Guaranteed Way to Stress a Late-Term Pregnant Woman

With two weeks until our due date, all the signs of a glorious day appeared during one our final quiet mornings.  Birds harmonized in the trees, our cat purred for attention, and sunlight peaked through the bedroom curtains…and our living room drywall.

So much cheaper than installing windows

When we moved to our house a few months ago, we learned about dry rot issues that should be mitigated easily, quickly, and cheaply.  On Monday the contractor removed siding to determine the extent of dry rot damage and found that termites had quite the buffet at the cost of a huge piece of wood that provides support to the corner of the house.  It’s nothing major; just something that prevents the house from sagging toward the corner.

I’m not trying to be dramatic, but this is a dramatic result of weak home structure

While testing and replacing this structural board, the workers banged a little too hard and cracked our interior drywall.  I couldn’t think of an easy way to tell my wife other than to say, “honey, there’s something you need to see over here and it’s not good”.  It wasn’t what she needed to hear after a day without running water while a plumber was also fixing a leak in our crawlspace.  At least the pipe will be fixed after the glue cures by the morning of day two.

We’re not quite ready to stage a game show at our hosue

The morning of day two came and the glue hadn’t cured correctly meaning no toilet, sink, or shower usage for another day.  We quickly learned the fastest route to our community building’s bathroom for those urgent times (when we have to brush our teeth of course).  Surely a pregnant woman in her final trimester doesn’t need ready access to a working bathroom.  It’s not all bad.  I finally had an honest excuse to leave a pile of plates in the sink and not shower – what a dream!

There’s a fine line between a drainage pipe for water and one for a warp zone

At the end of day two the contractor had replaced the structural board and siding and primed them to prevent this from happening again for a long, long time.  With another day of no water, we ate at a Chinese restaurant to try its food and enjoy its toilet and sink offerings.  By the middle of day three, another plumber swung by and fixed the pipe.  A day later the contractor fixed the drywall with patching, putty, primer, and paint.  All was good again.

My wife’s stress decreased (as did my hidden worries), we’re still pregnant, and we made plans to make no more plans for contractor home repairs – until our A/C compressor assuredly dies at the height of the summer.