Homeowner's Update

The roof is supposedly fixed again, for real this time. The roof guy said it looked like something had just come loose, which happens sometimes, but that if they did, in fact, get it fixed, it should stay fixed. He also asked me, unprompted, whether there had been any damage inside, and reminded me that if there was, it was their obligation to fix that, too. It doesn't look to me like there was, other than one very small hole that should be fine with some spackle smeared over it, so I told him it probably wasn't necessary, but I really appreciated his attitude. (That's New Horizon Construction in Socorro, by the way. I figure I might as well give 'em a plug, since I'm pleased with them.)

Sadly, I'm much less pleased with the progress (or lack thereof) in finding someone to consult about my subsidence issues. I asked my real estate agent (or, technically, her assistant) if she knew any structural engineers she could recommend, since I figured, hey, it must occasionally come up that someone wants to consult such a person before buying a house. Well, apparently it doesn't come up often, but she eventually gave me the name of a company in Los Lunas. I called them once: no answer. I called a second time and got forwarded to a really terrible cell phone connection where I was eventually able to hear the person on the other end well enough to understand that she was telling me the person I needed to talk to wouldn't be around until Thursday. Thursday, as it happened, turned out not to be a good day for accomplishing much of anything, but I called back on Friday, and got an answering machine. I left a message, but never got a call back. That was a week ago. I'm pretty much drawing the conclusion now that these aren't people I particularly want to deal with, anyway, but I really don't know how to go about finding someone else. Well, someone at work mentioned that there are some civil engineers in town. I don't know whether they handle this kind of stuff or not, because I really have no idea how much specialization there is in this particular field, but I guess I should try getting in touch with them, and, if nothing else, maybe they can recommend somebody. I'm seriously considering putting it off for a few weeks until I'm on evening shift again and am actually home and awake during business hours to call people, though. Sigh. I really do want to get some decent professional advice on this stuff before too much more time goes by...

Oh, and the latest problem is that my bathtub faucet is leaking. Actually, "leak" makes it sound like it's just sort of dripping, whereas it's really putting out a constant stream of water. Hot water. So I called the plumbers, who said, well, they're really busy this week, and was it an emergency? Which I couldn't justify it as, even to myself, so they're not going to be out until Tuesday. I'll probably just see if I can get 'em to replace the fixtures entirely. They're pretty old, and the knob that turns the water flow from tub to shower leaks, too, though only when the water's actually on.

With all of that, though, it's still better than living in the trailer.