Mercy, John. What a story! I went through a total interior re-painting and re-carpeting last fall, topped by a bathroom renewal due to plumbing problems upstairs and a rerouting of kitchen drains through the basement and crawl space to a new hookup. In that little job, the water heater blew up one morning so I did get a free one with labor costs added. It is my house and I like to keep things up but this got a little ridiculous and terribly nerveracking. Best to the two of you. We will probably get kicked off this list for being off topic. marilyn ----- Original Message ----- From: "John_Justice" <[email protected]> To: "BLIND COMPUTING" <[email protected]> Sent: Sunday, February 21, 2010 9:29 PM Subject: [Blind-Computing] WE'RE FINALLY READY!
: Hey group, : I wouldn't wish this on my worst enemy. Linda and I are both totally blind. We just finished packing up our personal belongings in preparation for the painting contractors and carpeting people who will be arriving next week. The thing is, we have accumulated a lot of stuff in living here for the past twenty-four years. When a painter comes in, they have to move everything and that means record cabinets, stereo equipment, books, VCR tapes, cassettes, all of our heavy coats, etc. etc. it took us quite a while to do it all. : Even now, after two full weekends of filling cartons, I still have our sound system to disassemble. That will mean labeling every single cable so that I know how to put it back when they're finished. : Not every room in the house is being painted this time. Our kitchen, hallway and hall closet, living room and upper hallway are being done. This house is so old that the corners of the walls are starting to crack and some pieces of plaster are falling down. It isn't as awful as it sounds. On the corners of walls made of sheetrock, the builders usually use something called a corner bead. It's a metal plate which extends from the floor to the ceiling and protects the edges of the sheetrock from being damaged. But as a house gets older, it settles and the thin layer of wet plaster which covers that beading, dries out and cracks. Almost every single corner in this entire house has the same problem but the ones on the main floor are the worst. We live in a hillside home. that means the house is built with an additional floor at the rear. Yu can come in the front door through our main entrance and the kitchen will be on your left. On your right, is an alcove which holds the stairs going up to the second floor. if you walk straight ahead, you come into our living room/dining room area and there's a door on your right which leads to a second set of steps going down. This is a relatively modern home so both flights of steps are right above each other. if you go down this second set of steps, you are on our lower floor. there's a half bath down there, a laundry room and a big family room where I'm now sitting. At the end of the family room is a double glass door which leads out onto the patio at the rear of the house. : The front of this floor, where the stairs come down, is actually under ground. If you look at the back of our house, you'll see the patio, then two more floors above that. From the front, there's only one additional floor. : There are a lot of hillside houses in Pennsylvania because the area is so hilly. : : Now back to the renovation. We had to fight the landlord tooth and nail to get this work done. We ended up filing a complaint with the Human Relations Commission stating that they were treating us differently because of our blindness. they were, there's no doubt about that. We are blind so they didn't figure we'd need new paint or carpeting and they refused to do any renovations. On top of that, they tried to imply that we had refused the work. It was an awful mess! We had to bring in our own contractors to do the work. But in the settlement, we got them to agree to spend up to twenty-five hundred dollars on repairs, painting and carpeting. We got smart there and used people who had worked for the landlord's agent. In that way, we could be sure that the work would be done right. The contractors would have us to deal with and, if they messed up, the landlord's agent is a really nasty character. I have had several fights with him in the past. It doesn't take much for this guy to go to four letter words, yelling screaming and threatening. : : We had an old gas stove that was about ready to blow up. The pilots were so badly corroded that they wouldn't stay lit and the oven changed temperature as much as ninety degrees at any given time. They sent in some so-called gas appliance expert who claimed that the stove was fine. So we brought in our own licensed professional and he condemned the stove in writing. The township building inspector sited the landlord and gave him ten days to replace the stove. We got a new one but it's the cheapest one they could find. At least it's a new one and it has those electronic lighters, not the old fashioned open pilot type we used to have. : : The same thing happened with the refrigerator and they tried to give us an apartment sized one instead of the standard nineteen cubic foot model we had. I forcefully reminded the landlord that we were entitled to the same equipment we had before and that right was protected by law. That sent him off into another one of his famous screaming fits. : We did get the right refrigerator. : : But the biggest joke of all was our driveway. When it was installed thirty years ago, the contractor had done a terrible job. As it got older, the center of the asphalt sank until there was a huge hole in the middle of the pavement which measured about eight inches deep in places. We begged and pleaded to have that driveway repaired and they refused. But the building inspector wrote them a letter informing the owner that if one of us was injured by falling, the owner would be liable for all kinds of damages. : The driveway was resurfaced about two weeks later. : : : As you can imagine, the relationship we have had with the landlord hasn't been all tea and roses. but we can't afford to move. If we could, we'd be out of here. Those two flights of steps are hell for my wife. Her knee surgery didn't work well and she has to climb up and down those stairs. It causes her a lot of unnecessary pain. We like the house but we could do without those blasted stairs. : I wanted to have a stair climber installed but Linda won't hear of it. : they aren't very safe for blind people anyway. : : Well, that's our story my blind friends. It has been one hell of a ride up till now. : I hope that those contractors get in and out of here with the least possible trouble. : : . John and Linda Justice : With guide dogs Jake and Zachary : PERSONAL E-MAIL: [email protected] : John and Linda Justice : With guide dogs Jake and Zachary : PERSONAL E-MAIL: [email protected] : For answers to frequently asked questions about this list visit: : http://www.jaws-users.com/help/ For answers to frequently asked questions about this list visit: http://www.jaws-users.com/help/
