House of Horrors

So it has been cold. In the house. Like, really really cold. I can see my breath sometimes when i wake up.

Our last gas bill was $470. As soon as I opened it, I called Johnny and she turned the thermostat down to 50. We got another space heater and began making good use of the wonderful electric throws that Johnny's mom got us for xmas. But it is still really cold. We started troubleshooting and it became clear that the house didn't have any insulation. there is 6 inches in the area between the upstairs and the attic and a little in the basement, but that pretty much covers it. We started calling contractors.

We found one and my lovely new co-worker offered to look themup on Angie's List for us, since she had a membership. They had all A's except a recent B in punctuality (which was an issue for me because I had a 9 am meeting). We agreed they'd come early and I was all worried about it. They came 10 minutes after 8, which was perfect. I signed the papers and left.

I got this cute message at 3:30 saying that they were all done and had cleaned up and everything had gone really well.

Johnny called at 4 saying that it was a disaster. She came home to broken asbestos siding patched with SPACKLING. Mud on the floors and insulation (kinda like those little peanuts) all over our stuff in storage in the attic.

WTF.

I called to complain and after much rigamaroll they offered us this: a $500 check or they'd replace the siding. The problem is that you can't really buy asbestos siding anymore. The people who lived here before moved the door, apparently, and replaced the siding area with wood siding in the same shape. So what do we do? We are going to talk about it and call them tomorrow. What jerks. I read that it is okay to seal the siding yourself to keep the harmful fibers from getting into the air. Then maybe we could paint it.

If you live in the area and are thinking of getting insulation, don't use these guys.

After all this, it better be warmer in here, dammit.