Good lord, Kate. I don't even know where you go from there, except to just live through it. Which you shall, with aplomb, at least a little. I just wish I could magic away the stress and anxiety.

My sister has totally fallen in love with this Kluwe dude: [link] -- sarameg's not the only one who didn't expect a football player to be saying anything eloquent, I guess. Tsk, tsk.

Thanks for the sympathy, guys. Expect a lot more whining along these lines in the days to come.

Holy shit, Kate! Wasn't the house inspected before you guys bought it?

Of course it was inspected, and I tagged along and asked a bunch of questions and it seemed to me the guy did a pretty thorough job, but apparently, what the fuck do I know? There was no crack in the ceiling at the time, so whatever caused it might not have been visible when he inspected it. Also, of course, he had me sign a contract that stipulated that we couldn't hold him liable for anything he didn't find that later turned out to be wrong. Not that I want to start suing people -- that's pretty much the last thing I want to do, except pay thousands of dollars to fix the damn thing myself.

Oh man, Kate. What a fucking mess! I hope you can laugh through it at some point. Because holy shit.

Geez Kate. Good grief.

Has the sale gone through already? Because I think you can do something about it if it hasn't.

Oh, no, Kate. How much of the ceiling collapsed? There have been a lot of foundation failures around the country because of the weather extremes -- having the soil get very dry and then very wet tends to move the foundation. Still, I would have thought there would be signs around the foundation. Even though he's not liable, the inspector may feel guilty enough to come back and help you figure out what went wrong.

We closed last Friday, David. If we hadn't, we'd be totally out of there.

Ginger, it's most of the ceiling in one bedroom, and one corner of another bedroom looks like it might be starting to buckle. The emergency contractor guy who came out today thought it was because the drywall in the ceiling had been improperly installed. If it does turn out to be a problem with the recent renovation, I guess there's a chance that we can get the seller to pay for the repairs, since she's the one who made them. I sincerely hope! But I'm not holding my breath.

If the seller had recent repairs made, there may be a warranty on them.

I hope it's the drywall. That's probably the cheapest fix. What did they do, I wonder. Not use enough nails? My friend whom you met has probably dealt with every kind of contractor known to man since her house burned. She might have someone to recommend.

If the seller had recent repairs made, there may be a warranty on them.

Oh man, here's hoping!

I hope it's the drywall. That's probably the cheapest fix. What did they do, I wonder. Not use enough nails? My friend whom you met has probably dealt with every kind of contractor known to man since her house burned. She might have someone to recommend.

Yeah, it sounds like they didn't use enough nails or screws, or not the right kind, or something along those lines. If your friend has any local recommendations, we'd certainly welcome them. I spent some time searching through Angie's List on Friday but everyone I called (all the ones I found with decent marks) was booked up for the next few weeks at least, and we kinda need this taken care of soonest.