Beeps and Leaks
We love our house at Walking Rain . . . . except for the beeps and leaks.
The beep is the smoke alarm in the bedroom, which randomly goes off in the middle of the night. Not a low battery chirp, but a one-screech alarm in the middle of the night that wakes me from a sound sleep in a panic. Not every night, but enough nights that it is a real disturbance. I need my sleep.
It's unpredictable as to which nights it will happen, but highly consistent in that it only happens between 1 a.m. and 4 a.m.
Of course.
One night it gave three rapid screeches, and since all the house units are connected, they all gave the three beep alarm, reacting to the one in the bedroom. That woke up the dead.
These are the kind of alarms that have a 10 year battery sealed in the unit, so you can't replace the battery, you have to get a whole new unit. Apparently they're more than 10 years old and a failing battery makes the alarm go off at night when the house cools off and lower temperatures cause the weakening battery to malfunction.
(We did not think to ask how old the smoke detectors were when we bought the house. We got new ones and we'll have a handyman come to install them, and I pray that makes the 4 a.m. screech stop. It must stop.)
The leaks are more insidious, not such an adrenaline shock. But, ugh, water in the house.
The dining room windows and back sliding door leak when it rains hard, which we never knew for the first 11 months we lived here, because it never rained for almost a year. It's been raining all October this year.
Acrylic caulk was squished all around each leaking area during some dry spells this month, but when it rained recently, everything still leaked. The source of the water at the back sliding door is not the door frame, but a spot where the vigas were installed in the outside wall above the transom. It's been sealed, but there's still a problem.
The source of water coming in the dining room windows is unknown. Despite lots of caulk around the frames, they still let water in.
So much rain this October. Just overnight last night we got almost 2 inches.
The house is 18 years old now. The good news is that the former homeowners just put on a new roof, and the whole house was restuccoed two years ago. The heating and hot water were upgraded and the washer and dryer are new. The house was in good shape when we bought.
But beeps and leaks persist.
The beep is the smoke alarm in the bedroom, which randomly goes off in the middle of the night. Not a low battery chirp, but a one-screech alarm in the middle of the night that wakes me from a sound sleep in a panic. Not every night, but enough nights that it is a real disturbance. I need my sleep.
It's unpredictable as to which nights it will happen, but highly consistent in that it only happens between 1 a.m. and 4 a.m.Of course.
One night it gave three rapid screeches, and since all the house units are connected, they all gave the three beep alarm, reacting to the one in the bedroom. That woke up the dead.
These are the kind of alarms that have a 10 year battery sealed in the unit, so you can't replace the battery, you have to get a whole new unit. Apparently they're more than 10 years old and a failing battery makes the alarm go off at night when the house cools off and lower temperatures cause the weakening battery to malfunction.
(We did not think to ask how old the smoke detectors were when we bought the house. We got new ones and we'll have a handyman come to install them, and I pray that makes the 4 a.m. screech stop. It must stop.)
The leaks are more insidious, not such an adrenaline shock. But, ugh, water in the house.
The dining room windows and back sliding door leak when it rains hard, which we never knew for the first 11 months we lived here, because it never rained for almost a year. It's been raining all October this year.
Acrylic caulk was squished all around each leaking area during some dry spells this month, but when it rained recently, everything still leaked. The source of the water at the back sliding door is not the door frame, but a spot where the vigas were installed in the outside wall above the transom. It's been sealed, but there's still a problem.The source of water coming in the dining room windows is unknown. Despite lots of caulk around the frames, they still let water in.
So much rain this October. Just overnight last night we got almost 2 inches.
The house is 18 years old now. The good news is that the former homeowners just put on a new roof, and the whole house was restuccoed two years ago. The heating and hot water were upgraded and the washer and dryer are new. The house was in good shape when we bought.
But beeps and leaks persist.
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