Today's Peeve Of The Day, Friday 15th November.

[PJSaturn]

Originally Posted by Jezer

Here's what she wrote;

Here's an idea for a peeve - something that was supposed to be a simple, easy task ends up taking much longer or is way more complicated than you anticipated.

So our POTD is;

Why did I start doing this?

Thanks Shep!

Excellent peeve, Bay and Jez, and worth repeating! I've had that happen many times. Such projects fall in the "nothing's easy" category.

.

[Da Grouch]

So we get into a stardard construction 2 storey single family dwelling, build date about circa 1985. The ground level (above ground basement) is still unfinished, even after the better part of 30 years. The owner (whom I refer to as Lady Twingbat) says she wants the downstairs converted into a 2 bedroom self-contained suite that she can rent out to her son, daughter in law and newly arrived grandchild. Great, doesn't have to be an authorized unit so it bypasses a mountain of red tape. The plumbing is already roughed in and the electrical is in place - hence, no permits required. This is going to be TOO easy! (<< That should have been my first warning...)

The only problem is that the old girl is a devoted pack rat and the downstairs looks like an episode of Hoarders. No problem, we just get a crew in to load everything into a dumpster, right? WRONG! There is no way she is going to part with her "valued possessions". So right off the top we're looking at building an oversize (read: permits required) outbuilding to move all her sh...I mean crap (junke?) into. Of course she really doesn't want to pay for that so we're supposed to find another solution.

About this time one of the guys notices (after climbing over the 20+ ft. long pile of debris) that there's an extreme mold problem along the back walls caused by no air circulation due to the mountain of trash (sorry - "valued possessions"). A further investigation shows that there is serious rot in the wall studs on 2 sides of the pile; now we have a major structural problem. Did I mention that one of the upstairs toilets had started to leak long ago but wasn't noticed because nobody could get under it to see the water damage it was causing? 5 floor joists, the cross bridging and an entire subfloor now have to go away, thereby gutting the upstairs bathroom while the second floor joists and floor are replaced. All of these are repair items she didn't want to pay for - apparently we were supposed to fix them for her free gratis because she was "the customer".

Long story short: We said, "Adios, toots!"

I still look back on that and shudder. So glad we didn't get into that one.

Ron
...

[Ketabcha]

I bought this set called "Magical Loom Kit.' It's made for folks 6 years and older. Basically it is a loom with dowels on it and a bag full of rubber bands and a crochet hook. Kids use it to make bracelets, rings, etc. Piece of cake, right? No. I cannot figure it out. The instructions at first seemed so easy. I have to admit that I am not in my second childhood. I never left the first one. I want this doohickey to work. I'm sure it does but I can't work it. So, I set it aside and will try later (maybe in 2015).

My sister claims that I am the world champ of jerry rigging. I usually am. Not this time, though.

[Jezer]

Da Grouch's predicament about a lady not wanting to pay to have an outbuilding put up to store her stuff reminds me of the opposite situation where two big problems came together in a marriage made in heaven.

I discovered a disused well about ten feet deep, and disintegrating, about six feet from my 17th Century home. It had been hidden by a thoughtful person simply putting an iron grid (which was starting to rust) over the top and then putting large flagstones to create a patio.

Luckily I discovered it and the very same day the next door neighbour told me that he was demolishing a chimney stack down the end of his back garden and didn't know what to do with all the rubble!

You really couldn't have made it up!

To add to that a good friend of mine who lived a few yards away was demolishing a wall, and guess where that went as well (no pun).