Saying goodbye to Tribiani

Even though I love our new house I will miss our house on Tribiani. This is the house we lived in after we were married (Steve had bought it 2 yrs before that) and the house we brought the boys home to. One of the best things about this home were the awesome neighbors. All the neighbors on either side and across from us are original owners and many had young children. Many afternoons you could find us sitting in front of my next door neighbor's talking while the little ones played together. Those who were in town even spent Christmas Eve together. And if I was in the middle of cooking and discovered I was missing an ingredient my next door neighbor could almost always be counted on to have just what I needed. I have to remind myself that I didn't move cross country- I'm only about 3 miles away! But still, these were the best neighbors.

We feel very blessed that our home sold as easily and quickly as it did- & that we'll even make a small profit. Certainly not as much as we could've a couple of years ago but at least we won't be taking a loss. We're VERY fortunate. The very first day it was on the market we got an offer from the very first person who came to look at it. But they wanted it to close Dec 18, exactly 30 days later, and we were not prepared to do that since we had no idea when we'd be able to move to our new house. Only a week later we got two more offers and we accepted one of those. When they came to do the home inspection it was discovered we had the dreaded Kitec plumbing and fittings, a brand of poly tubing. Our hard water here causes the zinc to leach out of the brass. Basically it corrodes the pipes and turns it to swiss cheese over a matter of time.

Back when homes were going up like crazy here many builders put Kitec in, unaware of the potential damage it causes. Every home in our development among hundreds of other subdivisions, had Kitec installed. It has turned into the biggest class action law suit ever. Our builder, KB, only settled on their case last week. If they follow suit of the other builders who have already settled, we will be reimbursed the cost. The total cost we must pay: $6,000. Ouch. That's expensive! But when we saw what they have to do we almost thought that was cheap.

Our home most likely wouldn't have sold unless we had the Kitec replaced beforehand. Our buyer didn't want to close on the house until after it was done and we agreed to do it and pay for it but told him we wouldn't do it until after we moved out. It takes 4 days, the water is shut off while they work, and there's probably about 60 holes in the walls all throughout the house. When we stopped by Saturday afternoon there were pipes hanging down ceiling holes and through the walls but I didn't have my camera with me. These pictures are from the 2nd day. Here are some pictures of the mess:

Kitec tubing- they use orange for hot water, blue for cold. All other pipings use red for hot.

Some of the holes in the family room

Laundry room

Downstairs bathroom- some of the holes

Only a few of the holes in the ceiling downstairs

It's amazing how quickly they do the job. The repiping company we used said they're busy EVERY day, there's such a demand for replacing the Kitec. Days 1 & 2 they cut the holes and replace the pipes. Day 3 a dry wall team comes and patches the holes up. Finally, on Day 4 they paint it and the holes are hardly noticeable. The work should be done tomorrow (Tues) and we could close on the house as early as Wednesday, but most likely not until Friday.

It was a great home to start our marriage in and our family but we have been very blessed to now own this home. Stay tuned for pictures and details about it.