More stuff...and more unpacking...

Day 8: More unpacking, Manie the Handyman arrives, and even more unpacking
Well, ADT was supposed to be here tomorrow to set up the alarm but they rocked up this morning before I even had my shower. Seems Mr. Seller “didn’t know” his alarm code, which makes me wonder why he even had the ADT account, especially since the ADT guys discovered the contacts on the front door and the kitchen door are not functional. We know he had an active ADT account because he transferred it to his new address. How did he use it if he didn’t know the alarm code? Or is that just one more thing he withheld from us? Curiously, the installation team reprogrammed the box and installed a new box next to the alarm box, but they couldn’t fix the two non-functional contact sets. Huh? So, the alarm itself is working but because the front door and the kitchen door have faulty contacts, they aren’t covered…these are the two doors most accessible from the street! Go figure…

More unpacking…good thing I have a big free standing cabinet as the kitchen doesn’t have enough cupboards for pots, pans, dishes, glasses, and food. I need a pantry and that useless space Mr. and Mrs. Seller created out of the atrium (which I wish they had left!) is prime space for it. Eventually…but for now, my big double armoire is pressed into service for the dishes and serving ware.

1 PM
Manie looks like a good find…he worked for his brother-in-law in a landscape and irrigation business and should be able to take care of the irrigation, once the bees have buggered off (there are "foraging bees" here now to harvest the honey Henri couldn't get off the pipes and valves and such). He also has more than 20 years experience with construction, both large and small, and ordinary plumbing jobs don’t challenge him, so changing some washers and stopping the toilet leaks are within his scope of work. We have jobs large and small here, and he seems to be competent for them all. Let’s see what the quote comes in at…

Got a call a couple of hours ago that the dog house is on its way…YAY! It rains here in the summer and Nash and Candy need a place to be safe from the storms.

2 PM
Something is leaking…I think it is the air conditioner. This house came with the cutest little old fashioned coal-burning iron stove set into a brick nook in the hallway, something I really looked over when we were here the first time. I do not recall seeing a large plastic jug secreted behind the stove but it was one of the first things I noticed when we moved into the house. I asked Hubby if he had any idea what it was…there was a black tube leading down the chimney space and into the jug…but he didn’t know either. Well, it seems it is for the purpose of collecting the condensation from the air conditioner…for some reason, instead of the tube leading outdoors where it could release the condensation onto the roof and into the gutters, it goes into the chimney and down into a jug hidden behind the stove. Ok, a rocket scientist I am not, but somehow I think a plastic jug behind a coal-burning stove is not the smartest choice one could make and…here’s the kicker…where was that jug when we viewed the house in March?? Had I seen it, surely I would have asked about it!

6 PM
Thandiswe and I unpacked the bathroom…this bathroom has not one single cupboard or cabinet…not one. No under-sink cupboards, not even a medicine cabinet! Fortunately we have a pair of large lined baskets that slide neatly under the sink counter and they will just have to do until the bathroom remodel brings us a real set of cupboards and some cabinets.

Hubby and I hit the supermarket…two of them to be exact…and between them there was but one sad, limp, wilted head of lettuce. Ordinarily the shelves are packed with bagged salads and fresh lettuces and other produce, but both stores were completely sold out! Never seen anything like it…oh, wait…I take that back…a couple of years ago Hubby and I must have gone to half a dozen markets looking for a bag of frozen peas and nobody had any…it was bizarre!

So, now it is time to make dinner…hopefully tomorrow will be a bit on the quiet side, with only the pool company scheduled to pitch up and disturb my peace. Time, of course, will tell…

It's starting to get ugly...

Day 7: Unpacking and fixing

Today is our seventh day in the house and repairs are soon under way. The wasps and bees will soon be history…Henri, the bee guy, is on his way to relieve us of our unwanted charges.

Later today the dishwasher should be delivered…hurrah, my first since leaving the US. After the refrigerator fiasco with DEFY, we popped for the extra money for the Bosch…we’ve had one service call on the Bosch washer in its almost seven years with us and the service was swift and sure: no calls in five years now. DEFY would have been cheaper in the initial outlay, but if the fridge is any indication of their build quality (we KNOW it is an indication of their service quality) it would be penny-wise but pound-foolish to buy one of their appliances again.

The dog house is delayed until later in the week, as is the pool repair, but today Manie, a professional handyman, should pitch up and take a look at the myriad of little things that need attention, from doors that won’t stay closed to a malfunctioning curtain rod to sticking drawers to a broken drawer slider.

We still don’t have telephone service and, therefore, no internet. Seems that we actually have to present a physical presence at the telephone company offices to place an order for service, even though the house has a phone line already installed…nothing like convenience to the customer, ya know? Small wonder more and more people are eschewing the phone company in favour of cell phones and wireless internet providers. Cell phone companies are in every mall, large and small, and the wireless internet guys come to you with their product and service. In a time when companies are seeking ways to boost their business, Telkom seems bent on diminishing theirs with crappy service and forcing customers to go through hoops. We will be considering the change to wireless…and the people who moved into Hell House are already wireless. That’s the way the world is moving anyway, and Telkom is giving South Africans a huge push in that direction with their cavalier attitude towards the convenience of the customers and their service delivery (it takes a personal visit to the phone company and then WEEKS of waiting to get your phone service turned on here, even if the house is already wired, as opposed to a single phone call and just HOURS for the service to be turned on in Silicon Valley).

So, Hubby is off to Telkom, to see if he can get our phone and internet turned on while I wait for the bee guy, the handyman, and my new dishwasher. While I wait, Thandiswe and I continue to unpack boxes, trying to figure out new places for all the old stuff. Soon the cottage will be empty and we’ll begin advertising it…the next phase of the move in will be getting tenants!

11 am
The previous owner did not pay his electricity account for the last three months and somehow the payment the attorneys were supposed to make to clear the account is lost in transit because Eskom just showed up and cut off the power for non-payment. Joy. When this happened at Hell House, it took 23 hours to get the account restored. We may be in for a dark night and more take out food.

5 pm
The power is back on, after Hubby made a trip to the electric company and made a fuss. He transferred the electricity account to our name but it seems the previous owner neglected to pay his bill for rather a long time since his past due balance was R107,000…yup, six figures!! Now, Hell House was shut off for a past due account of R3300, which probably represented between two and three months arrears, so you have to wonder how long Mr. Seller went without paying his electric bill!! According to the electric company, Mr. Seller went into their office last week and paid R50K to keep the lights on, so his complaint to Hubby that Eskom “overcharged” him would seem a bit hollow…who pays fifty thousand bucks in such a situation?

The bees are gone. Another mark against Mr. Seller here…Henri, the bee guy, says the nest has been there a very long time and it was a very big nest. The seller told us back in March, when we viewed the house for the first time, that the irrigation system was not working, so we expected a non-functional irrigation system. What he didn’t tell us was that it was not working because there was a big bee swarm inside the utility box that houses the valves and controls!! That I consider to be a definite deception on his part…Henri spent two hours here wearing a bee suit and carrying around a smoker, collecting what he termed “killer bees.” This is Africa, after all, and these are African honey bees. He also said this swarm was super aggressive: Thandiswe was standing well away from the box when Henri went to examine it and a bee flew right at her and stung her on the face!

But they are gone now, along with their cousins the wasps and with any luck they will find a happy home with Henri in Pretoria. He carried away a big wooden box full of bees…with their “lovely queen”…and two big black bags full of honey and honey comb. Thank goodness they are all gone, and I wish Henri luck with them!

We are making headway with the unpacking. Hubby’s wardrobe is pretty much liberated, a good portion of mine found and hung in the closet, and today we pretty much unpacked the dining room, including the liquor cabinet and the wine stash. The parts I really want to tackle…the study and my sewing/craft area…will just have to wait until the necessary stuff is addressed.

Manie and I crossed wires and so he will be here tomorrow morning…just as well, since we found three more things to add to the list, a door that won’t lock, a window that won’t close, and a problem with the dishwasher…no place to drain it! Another deception on the part of the seller, since there was a dishwasher in the kitchen when we viewed the house and there is a tap to fill it and a plug in the wall to plug it in, but no drain!!

Poor Yorkie is having a fit…Hubby put up the second baby gate today so we can open the patio door for ventilation but she cannot sneak out into the patio. Until the pool is repaired and cleaned, I don’t want her out there…I need to take her in the pool and teach her how to get out if she ends up there accidentally and today the water is a lovely lime green with white foam spread across the surface like so much lace…not exactly something I am keen on leaping into, Yorkie in hand.

We are awaiting take away food yet again, the order placed before the power was restored. I tried cooking breakfast this morning, but it was not as successful as I would have liked since the stovetop seems to have a mind of its own and no markings on the knobs to tell me if the thing is hot, cold, or in-between. The ceramic stove top is made by DEFY as was the one at Hell House, so I assumed that the heating was done essentially the same way…the furthest you can turn the knob away from “off” is the hottest…it appears, however, that turning it all the way to the end of its travel actually shuts it off again! The soft boiled eggs first turned out raw (insufficient heat to the pan) then turned out hard cooked (too much heat). This is going to be a steep learning curve. The oven, however, seems to work and the bagels I baked the other morning came out quite nicely.

So, today rolls to a close with yet more evidence of deception and mean-spiritedness on the part of the seller, a triumph over the forces of nature as the bee swarm was relocated without sending me to the hospital, and another dozen or so boxes emptied and flattened.

Tomorrow we resume.