A plumbing defect sent us to Bennington this morning.
On another wild-goose chase.
It could be said that purchasing a house on the Internet was not the most sensible way to go about things.
But as I have previously commented, house inspectors are paid to check for and identify defects. My personal knowledge of home maintenance is nil.
Unless you count changing light bulbs.
Anyway, it’s not as if the house is going to fall down or anything drastic.
My previous home in Washington State was built at the base of a very steep hill and while I know nothing of houses, I could recognise the potential for problems with hills and houses and slopes in earthquake country.
So I paid for an engineer to consider the matter before signing on the dotted line.
Which set my mind at rest, at the time.
For a number of years, I lived in blissful ignorance.
But then it became obvious that things were subsiding.
Jacking up the patio, turned out to be pointless.
Grant installed a French drain to divert water descending the slope, something the builders apparently ignored.
(While I maintain that it does not rain in Washington anything like the amount people claim, rain should certainly have been taken into account.)
Grant had converted my basement into what I named Yeti’s Kitty Suites, which is where I housed foster cats for nearly ten years.
He therefore became familiar with the house and a variety of its short-comings, such as the pillars supporting the front porch which he discovered had been buried directly into the ground.
Even I know that isn’t a good idea!
Then, I began to visualize the porch falling down at the front and the infamous slope cascading into the back living room.
So Grant devised another fix that would do for the time being.
About this time the Seattle area began being affected by smoke from the many worsening summer wildfires.
Our main road was designated a tsunami escape route and when I investigated online, the possibilities such an event might incur, I found that my home was situated just east of an area that might be totally washed away.
But east, was an area that could be devastated by a lahar if Mount Rainier should erupt.
The area devastated by the Mt St Helen’s eruption had made a lasting impression on me.
While I am most definitely an Olympic worrier, I have never been one to panic in times of crisis.
But I feel one should listen to one’s sensitivities.
When I was very young, any time I was taken somewhere that was hilly, I wanted to know if there were volcanoes. Why? They certainly didn’t have them in England. How did I even know about them?
Perhaps there had been mention of an eruption in one of those newsreels we used to get in the cinema, or maybe a volcano came up in the featured film.
I don’t think so.
My 2007 morphine trip had been all about volcanoes and floods. I couldn’t get it out of my head.
Why had I gone to Seattle in the first place, knowing about Mt Ranier?
Like every other major life change I have ever made, my move to Seattle was impulsive.
It was like when all your stars line up. Not that I follow astrology.
Although….a good friend once gave me the gift of a reading from a highly-rated astrologer.
It was as well I viewed the reading with a certain degree of skepticism because it was not all sunshine and roses.
But looking back, it is scary how accurate it was.
All I know is that when I really need to make a decision, I become driven, propelled forward and somehow, against all the odds the change gets made.
And here I am in my house of challenges!
Of all the moves I ever made, this has been by a long mile the most inspired.
.
.
Bennington Battlefield Monument
And there’s nothing terribly wrong with my house.
It just seems to be made of spare parts, which is what I often say about myself.
Something to celebrate.
New York State is the 10th state to ban experimentation on animals.
Shameful it did not happen sooner?
For sure, but the road to any goal is marked by small victories.
Your house, Carolyn, is so beautiful that is worth a few problems from to time.
Joanna
Such a lovely area you live in!
You are braver than me. I would never buy a house online, even it was ‘inspected’ by someone I paid to inspect it. Than again, the USA is a vast country, and it is not practical go go house viewing from one side of a continent to the other.
Best wishes, Pete.
I read the other day on someone’s blog that there are so many houses built in the destruction route of Mount Vesuvius in Italy. My question: Although this volcano has not erupted since the 1940’s, it’s a risk to live so close to this mountain … why would people still built their houses there?
Exactly! It is certainly not the way I’d want to go. Terrifying!