Over a year?! in Going public

It’s obscene that it’s been over a year since I’ve written here. I check in to read daily, but I never kept putting off writing. Well, I guess the problem is mostly that I read on my phone and refuse to write on my phone. I’m on a computer all day for work but I work for Big Tech and I know they have the ability to spy on me. It’s probably illogical since they also have spyware on my personal phone, and I do all sorts of other personal things on my work computer.. but still, writing a journal entry seems like a step too far.

My page just froze and I had to reload. Is that normal for this site now? Is it a sign?

I think the biggest update I have to share from the past year is that I bought a home. Well, a townhome. Technically a condo. But it cost me over half a million dollars, so I’m calling it a home. It is two bedrooms + a bonus room, 3 full baths and one half bath, a tandem garage, is and 1600 sq ft. Built in 2004. It’s within walking distance of Lake Washington, and is about a 20 minute drive to Seattle.

It was a giant disaster in the beginning - a few days after I closed I hired a company to tear out the carpet and put in hard floors. A few hours into the job and I get a frantic text from the guy on site asking me to please come, there was a water leak. I instructed him how to shut off the water, but it didn’t stop the leak! I rushed over, and long story short, they had punctured a fire sprinkler pipe on the 3rd floor. Fire sprinkler pipes are HIGHLY pressurized and designed to dump a lot of water out very quickly, so when there’s a leak.. it’s not minor. Water rained down all three floors of my townhouse. The fire dept came to shut off the sprinklers, and then a specialized plumber came out to fix the pipe. The flooring guys had used unnecessarily long staples, and the pipe was also too close to the floor. It was a freak accident, really.

It delayed my move by like three months and cost (insurance) like $50k in damages. Luckily the floorer’s insurance accepted liability. I say luckily because throughout this process I learned that my homeowners insurance sucked ass and was woefully inadequate, so this whole process at least taught me how to buy a decent insurance policy that has enough coverage in the event that like, my entire place is destroyed or something.

But that was months ago. I’m now moved in and content. I fired the original floorers and got a new company, and I love the floors I got.

There have been little maintenance issues since I moved in, like the toilet running too much or the garbage disposal being blocked, that I’ve had to deal with. But I think I got the biggest homeowner headache out of the way in my first week of home ownership. The whole thing is still intimidating when I think about it too much, like I feel like there is a long list of things I should know about but don’t, or things I’m neglecting to do. It makes me wish I had trustworthy and helpful parents to call for advice. I just try to take it one day at a time.

This page is freezing constantly now?!
This felt good, I want to write regularly again.