Because of course there's a hitch.

[sistawendy]

Good Sister is scrambling to find an electrician to get all the outlets working in Mom's house. One of the contractors ran into an issue, and GS tells me that niece E had found non-functional outlets months ago at least. Oh by the way, since those are (mostly?) the original outlets from 1974, they look unattractively old. GS already had GFIs installed, which weren't there originally: if memory serves, they weren't required until 1975.

My sister has already gone through the informal hiring route — a co-worker of E's, as I recall — and found it wanting. There may be an open house this weekend, so the pressure is on. However, our agent is sanguine, and Good Sister says that interest in the place is robust.

But y'know, it just sort of figures that there'd be one last damn thing having to do with Mom and her house. I'm honestly amazed that GS limited her venting to maybe a minute; she's certainly earned more.

She wanted to know what price ranges I was willing to accept. I'm deeply unwilling to be a hardass because a) I don't feel like gambling with stakes this high, and b) I don't want my poor middle sister to have an aneurysm because I dragged this out too long. I don't know what Evil Sister's feelings are on the subject, but I'm pretty sure there are limits to her evil.

Comments

[m_cobweb]

I don't know if this sort of thing is more common to estates that we're told, or if we're just lucky.

[sistawendy]

I would bet you a new electrical outlet, uninstalled, that it’s pretty common. People have a tendency to die old, when both their houses and their minds aren’t what they used to be.

[m_cobweb]

I was thinking of estate obstacles in general, but given the number of upgrades our 1962 house needed when we moved in (the entire finished basement, with laundry room, was on one circuit!), I have no doubt that you are right about this.