Du Na Na Na - UPDATE

Bringing you news you can't use regarding my house, we turn LIVE to Jess for an update.

Hi and welcome to insanity. As you can see, there has been no forward progress here. The Town called last Friday to tell us that since we have a small stream across the street and fall under the durisiction of the Environmental Overlay District (which by the way is only my road) and our house is not 200 feet from said stream, we have to go through the Conservation Comission.

What does this really mean? More red tape, more paperwork to fill out, maps to make, descriptions to write, more filing fees, more certified mail to all the abutters, more time at the copy machine, and one big trip to a comission meeting where a ruling will be handed down, and hopefully, at that time, a permit.

I hate this. Yes, we must protect our wetlands. But this is not a new construction or a major landscape change. This is not a dock, pier, or swamp filling. We're simply picking up the house, digging out the dirt, pouring a foundation, putting the house back down, and filling dirt around the new foundation - making the place look pretty again.

There should be an amendment created specifically for small projects and landscape jobs such as this.

Doo Bee Doo Bee Dooo

When we last left Jess, our heroine drug of choice, she was locked in a permit battle of wits as she made phone call after phone call. Checked the mailbox time and time again. With no success.

Contracting is the best job evah! Why? Gee... you don't have to call people back, you don't have to answer your phone, you don't have to be in your office - EVER, you can make customers wait for months on end, you can charge up the wazoo, and you never have to answer anyone for it.

And second in behind contracting is building permits person as the second bestest job evah. Because they have nearly the same rights and privilages as listed above.

Grrrr. I get more and more angry every day the permit doesn't come in. Every day I don't get my call returned. And if you've been listening in, you know that's a hell of a lot of days.

So now - poor Mike and I. We can't start because we don't have a permit. We're out of heating oil, but can't fill the tank if we're about to take it out. (So we've been putting in 5 gallons daily to get us by - thank god we're good friends with the oil man.) We have no money to do any other work to the house while were waiting for this one job.

I hate this. On top of it all, we decided to get married in May at the house, pending this job being done. Considering that the process will take a month - they have to hurry up or we'll miss our deadline.

Does no one understand?

Happy VDay! How 'bout a BJ?

Ok, so forgive me, I haven't had time to write because I've been so cheezed off. Granted it's only Tuesday. Let me start over again. No permit on Thursday. I made a special trip on lunch break to check the mail on Friday - still no permit.

Thinking of all the productive work I could be doing over the weekend, I called the inspection office. The permit babe's excuse? Some dude was out sick allll week. (shaking head in dismay, Jess sighs as she remembers how much she hates relying on other people for this sort of BS. Oh well, she ponders silently. Nothing anyone can do about it.)

I guess everything turned out ok though because as you may have heard, New England got hit with a Blizzard over the weekend. A real Norm-Easter, private joke. Sorry. Anyway, with wind gusts up to 50mph, temperatures down in the 'teens, and snow piling up 8 to 14 inches... not the ideal time to be jackhammering out a cement floor or taking down a chimney, or any of the other prep work we have on our palettes.

So here's Tuesday. I've been trying to get the foundation dude on the phone, get a contract from him. But all I got when I called yesterday was the answering machine. I wonder if they had a post-blizzard snow day. Perhaps. I wish I could have one.

I'll keep trying. Hopefully the permit will arrive today, or tomorrow, or maybe the next day...

Two Weeks Today

So here I am, waiting for the day to be over so I can run home and check the mailbox. Will the permit have arrived? It's been 10 days to the day. I haven't had any calls. I haven't heard from the foundation guy - our housemover's on vacation this week, but if the permit comes, I'm supposed to call Kirk over there at the company.

I guess if it hasn't arrived, I'll have to call town hall tomorrow, you know, just to nudge any info out of them. Make sure our contractor got all his info in on time.. I would just die if I had to wait any longer.

I want to start jacking out the mud room slab floor. I want to wrip down that terrible chimney/heater vent whatever it is. I want to see that house up in the air. Like - next week. Like Monday. Like I've been dreaming of since day 1.

I can't wait to get home to the mailbox. It all depends on you now boxy. Gimmee some good news to end my week. Some luck for once.

9 Windows

When did we put those new windows in? Month uno? No, maybe month dos or tres. Whatever month it was - it was a damn long time ago.

And even sceptics like my parents have to admit that we put them in correctly, because despite the lack of flashing and trim on the outside, despite the harsh winter we had last year, we never had any wind or water leaking inside.

But now that the house is about to be lifted, Mike and I decided that the flashing and trim NEEDED to be done. I didn't want the home inspector to show up and say, "Uh, what's up with the windows? I'm going to charge you a billion dollars now and reject your permit."

That would suck. So we had our carpenter out there yesterday and got all 9 of the new windows done.

Finally - I can check this one off my list.