in the house. Most of the house is supposed to have a 210 series floor joist and there isn't a single 210 series in the entire house. Nearly the entire house is over-spanned.
Ryan calls the city inspector that signed off on the framing and says, "how did you not catch this?"
The city inspector, um, shall we say, most likely had an "accident", gets off the phone with Ryan and immediately calls the builder.
The builder calls Ryan and says to give them time to make this right.
In order to make it right at this point is to take out all of the 110 floor joists and put in what we paid for. Well, I guess in most of the house it could be anchored so it's not overspanned. But our living room is over the top of our bedroom. So, they would have to take out the entire floor/ceiling of our living room and bedroom to replace the floor joists. My thought is this, if the most traveled part of our house "the hallway" is failing after only 3 years, what is next. Also, I have been bugging Ryan to let me bring my piano home from my parents house. What would have happened if he would have let me? I should be able to bring my piano into my home without fearing to fall through the hallway floor.
Also, Ryan found a part somewhere in the house that isn't bolted down to the foundation. Lovely, so in case of an earthquake our house would fall off the foundation.
What else is wrong with this house.
Another thought has occurred to me. This same builder built most of our entire neighborhood, of which we are at the bottom of the hill. So, if they performed the same short-cuts to those houses that they did to our house. We could be in a world of hurt in any sort of earthquake situation.

So, here's the bottom line... we are searching for a good lawyer. This is something that is totally foreign to Ryan and I. But we really feel like everyone involved has a bottom to cover. And we need someone to cover ours. The builder built it wrong & the inspector didn't inspect.
They have alot to lose here and we have already lost a sale on our house due to this issue.
And now, we don't even feel right about leaving it on the market while there are such flaws with the house.
Where does this leave us?
Well, we just really don't know. Our money is quickly running out. If this issue wouldn't have come up, we would have already been living in the little house and it would have belonged to that young couple that wanted to raise a family in our home.
So, we already lost this sale due to this issue, and we have a letter from them stating that as the specific reason they backed out.

So... if anyone knows a good lawyer that is from the Portland area... let me know please!
Because we really don't know the first thing to finding a good lawyer. What I do know is that we don't have an abundance of money to give him/her up front.

There you have it, that's the gist of it. Not the ENTIRE drama unfolded, but enough to let you know what's going on!

Thank you for your prayers!

I'm officially inspired...

My college roomie Kelly is extremely crafty. She recently did a post that included lots of crafty blog links.
I myself have always loved the idea of sewing and craftiness since I was a little girl. I even belonged to a sewing/crocheting/knitting 4H group.
I've been considering this for awhile.
Today was the day.
I dug my childhood sewing machine out of the garage, took pictures, and then cleaned it off with baby wipes.
I sat down to see if I could remember how it works.
Turns out, it's not quite like riding a bike.
I might need a refresher course.
Since Kelly lives in the Boise, ID area and I in the Portland, OR area, I might have to pack this machine over to Grammy's house (Ryan's grandma) for a lesson. (she doesn't know it yet)
I can't for the life of me, figure out how to get the bobbin thread up from the bottom.
I'm also thinking that it probably needs a tune up.
But, I'm stoked to sew again.
Not that I really need anything else to do right now.
But, hey, with practice, maybe I could get good enough to throw some stuff up on Etsy.

My Blood-Caffeine Levels Are Way Too Low!

Photo by www.lifehack.org

I woke up this morning to....ahhhhhh no more coffee. I had a cup of tea but it didn't cut it. I couldn't leave and go buy some because the guy was coming to look at our broken floor joyst. And after he finally left, Wyatt was ready for his nap. These are my symptoms. My eyes are burning, I have no motivation, and I really should have laid down and taken a nap. Instead of taking a nap, I went on a hunt for different forms of caffeine. Right now there are 6 minutes left and my homemade brownies will be done. Chocolate has caffeine right?

And The Rollercoaster Continues....

I have at least one new blog follower, so before you read this post...you should read this one, this one, this one, and then this last one.
That's alot of homework huh? (at least there are lots of pictures)
So, as you know almost 2 weeks ago we accepted an offer on our house for all cash, agreed to all of her terms, and she rescinded her offer the next morning.
And then on Wednesday we had a young couple come look at the house. They had been to one of our first open houses (when it was first on the market and much more expensive) their realtor told me that she had showed them about 15 other houses and this was definitely the one. She called back to make an appointment to show the house to the young man's father the next morning.
So, we were back in our realtor, Keith's, office exactly a week later, going over a new offer from this couple. It was pretty low and they asked for my beloved front loader washer & dryer, so we countered their offer and they accepted. Things were moving pretty fast, they scheduled a "home inspection" for this last Wednesday. We got word from our realtor on Wednesday night that they planned on rescinding their offer. (by the way, I'm beginning to HATE the word rescind, just in case you were wondering) But we also found out that instead of hiring a licensed professional home inspector they brought his dad and a contractor "friend".
We have been waiting to hear what they found and the exact reasons for taking their offer back. And we finally got the "report" and they finally made their plans to rescind official. Most of it was really trivial, like lint in the dryer vent. (puh-lease, so we clean it) They also said that the window wasn't plumb (is that how its spelled?) because it stuck. Well, considering that we have probably only opened that window about 3 times in 3 years, of course it was gonna stick. I went over and tested it, and it opens just fine. One thing that was a little more severe was that they found a "fractured" floor joyst. Ryan has been on the phone with all sorts of people all day, because it will be covered under a structural warranty through our builder.
Anyway, our personal opinion is that they brought someone in to do the inspection that just wasn't qualified . They found something that carrys an easy fix, and instead of remaining level headed they blew the whistle and freaked these poor kids out. What's the moral of this story? You get what you pay for.
You should always pony up the cash for a professional liscensed home inspector even though they are spendy. One that works for you and not against you. One that doesn't have a personal vendetta against production builders (oh did I not mention that?) We get the feeling that this guy is a custom home builder and holds a serious grudge against the builder of our house. And if these people want a custom home, they should plan on spending at least double what we are asking.

What it boils down to, is that ya, we're pretty dissapointed.
But, we've been praying hard about this.
Hard.
So if these people want to rescind their offer.
Fine.
These people aren't what we've been praying for.
Now I just need to adjust my attitude accordingly.
It might take a day.
I'll be ok tomorrow.
For the time being, we are still moving forward towards moving into what we have affectionately nicknamed "the little house".
Unless God decides to totally bless us and let us out of this huge mistake by selling it for us.

But, I'll end on a good note.
Our house got shown again today.
Who knows, we could be sitting in our realtor's office for the 3rd Saturday in a row tomorrow.
I just hope that for the rest of my life, I never hear that wretched word. You know the one.

:)

Some Fun Giveaways

My friend April is hosting 5 giveaways on her blog.
Just click on the button above to check out all of the cute things she's giving away.
Good luck!

A Deep and Burning Question

Ok...Brace yourselves.

I'm about to astound you with my vast deepness.

Why does the Oscar Mayer Wiener song just randomly pop into my head.

I can just be going along, minding my own business. And BAM.
There it is.
And I can't get it out.
I don't know why.
I haven't seen the commercial for ages.
And it will just come in, uninvited and I'll be singing it to myself.

And another thing....I don't even like hot dogs. Sometimes if the mood hits me, I'll grab one from Costco. But, other than Costco, they tend to really gross me out.