Turns out I'm not much of a blogger, apparently. The thing is, when things get stressful I don't feel like talking to anyone at all, much less the untold...dozen of people who might or might not tune into this site.
And stressful it has been. I have an image of myself huddled into the fetal position for many months, being kicked relentlessly by big contractor-esque boots, uncurling just long enough to fling out checks for large sums of money in hope that the kicking will stop.
We're mostly through that part, thankfully.
We're down to the final stretch. The insulation and drywall are in. Walls are painted (except for two small areas that I keep re-thinking and repainting). About half of the flooring is in. Likewise the lighting.
Kitchen cabinets are mostly done, with one small bookcase unit and a set of cupboard doors being re-done. Next comes countertops, but not until the plumber sets the sink.
For good or ill, part of my reaction to that sensation of being kicked has been to try to do more ourselves. So, we've put in most of the "wood" floor ourselves and tiled the master bath and laundry.
If I could figure out why my phone has suddenly stopped transferring photos to my laptop I could show you pictures of the bookshelves we're putting in upstairs.
I suppose this is all just a bunch of minutia when the real question everyone's asking is, when will we be in the house?
Yeah, no idea on that one. There is the small matter of conflicting elevation surveys, that indicate how high we've built the house relative the flood zone we live in. We got one set of elevations from the surveyors many months ago. We built the house based on those measurements. Now they've re-surveyed and have come up with different numbers. Hmmm.
That will need to get resolved one way or another before we'll be able to get an occupancy permit. And how exactly that is resolved will mean we either need to make some changes or we're good to go, as-is. Lots of unknowns. We're awaiting word from the surveyors, who have taken yet another look at things and are calculating madly, I'm sure, trying to figure out where things went awry.
I sound quite calm about that, but that calm has taken quite awhile to arrive. It was preceded by much, much freaking out and hair tearing, as you can imagine.
The Berger family Christmas is supposed to be happening at the new house, so I remain hopeful that we'll be in by then. Plus, the heat in the trailer has gone kurflooey so at some point it's going to get rather uncomfortable in here. The space heater is holding up okay for now, but it's well above freezing. In another month I suspect we'll be quite tired of snuggling with the dogs for warmth.
Speaking of the dogs, they're doing well. Quirk has apparently trapped a skunk is a large woodpile in the front yard. He is now obsessed with the wood pile and can barely be tempted away from it. He hasn't gotten fully sprayed yet but there is a faint miasma of skunk smell in the air at all times. Dog + skunk spray + ...trailer?? NO. Hopefully his luck will hold and the skunk or skunks will making their stripey little way to another home.
Peach is just happy that we finally tackled the flea epidemic. We waged a full-on war and the dogs are MUCH more comfortable now. The trailer no longer smells of flea powder. It's all good.
I'll sign off on that happy note. I suspect my next post will be when something monumental happens, like we actually get to tick something major off the list. Like, electrical or plumbing or some such. Patiently, patiently, we proceed...
