My turn to rant a little... grrrr.

[fuzziebutt]

Quote:
That is exactly what I was thinking. The health dept my condem the place without a working septic system, and the mold is harmful and enough to condemn the house. Tell bro in law that you will buy half the place when it is fixed. And have it inspected before you buy it, so there will be no more suprises. Put your foot down!! Unless you like that foot in potty water!

 

[nuttyredhead]

Quote:
X 2. I know he is the man in your life but is this all worth it? It sounds like you are putting yourself and kids in harm ways. JMHO, i hope you can get it all figuere out soon.

 

[Julie08]

Quote:
This is not exactly true. It might be a good idea to have a certified wood stove installed and proper pipe put in by a qualified installed and inspected by your insurance company and a licensed inspector. Most will not let you vent out the wall because of buildup of soot in the elbow.

A hole in the wall and any old pipe sticking out could be very, very dangerous.

 

[6chickens in St. Charles]

Quote:
Yah, this.

My DH and I are a couple of dingbats. Nobody's perfect, everybody's different. One thing he said a long time ago, was "lead me by example" and we're mostly happy with the way things have turned out. Somewhat mystified at our failures, but mostly happy with the fruits of our labors. Our current home was worse than yours when we started, but now its functional.

Another thing he said when I found my nursing college program too hard (22 years ago! OMG!), "Either you do it or you don't , but DON'T complain about it". That has sort of fueled all of our efforts at doing unusual, but necessary things. I mean, who'd WANT to mop poo? But sometimes thats just one of those things you either do, or you don't. But nobody wants to hear complaining, most of all, your own heart doesn't like to hear you complain. It is stressfull to your heart to dwell on problems, and to physically dwell within a problem without a plan to get out of it.

So, I agree with the above poster. You probably didn't hook up with SO for his house, you love him for some other reason. But YOUR home has to be better than that. So I agree with fixing it. Just keep doing whatever it takes, and fix it. Your heart will love you for it.

 

[ChickInDelight]

I would never rely on anyone else to provide for my own kids.

You CAN do it - whatever needs to be done. Set the example for men and children alike!

 

[Southernbelle]

What, specifically, is making the water back up? Maybe some folks on here can give you some specific advice on how to fix it. In my opinion, that's your biggest issue. Once the plumbing is fixed, your mold problem shouldn't be a problem and you won't have any more mopping.

Our heat pump died 2 years ago (elements wore out and replacements are no longer made) and we heat our 3000+ sq ft house with a woodstove. The woodstove is in the basement. It has a "hood" over it that ties into the house's ductwork and a small blower attached to the hood that blows the warm air into the rest of the house via the ducts. There's lots of little things you could buy to warm the house: woodstove, baseboard heater, ceramic heaters, electric fireplace, etc.

I'm a stay-at-home-mom with 4 kids and no experience with household repairs, but I learned. It didn't take me long to realize waiting for DH to get something done was an excercise in futility, so now I perform all basic household maintenance.

 

[goldtopper]

Is there a possibility that you can do the repairs or have them done and apply their costs to the purchase price of the hose?

 

[6chickens in St. Charles]

This thread reminded me of "flushless" composting toilets.

A couple doctors I work with came back from India and Europe last year, reporting our wasteful use of water for TOILETS is a thing of the past! Everyplace else in the world has these composting thingies. I looked them up on the internet, I find them funnylooking, square, weird and possibly not as comfortable to sit upon like I'm used to, but I have to admit I'm intrigued.

It might be a good opportunity for ME, if YOU tried one of these systems and blogged about it for ME.

Feeling like Going Green? Want to keep up with the rest of the world? Want to try a bathroom with no chance ever of poop or urine ammonia odor? Feel like modernist remodeling Jetsons' style?

 

[chicmom]

Quote:
X2

 

[6chickens in St. Charles]

Quote:
X2

But it takes all kinds to make a world full of people.

Maybe expecting every male on this planet to be a proficient handyman is kind of like expecting every woman to look like Cindy Crawford? I know there are things in this life I can never be good at, but other things I can ROCK. Maybe she's with this guy for very good reasons, none of them handiness with plumbing? Nothing wrong with figuring out a life together as a team effort.

My 2 cents.