Continuation of retirement

 Long story short, it was well past Thanksgiving when the restoration company finished everything they had to do to the bathrooms and the clean up. My son came and put in my back door for me which I was able to get at a much less cost than originally planned. I had waited long enough to get a door of the same quality at about $700 less than the original price. So new flooring in the bathrooms and a new back door new vanities and the bathrooms completely painted, I was feeling pretty good. I finally finished painting the hallway  and got my pictures up in the living room and the hallway and was ready to move onto the kitchen before Christmas.

Moving on was not to be.  New plumbing issues popped cup.  The piping under the tub and in the hallway bathroom wall was leaking.  There were cracks in the tub abs in the wall tiles around it.  The copper piping going to there areas was old and beginning to wear, so now we had more drips.  Not just trips but pouring from the ceiling in the basement.  None of this, of course was covered by insurance.  Luckily I was eligible to borrow up to $25,000 for repairs through a company Mainstream does business with.  All of repairs to fix this set of problems came to slightly over $13,000. If you thought everything was finally fixed, you’d be wrong.  About 1 week later the basement floor drain started backing up every time we washed clothes. The dry well had cracks in it and tree roots growing into it.  Dry wells are basically a thing of the past, so I ended up using the rest of the of the $25,000 except $966 of it to put in a Sump Pump and replace the rest of the 50 year old copper tubing which was going bad and would soon be a new problem.  If you think that was it, wrong again.  When the electricians were here to hook the Sump Pump up to the electric panel, I was told it was not safe and if I didn’t get it fixed, I could have an electrical fire.Mainstream gave me an estimate of $10,000 to make the repairs abs replace the panel.  I opted to sign a liability waiver which released them of any responsibility if safety issues arose so I could get the final steps of the Sump Pump done.the WA. State Electrical Inspector repeated the safety concerns to me but with much more urgency.  So now I’m getting estimates to get he electrical panel replaced and whatever else needs to be done to bring us up to code and keep us safe.  The first bid is $2500.  I should have the 2nd bid by Tuesday,(today is Friday).  I will be calling one more company for a bid and then make my decision with regard to who can do the best job for the least amount of money.  My tax refund is all going to be gone by the time I finish paying the restoration company and the electrician. Thankfully insurance covered the 1st plumbing issue that occurred in August.  I’m just repaying what I used from the insurance to get by this Fall when I had to replace my lawn mower, get Shylar to camp, and buy school clothes.  Thankfully I’m in a position to do so.  

I’m praying for a smoother retirement in 2022 now that these things will all be taken care of so I can replace my front door, get my living room blinds repaired, and start replacing my carpets with Laminate flooring.  Once that’s done, I’d like to replace my kitchen cabinets because most the drawers are no longer fixable.