About three days ago Jeff and I received our first natural gas bill and were shocked to see that it was for $330. We had only budgeted a maximum of $200 a month and this was going to be a real problem if the bill was going to continue to be over $300. We started asking everyone we knew in the neighborhood what their gas bill was and every single person's response was between $110 and $125. It was clear that there was a big problem.
Then, last night we had two families over for dinner and during the discussion about our gas bill, one of the men asked what kind of insulation we had in our roof. Jeff and I said we had never looked up in the attic (we've only been in the house about 6 weeks!). After the families went home, Jeff disappeared for a little while. When he reappeared, he announced that he had found our problem.
NO INSULATION IN THE ATTIC. What? How exactly does that get overlooked? Jeff said their is not one drop of insulation in the attic. Nada, zip, zilch. Shocking. A county building inspector had come to see the house and had said the house passed all the codes (OOPS! FORGET TO CHECK THE ATTIC!). The inspector even wrote a note on the bottom of the inspection, thanking the builder for doing such a nice job!!!!! Somehow, someone completely forgot to insulate the attic.
So Jeff and I called the builder and left a message. Of course he will fix the problem, he is a good guy. We were actually relieved to finally know why we had gotten such a high bill and were hopeful that everything would be just fine after the insulation was installed. Jeff and I sat down in the living room and then......
We heard a CRACKING sound! It didn't take us long to look upward and lo and behold.... we have THREE cracks in our ceiling, each about 5 feet long. They are caused by the temperature differentiation between the house and the cold attic. It was all Jeff could do to stop me from crying right there. I can't believe this is happening!
I called the builder back and left a message, telling him he has to come over this morning. It makes me very sad. It is one thing to have there be an omission in the house, but it is quite another to have that omission damaging our house.
So, back to being awake at 4:30 in the morning. I was laying in bed and was awoken by a big popping noise. Immediately I knew it was another crack in the ceiling. I couldn't sleep until I came out here and found it. Sure enough, crack number four. I feel sick.
2 comments:
Oh no!!! HEather, I'm sorry this is happening to your brand new house. It looks sooo cozy and beautiful, I would also have been REALLY sad in your situation. It's a bummer, its happening now during the Holiday SEason.
WE hope that everything will go back to normal and that it'll get fixed. We love you and miss you guys.
sad story. I just wish we had an excuse for our outrageous heating bill. Last year it was up to $180 for heat only in our same half of the duplex. It's getting near that already, and Ben keeps it very cold in there. I very sorry to hear about the cracks. :(
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