This morning I woke up to a DJ on the radio informing me that today, the third Monday in January, is officially dubbed “Blue Monday”, so proclaimed by some expert because it is statistically determined to be the most depressing day of the year. It’s winter, it’ dreary, the holidays are over, the bills are piling up, etc. etc. Funny, I didn’t feel the pain, and believe me, I'm extremely receptive to the winter blues.
When one embarks on that long treacherous journey to build one’s custom dream home, cost overruns are a given. A developer friend of mine once quipped that he could build a perfectly good $300,000 house, for $450,000 … if he was careful. One of our many cost overruns was for electrical service. I remember that, after the demolition of our old cottage, we had only gas generators for several months until the new service was installed. Because we were living on site in the beginning stages of construction, the first sound we heard every morning when the workers arrived was the sound of those gas generators firing up. Eventually, Hydro One, as they call the electrical utility up here in the Great White North, came in and provided us with a proper electrical service, and therein began our first series of “surprises.” First, we found out that we required an enormous amount of electricity to power the lap pool in the basement. That required a beefed up service which, of course, costs more. Ca-ching ca-ching. Then, an unscrupulous electrician charged us about four times too much to run what amounted to a big extension cord to our trailer from the electrical panel, leading us to wonder for what else he’d overcharged. His theory seemed to be that we were building a large house, so we could afford to overpay for everything. This convoluted logic seemed to resurface quite a lot during the construction process. We fired his ass. In came electrician number two, who was more expensive, but the builder assured us this was a cost he would absorb. Long story short, he did not, so this was an added cost associated with bringing electrical service into the new house. There were many other added and unanticipated costs associated with the electricity, some of them the result of things we added.
After the service was in, we started getting monthly Hydro bills, but they seemed awfully low. We read the meter every month, but the bills were always the same, and always very low. Shauna assumed we just had a very energy efficient house, but I knew that one day we were in for a big surprise. Last month we got an electric bill more in line with what I expected to pay, and this month, we got walloped with an enormous bill. It turns out that Hydro One had made a big mistake which had something to do with how they calculate kilowatt hours from the meter. They had been vastly undercharging us for over two years, and I was afraid that they would try and recoup all their lost revenue. Thankfully, they did not, but they did back charge us to when they discovered the discrepancy, in early August. In short, we just got five months worth of our actual electrical cost sent to us in one big January bill. Happy New Year! Still, it could have been much worse. We had electrical heaters going in the house for the better part of two winters, and then add on all all the electrical costs associated with construction to boot, none of which is included in this bill. Hydro is sending us figures on what our real costs should have been during the period in question, while assuring us that they have eaten that cost. I’m so gun shy from all the surprises that I still don’t fully believe they will forgive this debt. By the way, if you call Hydro to inquire about your bill, good luck understanding the explanation. The formula for computing your usage is so confusing, with so many different variables, multipliers, and charges, it is almost impossible to figure out what you should be paying.
I could not believe the devastation caused by that big earthquake in Haiti last Tuesday. They are still digging out from all the bodies and rubble, and the video I‘ve seen is shocking. All those collapsed buildings … and estimates of one hundred thousand or more casualties … that’s such a huge number! Apparently, there is little regulation on building construction in Haiti, and many buildings were not built properly to withstand a substantial earthquake. Perhaps San Francisco would have fared better. I’m not sure anything would have prevented the destruction caused by an almost direct hit Magnitude 7 earthquake. So far America has committed $100 Million in aid, but that doesn’t include private donations. Didn’t Haiti get nailed badly during the last hurricane season as well? My heart goes out to those people.
Written by Jamie Oppenheimer c2010 ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
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