Squawk Radio

As many of you already know, this last year my husband and I built our dream home in Washington state. We’re on a hill overlooking a lake and the Canadian Rockies, the house is just what we wanted with a large kitchen, a library, our master bedroom and bath on the main level, an office for me on the top floor and an office for him on the bottom floor. The woods are all around and wildlife abounds. It’s gorgeous, we love it, we’re finally getting to the point where we only have a few more things for the contractor to do … and stuff is breaking faster than we can keep up with. Oh, just little stuff like, say, THE HEAT ON THE MAIN FLOOR IS OUT.

Now we lived in Texas for twenty-one years and we’re used to heat. Washington is magnificent, but it’s not warm. And the repairman can't come to fix the furnace until tomorrow. Of course not. What would be the point of that? We've already paid them for installation. (Yes, yes, I’m bitter.) Of course we have a furnace for each level, so it’s not like we’re going to freeze, but isn’t the point of having a dream house being able to use the kitchen without shivering? And sleep in your bed without a thousand blankets?

We do have a gas fireplace in our great room (we call it a great room because it sounds pretentious) and in the library. The fan on the fireplace in the library doesn't work. Because the people who put in the fireplace in the great room "forgot" to put in the fan, we assumed they'd "forgotten" to put one in the library, too. They insisted that we have the electrician check the power. Because, of course, they'd put the fan in and not told anybody that there was no power to it. So the electrician is SUPPOSED to be coming to finish up a bunch of stuff and get electricity to the fan in the fireplace in the library. Please note - we still don't know if the fan works. But since we were cold last night we cranked up the floor heat in the master bathroom. Um, toasty warm!

This morning it is off. We didn't turn it off. It's just off. We talked to the electrician about checking that, too. He hopes it’s just the thermostat because otherwise it’s wiring in the wall. Or the heater in the floor. You know, under the tile.

What’s your frustration today?