dm gyiigmił sum waap?

So I'm house-bummed right now. As if the Stompersons upstairs weren't wearying enough, we just had a guy in to do a comprehensive inspection of all twelve units and the common areas. Verdict: Everything other people told you was wrong is wrong and, oh, here's the more stuff that's messed up, too. monshu said his head was going, "Kaching! Kaching!" with every new discovery. The best of the bunch so far: No one's been doing proper maintenance on the hot-water heaters so instead of being about halfway through their useful lives, they're probably got another year in them or so. ARGH! As monshu put it, we like the people in the condo association; it's the association itself we don't really care for. Their penny-wise decision to self-manage is looking pretty pound-foolish about now.

On the plus side, there's nothing wrong with our unit that our other inspector didn't already find. If she'd been able to cut into the drywall, too, then she could also have told us that there was only about an inch-and-a-half of fibreglass insulation downstairs rather than the recommended three, which explains why it's so damn chilly all of the time. The inspector (who, incidentally, was almost cute in a Rob-Reiner-meets-Kotter-era-Gabe-Kaplan sort of way) was also able to suggest a product for both evening out our basement floors and preventing damage from seepage that not one of the people we consulted when getting the den recarpeted saw fit to mention. GRRRR!!

So now my big question is: Given all of the money we're going to have to pour into the building now, what does that mean for our future plans? The more money you spend, the longer you need to live there in order to make it back. But if we're going to be here for the better part of a decade instead of moving on in 3-5 years, then how many more improvements are we going to have to make to the unit itself in order to make it comfortable for all that time? It makes my little head hurt just to consider it--particularly with my old place still on the market.

Happy-making bulletpoints

• The narcissi monshu forced for Chinese New Year are blooming beautifully. We have two bowls of them, one in the sunroom and one in the dining room, and both are quite fragrant.
• I finished Allende's Mi país inventado, which was enjoyable from beginning to end. There were at least half a dozen bits I would've shared with you all here if I weren't so lazy about entries these days.
• monshu roasted a leg of lamb last night. If that weren't awesome enough in and of itself, he says this is the first stage in a multipart plan to assemble the ingredients for cassoulet. Cassoulet!
• Now that typing up those numbers has forced me to look into the Sm'algyax dictionary/grammar, I find I really like the language. In fact, I've been trying for several days now to come up with another entry, but I'm not sure exactly what people want to hear about it.
• Over the weekend, I got to see three dear couples that I don't see nearly enough of, plus meet some interesting new people. Must see about hosting another get-together before long...
• I have foreign-language childrens books to do at work! Also, the promising new hire arrives today; can't wait to hit her up for Arabic help!