Forever and A Day

Yes, that's how long it's been since I've posted. Bad jess, bad. I know. I've been very depressed for the last couple of months. Work has been hard, good, but hard. A lot of late nights. Money has been short. Vehicles were lost. Mistakes were made. Engines blew up... Times were tough. The holidays hit us hard - like a cinder block... with bricks tied to it.... encased in cement... and large rocks.

Hardly anything's been getting done on the house, much to my dismay. Mike has been rebelling against my honey-do list and, honestly, I haven't been pushing the envelope because of the whole money/exhaustion from work thang. We've done some yard work in the unseasonably good weather. Our carpenter did our garage roof when he was supposed to be installing my stairway. And then I couldn't afford the stairway... poop head. We put up the pendant lights in my office, trimmed out 2 windows in the living room, and bought a door for our bedroom.

I was getting more and more angry with our housemover every day that passed without a call from him. He actually got in touch with Mike around x-mas. Thank god he didn't talk to me because I was pissed at him. You know, the whole broken promises, unreturned phone calls, extra long wait - see previous posts for more details. Anyway, he told Mike he WOULD do the job after Jan 1. Jan 2 Mike called and left him another message.... as usual, we didn't hear from him.

A couple weeks ago I called him intending to leave a message along the lines of: "Can you telll me what the obstacle is? If someone was going to pay me thousands of dollars in cash to do a job, I think I'd jump on the opportunity. We want you to do this job, what is the problem?" So I dialed his shop number - it was a fax number. To me, this was the last straw. I grabbed the phone book and started making calls to every housemover in southeastern MA. I was more than pissed - I was a woman on a mission. 2006 is my year to get this thing done, I thought. Ånd I want it done NOW.

Unfortunately, two weeks later I hadn't heard a damn thing from any of these guys I called.

Then, just 2 days ago, something unexpected and miraculous happened.

Our housemover we'd been trying to get out to lift our house and pour our basement for nearly 6 months called Mike and told him he wanted to drop a machine at our house. Mike was completely dumbfounded. "Well, we don't have a permit or a contract," he said rightly. Bob replied, I'll get you the contract, you get the permit.

When we got home that night, a Bob Hayden building movers sign was on our lawn. I was extactic and grabbed the video camera for the first time in months to film it. This was a milestone. I could have died of joy.

Mike went to the town hall yesterday and got the paperwork for us to fill out.
Last night, there was a pile of steel beams, concrete blocks, and wood blocks on my front lawn.
This morning, I delivered the paperwork back to town hall. Within 10 business days we'll have our permit, they said.

Work on the house is about to begin anew! We have to take down the old rotted chimney on the back of the house. We have to jackhammer the mudroom's cement block out. We have to disconnect the electrical, plumbing - everything so that the house can be raised off the rocks and dirt.

We're moving out soon because of course, we'll have no heat or running water during the procedure. And, if all goes well, in a month's time, we'll be living in a house with a basement. So no more ants, no more dirt smell, no more snakes, no more freaky crawl spaces! And finally I can get the litter box out of my mudroom, where it has been stinking up the entire house!

I am so ready for this.