Mr. Fix-It Is Back

So here's an update on all the broken things, now that Marcus has been home from his surf trip for a week and a half.

The Bad :(

The master shower still has a leaking shower pan and it still looks like $4K to replace the pan and retile the shower, so we are continuing to use the kids' shower. We put in a claim with our homeowners insurance a few days ago, but they responded that only water damage caused by the leak is covered. If there is any water damage, we don't know about it, and it was not included in the preliminary $4K estimates. So it looks like we are going to be a one-shower family for quite a while.

The mortgage payment is still $75 more than before (because of escrow), although Marcus did valiantly pour over the paper work in an effort to alter that fact.

The AC is still not getting the house any cooler than 80 degrees from noon until around dinner, but we think it is probably just the unit getting old and having trouble cooling the house during the hottest hours of the day. Not eager for another very expensive diagnosis, the kids and I are just sweating it out for now :)

The Good :)

AT&T came and fixed the land line before Marcus got home from his trip.

We got back online with the new modem about four days after the original modem crashed.

Marcus called the company who made our Roku box and they sent us new one (since it was less than a year old). The new one, which happens to be an upgraded version with several new features, arrived in the mail a couple days ago, so we can once again watch movies on our TV :)

Best of all, it turns out that the Best Buy Geek Squad is as useless as Marcus thought they were, at least when it comes to video cameras. Marcus fiddled with the camera and diagnosed the problem. Then he ordered a simple part for $15 from Amazon (Best Buy wanted to charge $40 for the same part). He was right on the money, and now the camera will rewind properly and play back video again! It is good to have our electronics guru back in town :)

P.S. A few hours after I wrote the above, I pulled two dishes of cold food out of the oven, right at dinner time. They'd been in there for 40 minutes, but apparently the pilot had failed to ignite (even though the oven displayed a temperature of 400 degrees and the timer was going). We ate bread and steamed carrots (the only dish not in the oven) for dinner, and then Marcus spent the better part of the evening taking the oven apart and putting it back together. Thankfully, he accomplished in one evening a repair more complicated than the repair American Home Shield took more than two months to complete last year.

Now, if only all the other appliances and electronics could just hold themselves together for 23 more months...