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8:09 p.m. - 2005-06-14
Life on a slab

Tired of this all ready

It all started when I mentioned the crack in the slab foundation. A crack that has been there for 20 years and hasn't moved....a crack that has most likely been there since the 1st year the house was built 30 years ago and it is likely that there is a matching slab crack in my neighbors unit and in every home that sits upon a concrete slab. In other words...a slab crack "taint no big thing."

The day after I mentioned the slab crack, my attorney received a letter from the buyers attorney and demanded to know how long the slab crack has been there, how long we have known about it and just what we intended to do about it and...MY GOD...HAS IT BEEN TESTED FOR...dum de dum dum.....RADON!!!!

This deal should have been sealed today yet we now have an extension granted on the contract to my house while a blue box sits silently in my living room collecting possible evidence of Deadly Radon Gas that could possibly be seeping up through the dastardly foundation crack.

What's more, is I agreed to pay for 1/2 the test because the alternative was to get a Home Depot kit test, who's results will take 14 to 21 days and the closings on both houses will be held up over it.

"Don't worry" said the radon testing lady, "there is only a 40 percent chance that your home has radon gas." (Yeah...I'll bet that average goes up if the same lady gets a kick back from the people who sell the expensive Radon Gas mitigation units...for which part of the slab will have to be torn.)

So....this house thingy isn't settled yet. If it passes it's radon gas inspection...no problem...merrily we roll along toward home ownership. If they find Radon Gas and the new people honor our original commitment that they would buy the place in the condition it is in and fix it themselves...we will also roll merrily along toward home ownership.

However...at this point...I am so frustrated and so tired that if they dare ask me to fork out the 1600.00 to get a mitigation unit installed. The answer will be a resounding "SHOVE IT UP YOUR RADON INFESTED ASSHOLE".

OK...I will be much gentler and kinder than that...today I feel like super bitch and I am sure it comes through in this posting....But seriously...if I have to rip up my carpet...put a hole in my slab and pay some slob to professionally seal the innocent crack and then install something that looks like a spaceship in my attic with a PVC pipe going into my laundry room...well, I will just cut my losses...finish de junking....finish restoring this place to a level where we can get top dollar and we will look for a house some time next year. And between you me and the wall...(I ain't gonna mention or disclose any slab crack)

I found stuff I would like the owner of my new home to fix...but he has other buyers on the line and if I rattle the contract...he can declare it null and void and without a chance to suck my request back in....my contract is dead. So, we will have a couple of thousand to put into the new house as it is. I will not put a couple of thousand into this rat hole for no extra compensation. If I am going to sink money into it....I'll sink lots of money into it...get me an extra 20 thou to put down on another house and merrily roll toward home ownership sometime next year. It just isn't worth it to grovel.

Well, this has been a Paula's House Update. I am too tired, frustrated and dejected to care anymore.

P. S. This is the first day below 90 degrees in two weeks. A breeze is blowing, people all over Chicagoland are airing their homes out and enjoying fresh air. Not Us...we have to stay emtombed for 48 hours because we are having a RADON TEST!

P. I. Yarnsmith

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