Who Hates the Andersons?

I do, I do!

Well, with the basement done and the yard leveled, we've got ur standard big 'ol pile a dirt in the front yard. Problem is - we can't afford to get it trucked away, and the free fill sign just isn't doing anything for us.

So Mike went over to the Anderson's house on Sunday - you remember the Andersons, right? Those nasty neighbors who only abutt us in the way backyard who nearly foiled this basement project by standing up and bitching about their mother's well during the conservation committee meeting? Yes, I'm getting all angry just thinking about it.

They were angry because when we first bought the house we cut into their property by accident. (ie, we trimmed some brush - should've sent them a landscaping bill) They complained that they had to pay for a survey - that they didn't tell us about. They complained about a bunch of tires in our backyard that we inherited from the previous owners.

In short, they love making my life a living hell. But I did send them a nice apology card and $200 for the survey - which they never cashed. And we cleaned up all the tires at a cost of $300, which they never said thank you.

Anyhoo - Mike goes over there to ask them if we could put the dirt in the backyard. It's clean fill - wouldn't effect the 90 year old mother's well. (Which, by the way, our neighbors told us, has old tires stacked against it. So much for concern for keeping your own yard clean - but it's ok to complain about the neighbor's yard... sure, I get that one.)

What did the Andersons tell him? That our house looks like Sh*t. Now why would you tell that to someone you don't even know? It really burns my blood how just plain cruel that is. Especially when you see people working on their house, sweating it out every day to make it better. Putting in everything they have. Putting in late hours.

Mike was polite. I'm glad I wasn't there - I would have just broke down and died. I can't take that level of just plain I-Hate-the-world-ness.

They told him, "we can't stop you if that's not conservation land."

So I wrote a long email to Heidi over at the Bourne Town Hall conservation office today. She was really nice when we were going through the permit process. I hope she doesn't think I'm just trying to get back at these people. The word is the Anderson kids are waiting for the 'ol lady to die so they can subdivide her land. Just wait till they try and build a house in my backyard - that's where I'll get them back. But for now, I just want to get rid of the dirt and improve the condition of my backyard.

Bird Poo

The floor looks awesome! There were two or three places where the concrete obviously dried a little too quick when they tried to smooth it, causing yuckiness, but those places are at the back of the basement anyway.

And the baby birds nesting in the beams (actually right on top of a lightbulb) have already pooped on it. Isn't that gweat? Hopefully they'll be grown and flown out soon because I don't need to be cleaning poo for months on end.

I hope this means we can start reconnecting plumbing and heat this weekend.

It's Not Just for Rocks Anymore!

Congradulate me everyone. As of this morning, they began pouring the basement floor. As of tonight, the basement will be sooo close to being complete, that I have to call it 100%, despite the fact we don't have our windows in yet or all the plumbing and heat re-re-reconnected.

Within a day I guess it'll be ready to hold my oil tank, furnace, and any junkidyjunkjunk I need to store down there. Isn't that the coolest of beans? I'll be glad to get the new oil tank out of the back yard and the furnace from out the garage. Plus, Mike's friend Hal is trying to get us a new furnace and hot water tank. (We previously had a tankless system, which sucked.)

Ok - I'll tell you the whole story. After no-showing on Friday, the floor dude came by our house on Saturday and told us $1700 for the job. (That works out to be 860 for the cement and 840 for the dude.) He told Mike he could do it TODAY, which was a major major plus, so we just told him to go ahead and do it.

7am this morning they started. I even got to see/film the cement truck and cement going down the shoot, through my front basement window. So awesome, I have to say.

It's so funny - as I was writing the checks to the cement man and the floor dude, I said to Mike, "This is both releaving and depressing." Releaving that it's almost done. Depressing that, well, I'm poor.

We're not that poor really... just, no more big purchases. Gotta refinance soon... especially with all this added value to the house. Hee hee!

Concrete Analysis

Mike, bless his soul, has been trying to get a hold of floor dudes for a good week now. Our first choice - the bold man who showed up at our house one day and offered to do it. Now, I know this may be a little riskay - but for the right price, I'll give anyone a chance. Plus plus, he couldn't do any worse of a job than we would do all by our selves.

Anyway, he hadn't called us back despite a couple phone messages. That is, until yesterday. He called Mike back and told him he could pour tomorrow... which is, today. Mike told him, of course, give me an estimate first before you do anything. Here it is at the end of the day and I'm wondering what the verdict was.

Imagine if the price was right and Mike told him to go ahead and I got home and it was all done?! How awesome would that be? Once this floor is poured we can get our new oil tank, furnace, and water tank down there and start plumbing it all. We're definately doing the 2nd heating zone in the upstairs this time around. I'm not tearing all the plumbing apart a THIRD TIME! Cause that's just insane.

And then we'll rebuild a floor for the mudroom and get my durn washer and drier hooked back up... and be able to enter/exit from the side door again. I want to get a nice set of french doors in there. And I want to turn the double window into a bay window with a window seat. I think both those would look totally bright and airy and nice in theres.

May have to wait on all that though. After the basement floor and the mudroom are all set, I have to worry about trimming out the inside windows and doors, plus base and crown mouldings. And finish the hallway. And the hardwood floors, don't cha know.

Then there's the bathroom.

Then there's the exterior to worry about - which, I AM worried about because I want to ditch it ASAP. It's fugly. Plus, I need to get a demo dumpster for all the basement construction trash and I want to trash the oldy moldy siding at the same time.

I guess that sounds like a "next" doesn't it? Now that the basement's done, every other project is at the top of my list. Sucks that all the money's gone. I've just got to get used to doing everything little by little again.

Cat-5

Ahhh, the beauty of the internet. A luxury that Mike and I have been without in our own home since the beginning.

When we did the electrical, we had our electrician friend install a Cat-5 high speed internet outlet in every room. (Minus the bathroom - I didn't want to be tempted to surf the web in my bathtub. Not a good idea.) A friend of mine asked - Why don't you just go wireless? My response to that was, While the walls are off, I'm going to put in ALL I can.

And I'm glad I did. I recommend it to everyone. Overdo it. Lotsa outlets, phone/cable/internet in everyroom, recessed lighting, closet lighting, cabinet lighting - wire for it when the walls are down. You can get the fixtures slowly. Also - put in lotsa breakers - so when you blow one, half the house doesn't go out. Ok - there's my electrical design advice. A little bit of a tangent.

So we had cable and internet wired in back on 7/8, but we still didn't have the ends crimped onto the Cat-5 cables, so... obviously couldn't plug them into the router. Mike and I lacked instructions on how to crimp the cables into the plugs... that's the reason for the delay. We even bought the special Cat-5 crimping toolkit - but it didn't come with instructions on the order of the wires into the plug.

So, last night we got out the 'ol multi-meter and figured it out. Once we knew which order the wires went into the plugs, putting them on was a breeze. (The magical order for us was white with an orange chaser, orange, white with a green chaser, blue, white with a blue chaser, green, white with a brown chaser, and finally - brown. But your order may vary depending on your plugs and wiring... so don't try it at home without double checking.)

Of course, once that was done, we were all excited about visiting the magical internet at home for the first time! Unfortunately, it didn't work. Not because of the wiring. Because for whatever reason, I need some stupid password or something from the cable company. The software they gave me to install wouldn't work on my operating system either... stupid people. Who uses OS 9 anymore anyway? Geez.

I'll see if I can get it sorted out tonight. Maybe if I take the router out of the equation it'll let me on. We only have one computer at the moment anyway.

No Ways

Well, last weekend TJ, Mike, and Hal finished up all the remaining support work in the basement. The new beams, the new columns, and most of the pea stone dispersement... if that's a word. At this point, the floor can be poured.

I've elected Mike to call the floor man... mostly because I'm sick of trying to catch up with these contractors. And they all treat me like a girly girl. And they're impossible to deal with. Plus, Mike met this floor man when he randomly stopped at our house and said he'd do it for a low low price... which would be cool. So why should I call him? I don't even know him. There - I've rationalized it.

It's also come to my attention that people read this blog. Which is, I suppose, a good thing, because I had a very nice dinner and a very nice time at the drive-in movies over the weekend - thank you very much, loyal reader for your contribution to my sanity.

If any others of you want to contribute to my sanity, just leave me a nice happy comment.

Now, back to the show.

Mike has decided now, after talking to Hal, that he doesn't want to do radiant floor heat. I guess the lime in the concrete eventually corrodes the copper pipes and you have to inject silicone into the entire system. That, plus the cost and the difficulty of repairs kinda sealed the deal. When we finish off the basement in the next few years, we'll put in baseboards like we did in the rest of the house.

Speaking of which, we should spend that radiant heat money on the second heating zone in my upstairs that still isn't done. Winter is coming fast. Just a thought.

Also, after dispersing the pea stone, we have a lot of it leftover, which is awesome, because we wanted to create a gravel driveway in the space next to the garage where we park the boat. Now I just have to make my stone retaining wall to hold in the dirt. (Right now it's just a gross washed out 'ol sand hill.)

Does anyone out there in BlogLand know how to make a rock retaining wall? I'm using regular old rocks... my old fieldstone foundation. Do you sculpt the dirt, then stack the rocks, put concrete behind them to make them stick, and then pour dirt in to hold them up? What's the method? Does anyone know?

This House is NonCompliant

It's all gone. $35000. Goodbye. I knew I couldn't get used to it always being there... that during the course of this job, at some point, it would be gone. And now that point has nearly arrived. A couple more payments to TJ, who's been re-supporting the house with new beams and columns - and we're spent.

It's very depressing. The Home Depot bill is also out of control. I'm frustrated that I can't even afford to get the two other ceiling fans we need to keep the living room and office cool during these hot summer months. Nevermind like... going to see a movie or out to dinner. Forget it. I'm lucky if I have 99cents for PastaRoni.

Ok - so I'm not THAT badly off. I can afford to eat and pay the bills. But I wasn't kidding about the movie.

I know you can't put a price on the structure of your house. And throwing rotted supporting beams out the basement windows was very theraputic... it's just the last thing we need to do before the floor is poured.

Hmmm... I wonder if Mike's called the floor man yet.

Time Box

It's been a while. I know. It's been crazy at work and I've been trying to get happy about everything because I couldn't ask for more on the homefront.

We moved back in right after we got back from NH. We just hooked up to the new water main and had cold showers. (And let me tell you - colder than cold. I don't recommend it.) Luckily, a friend of ours had a small electric water heater that he let us borrow for free. So now we've got that hooked up. It only holds 6 gallons, but if you hurry, you can get your whole hot shower in the 2 or 3 minutes of hot water.

I finally talked to the foundation dude about the windows, and he's going to deliver them the next time he's up in our area. I paid the remaining $17,000 we owed to the contractors... and have been feeling quite poor ever since.

Meanwhile, Mike hired our friend TJ to replace all the rot around the sill and do the final levelling-out of the house, which he did last week. The new PT looks great, although a few more beams still need replacing... $$$$...

Then, over the long weekend, Mike and I shovelled dirt back into the basement and levelled the floor to footing height. The next step is putting in 3 inches of pea stone, which we ordered on Monday....$$$$...That should be delivered today.

After that, we have to do the radiant heat. Which, I have no clue how we'll afford.
I'm worried I'm going to run out of money. And I can't zap our savings completely. What makes it even more difficult is the fact that I want to refinance by September. Get out of my adjustable rate (not set to adjust for a few years, but better to be rid of it now) and my stupid PMI.

So... I also want the house to appraise for a good value. I've got a number in my head that I'm striving for. I think if we can get a lawn going by late August (did I mention we live in a dirt pit?) and if I can redo the wood floors, plus a few small touchy uppy things here and there - we'll be golden. But blocking that is so many brick walls... Most of all, the money.

Oh yeah, I didn't even mention that after the radiant heat, we still have to contract the floor dude to pour the basement floor.

I Got My Fill

On Monday Mike finished filling. We lost a little momentum with his trip to NH last weekend. And this week, we're losing a little more as we head up to NH tonight for a loooong weekend. So, Mike really wanted to get the fill done by Monday - and he did. The front looks fabulous. No more stupid hill - just a nice, graded surface. Well, it's not perfectly graded. And there's still a bunch of concrete and other trashy junk out there from construction. But at least I only need a step stool and a cindar block instead of a ladder to get into the place.

The back and sides still need more grading too, but they're basically done. Maybe a little more and a little less dirt here and there.

The next step is actually to put dirt back IN the basement. Amazed? I guess they have to get the floor up to footing height. Then they put in 3 inches of pea stone. I should say we... we're going to be doing that. Then we'll install radiant heat and... after that they'll pour the floor. That reminds me, that floor guy hasn't called me back yet.

The water department did get my new pipe and meter in - and where we wanted it. Wow! Yay! And they filled in the trench too, which they didn't have to do. So that was nice.

Wooo - I'm pooped. Between long shifts at work, early morning meetings and shoots, late nights digging and getting packed for this weekend, and general stressed-outed-ness, I am truly exhausted. I'm hoping I can sleep on the way up north.

Water You Waiting For?!

I think I discovered WHY originally, our water main was not buried. (If you recall, it just lay in our old crawl space - right on top of the cold dirt instead of under it - for about 25 feet. With wind blowing throught the old fieldstone foundation, it froze right up the winter before last.)

I talked to the North Sagamore Water District on Friday morning, and a nice woman told me she'd try and have the guys go out to the house to have the water hooked back up that day. I was all excited. A few nights previous Mike and I dug a trench for the water main under the front footing of the house, though the basement, to the back wall where we wanted the meter, so all they had to do was lay the pipe back in and hook up a new meter.

Well - about a couple hours after I talked to the nice woman, a man called me to ask where the old meter was. I told him it was in the back of the basement and that there were a couple ladders at the front of the house to get in. He then said, "Can we just hook up the meter at the front wall there? You know, somebody dug a trench through there leading back." He was very rude in tone. I replied, "Our water heater is going to be on the back wall, we'd like it there." He got all huffy and said he'd have to lay down some more pipe (as if it was some sort of big deal) to go the extra 20 feet or so. I asked again if he could do it. He replied, in the same rude, seemingly angry tone, "I'll see what I can do."

I was so amazed! Our plumber friend Brian said they usually dug a trench for the water mains, so that's what we did. It didn't seem like a big deal to lay some extra pipe. I guess we just have a lazy jerk over there at the water department who isn't too happy about doing his job right - and to the homeowners design. I'm guessing it was the same guy who just plopped in the old water main without burying it.

At least he did what I instructed. The water main is in and on!

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Ew!

I look like I'm in that "Ew, sticky!" pose, don't I? Well, I'm glad I'll never have to tar a foundation again in my life. I've been thinking about writing to Mike Rowe of Discovery's Dirty Jobs and suggesting he tar a foundation. That is dirty!

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Like Buttah

Consistency's good!

It's ME!

This may be the first picture of me ever on this blog. Weird huh? I'm just usually the one taking the pic. But Mike's mom was helping us with the insulation yesterday, so she was happy to snap some shots. Here I am stirring the tar as Mike warms it up with a map gas torch.

Tar'R Us

You can see in the sideview how textured the tar looks. It kinda swishes up on itself as it dries.

Tar and Tar Again

Here we are, filling in the spots we missed on Sunday. The tar dried considerably faster than we thought! Our foam board insulation wouldn't stick! We tried sticky-ing it up a bit, but it wasn't enough. We ended up backfilling a little bit rather than just insulating the entire house to keep the insulation from falling off.

Let's See That Butt Again

Celebrate Good Times Come 'On

And here's Mike, doing the classic celebration dance. (Even though we still have to touch up tar in a few spots this afternoon - as you can see the bottom of the wall right there is completely covered. That's because those parts still needed to dry out.) Our friend JP was helping us out that day and I said to him, you'll be able to see this on the internet! He said, I saw it in person, I don't need to see it again. I had to laugh. But for all you who weren't there - here is the reasonable facimillie.

That new pirate movie about foundations... TARRRR!

Here's the finished product! In all it took us only 3 hours to tar the entire house. I slopped the stuff on with the small broom and Mike spread it and carved it with the scrub brush.

I was pretty worried at first because the bucket said "Do not use if threat of rain within 24 hours." and it was drizzly on Sunday. But we were determined to get this done so we could begin insulation and fill this week. So we braved the weather and did it. Luckily, our carpenter friend called and said he'd seen it done in worse weather before, which made me feel better.

Brought to You by Henry!

The illustrated guy on the bucket of tar made it look sooo easy, one swipe and it's covered. In reality, spreading tar is like spreading molassas mixed with silly putty. It's thick and it wants to stick where you first stick it. We made it easier by heating it up with Sterno and a map gas torch. Let me tell you - that made it a whole lot faster.

But when we were all done, Mike wanted to make it look simple for all you internet lovers, so he took up a pose like the bucket's illustration.

It's Down!

THE HOUSE IS DOWN!!!! Pictures to come!

Bob had a cancellation and sent all his guys to our house instead! Mike told him he hadn't shimmed it level yet, and Bob said he'd have his guys take care of it as a favor. Awesome. Awesome.

Now let's see if I can get the water on...

A Tiff

Mike and I got in a bit of an argument last night at the house. I got out of work late and he was frustrated with working alone. Turns out that he made a mistake when putting on the PT (pressure treated wood) on the foundation for the sill. He wouldn't really elaborate. Plus he had lent out his air hose and some other tools that he needed.

I chimed in because I was really worried about the windows and the cracks and everything else noted in previous posts. Mike was frustrated that we weren't getting enough done. I agreed, but pointed out that we together decided to take the holiday weekend off from house work.

It's hard to cope when tensions get high. You just have to try and keep going. We'll both be there tonight, finishing that sill. I hope it goes well.

All Cracked Up

I'm still depressed. A long weekend in the camper did little for my mood. Hate to say it. I'm getting paranoid that Bob's just going to put the house down. Just plop it right down on the level foundation, causing the un-level house to crack up all over the interior, if it survives at all. The kitchen may fall of if that happens. They didn't pour the foundation to follow the house's level like we thought they would. And we're not sure how to shim the house once it comes down!

And then there's the basement windows. I paid $200 for each - but did that include a window or just a hole for a window? Am I going to have to put the windows in myself? Pay for them myself after I already paid $200 for holes? These are the questions that keep me up at night.

Meanwhile Mike's ready to tar the thing. I'm rather scared of that too - we have no clue what we're doing. I've had a lot of faith in Mike and his mad skillz thoughout this house re-do, but it's not like you can un-fill the fill once it's filled, you know? Plus, it's got to be inspected. Grrrr.

What's really scary - I'm going to have to change the tape in the time-lapse VCR soon. That means it's been two months. Unbelievable. That's twice the time we thought it would take. Typical construction, I should have expected it. You always hope that the contractor is good and nice and timely.... but things never work out like that in this business. And I'm ok with that... except I'm ready to move back in. I don't care. No water - no shower - I don't care. I'll pee at McD's down the street. I'll get Poland Springs delivered right to my door. I'll shower.... somewhere.

It's driving me crazy. I have so much to do this summer and half of it's being held up because the house is being held up... literally.

I'm thankful for my basement. I would do it again 500 times over for what it will mean to me. But for pity's sake - I want it tarred and I want it filled and I want it down in two weeks. I want it hooked back up in three. Let's see if I get what I want.

Yard Stick

No progress. The house is 10 feet in the air, the basement is just sitting there - hardening every day. Not much else can be done, unfortunately, until the concrete has cured enough for us to tar it. Who knows how long that's supposed to be. I haven't heard from the contractors at all.

I was in the house yesterday. I'm starting to feel a little depressed. I want to go back. I miss my kitchen and cooking. I miss the awesome couch and my red red bedroom. I miss my edit system and I'm totally sick of the long drive to and from work. *sigh*

Mike was able to buy a big bundle of pressure treated wood from the tool man. He's been cutting and drilling it so it will fit atop the foundation so the house can sit on it. Pretty cool - we got a good price.

We've been doing some landscaping too. Trying to build a rock wall with the rocks from the old foundation - which is tougher than it sounds. Weeding. Cleaning up.

I'm hoping to purchase some plants as soon as I have some money. At least I can work on the right hand side of the yard while the front is still under construction.

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Press Release Blurb

I figure a house up in the air is pretty coo - so, I'm going to send a press release to a bunch of the local and regional papers. Here's a cross section for you home skillets to check out....

But having the best in the business meant waiting in line over nine months. Even when the contractor was finally ready, building permits and conservation committee approval had to be obtained. Not to mention demolition of the old chimney and concrete front steps, and all necessary plumbing disconnections. "And we had to move out," adds Jess.

Though some choose to live in their homes during lift and construction, Mike and Jess did not want to live two months without heat and running water.

Within days of moving out, the house was airborne, supported by steel beams and crossbeams on towers of wood called cribbings. "I'm still amazed at the whole process," reflects Jess. First, a backhoe digs several access holes around the house to the depth of the basement. The cribbings are then built within the holes and the steel beams are inserted across the entire length and width of the house. Smaller blocks of wood are placed on top of the beams to keep the house level. Then, slowly, a series of jacks placed inside the cribbings lift the beams. Once the house is high enough for the escavation and foundation companies to work under, the cribbings are built up to support the lifted structure and the jacks are lowered.

"There's always that little bit of doubt and you think, what if it falls, what if all the walls crack, what if all my stuff is ruined..." Jess says, smiling. "But the structure is so strong. I don't think any of that would ever happen."

As soon as their house was in the air, Mike started digging. "This area is all sand and rocks," he explains. "No clay. So it's easy to dig even without a big machine." But to finish the dig-out, the couple called on their friend Nick Mitchell of Nick Mitchell Landscape and Construction, who completed the job in a single day.

And just a week after that, Allcape Foundations began work on the basement.

Bog Juice

The forms are off! That was quick, huh? I visited the house late last night after working late. Mike was down in the basement... hey, I can actually call it a basement. Pretty freakin' smurf.

Anyhoo, he was smoothing out and distributing sand for the floor that we still haven't contracted yet. We talked for a bit about our final design of the basement, things like rooms, boilers, stairs, doors from indoor to out, trap doors from upstairs to down, and windows. Turns out that a couple of the window holes are below grade. Mike is very against window wells, so we may either block them up, put in plain 'ol glass instead of windows, or grade the backyard a little differently. There's still time to decide.

In the meantime, Mike thinks that we have to tar the walls. That makes no sense to me. I would have thought that would be included in our basement job. I asked him to call Ernie regarding that and the windows. Apparantly, we also have to insulate the exterior walls - outside between the dirt and the concrete.. didn't know that either. All I hear is cha-ching cha-ching. So, if we have to tar the walls and insulate ourselves - that's our goal for this weekend.

Then we have to find out when we can backfill. Then Mike has to make friends with the Andersons and see if we can put excess fill in our hole of a backyard. I hope we can reach an agreement about that because boy... it would just be awesome for a lot of reasons.

Oh, and did I mention we have to figure out how to set the house down level? Yes, they poured the basement level - but the trouble is - the house is NOT level. So, if we just plop it down on the foundation, all our walls will crack, doors won't close, etc. All because all those things weren't built level. The house needs to be shimmed. But how? That's a question Mike needs to ask Bob Hayden.

So, in summary, Mike needs to make some phone calls. And me? I'll just worry about paying the bills right now. Paying the bills and getting rid of the cottage cheese of my thighs. Any suggestions for high-effectiveness workouts?

Pour It On

Concrete.... ah, so inspirational. I think I'll write a poem.

C is for cookie...

No wait, that's not it. Nevermind. I guess I'm not inspired after all. What else is new, right? Ok, seriously folks, the concrete has been poured into the forms. Woo-hoo!

Of course, my mail box, silt fense, and haybales were decimated by the cement truck, which came through the front yard. I hope Mike was able to stand up the mail box so at least I can get my mail. I don't think they'll be motivated enough to get out of the mail truck, walk over to the poor box, and put in the mail.

Ernie from Allcape called Mike and asked about the windows. Mike just told him to put one where every beam is - that totals up to 8. At $200 a pop, they're not cheap, but we'll thank ourselves later. Ernie bought them, they were there after work yesterday evening, and they blocked out for them in the concrete. Too sweet.

Forms

As of yesterday - forms are up. They hadn't begun pouring yet... perhaps it was the pouring rain that's been holding every body up for the last few weeks... Hopefully they started that today. I can't wait to check it out.

With the forms up, we could finally judge the height of the walls. And they are perfect. The house is going to sit at least 2 feet higher than it did previously, and we'll have enough room for, well, anything downstairs! It's so exciting. It's almost a basement. They only thing I'm concerned about is the windows... they don't seem to have blocked out for those yet.

But they told me the windows would be where the beams were, so that adds up to a lot of windows, which is fabulous in my opinion. Of course, they haven't told me where and when to buy the windows and in what dimensions... so, I have to worry about it and the pricetag attached. I doubt that they'll buy the windows. Though that would be cool if it was included in my price... yeah right.

I won't worry about it. The foundation guys told me not to, so I'll try. I'll really try because I do trust them. And if all continues at a good jogging pace, we'll be basement-bound by June 1st.

Goin' Mobile BEEP BEEP

Mobile blogging ROCKS! Except for cell phone fees - damn them. Now I have to upgrade my MMS package. Oh well - check out how high the house is now! It's a little scary, it's so high.

The form truck has been at the house all week now with no signs of activity. That means more waiting. I hate waiting. At least Mike and I have our slide-in camper to work on... we always have to be working on something. Weird huh? I guess we're just a couple work-a-holics.

A Lil' Bit Higher Now

It's another 6 days of rain, but still, I'm confident that work will progress at the house. We saw our friend Greg who works for All Cape Foundations over the weekend and he said, yes, Bob has to lift the house higher so we can get the forms in.

Yesterday Mike went by the house and, sure enough, Bob had been there and lifted it higher. I haven't seen it yet, but I can't wait to. Hopefully the foundation will be complete by next week. And another week after that, the house will be able to be set down on it.

Also, Mike rented the chipper this weekend and we spent all Saturday stuffing branches into it. I have about a zillion pricker scratches to prove it too...

A footing under the house is worth 2 in the bush

I visited the house yesterday after a few days of too-tired-to-drive-by-on-my-way-home-from-work syndrome. Footings are poured. Up until this time, I had a totally different image of what footings were. I was thinking they were just corner peices. In fact, footings outline the entire foundation, ie, the shape of the house. Which, looking at it that way now, makes more sense.

They hadn't taken away the forms yet, and to be honest, the concrete still looked moist. We've had a lot of rain over the last week though, so I'm not sure if that has anything to do with it. We're supposed to have a dry weekend, so maybe they'll be back on monday to start on the rest of the pour.

Meanwhile, Mike did rent a chipper for this weekend, so hopefully we'll be able to get rid of all that brush we took down last weekend, plus dead stuff in our hole of a back yard.

That gets me thinking about our fill again - I mean, maybe if I send those Andersons a nice card with $300 for their troubles, they would let us put the dirt from the escavation down there. It's all clean sand and rocks, after all, and could in no possible way that I could imagine, hurt the old lady's well. I know they're just mad at us for cutting trees and brush on their property accidentally - and I guess, rightfully so. But if they have any heart at all... or greed. They'll accept an apology and money and let us put the dirt down there.

I hate to be disliked. I've put it off so far because I dread talking to them. I dread them saying something else horrible, mean, and offensive to me.

And so it begins...

I dropped over at the house last night to see if they had started the foundation yet. At the end of last week, our house mover had repositioned one of the cribbing towers so that the footings could be poured and the foundation people could start on Monday.

And sure enough, last night there was a whole mess of wood and string at the bottom of the hole, which I suppose helps them determine the depth and level and all that good stuff. I didn't stay too long to look - and I certainly didn't want to go down and take the chance of messing up anything. It looked totally cool though. Mike and I are so excited. We can't wait to get back in.

This weekend we took down some more trees in the yard and stacked the brush and wood. Hopefully this weekend we can get a chipper to get rid of it all since burn season ended on Sunday.

Oh - and more exciting news for you fans of weird art out of normal stuff. We took our old heating oil tank, cut the top off, and cleaned it out to make a super cool burning container. We'll eventually hinge the top so it can be opened and closed easily. I'm going to paint it too and name it "Trogdor, The Burninator." (If you have no clue what that means, see www.homestarrunner.com and the Strong Bad emails.)

The Cape Cod of It All

Mike had a little freak-out when he realized that I hadn't told the foundation guy we wanted an 8 foot ceiling. And of course, I was stressed out from worktime business and bitched back "Then you need to take some initiative and call him yourself!" Which, wasn't very nice, I know. He's also busy at his work.

But, he knew that I hated talking to contractors and gave them a call earlier this week. Well! Just to give you the whole scoop, I had left them a message at the end of last week because Ernie (the dude) asked me to leave Nick Mitchell's phone # on his office answering machine so they could chit chat about depths and footing holes and blah blah blah.

So I left him the message - "Call Nick Mitchell at XXX-XXX_XXXX. I'm not sure if he knows my name, he's been working with my fiance, Mike Banis. So you should probably use that name when you call."

Turns out, one of Ernie's guys is a good friend of our friend Andy, who we've hung out with and rode motorcycles with before. He recognized Mike's name on the answering machine and put in a very good word for us! And so, we're getting our 8ft walls for an amazing amazing price. I'm not sure if that's the same price he quoted me or lower... but either way, that's super cool! Plus, they're starting ASAP.

And by ASAP, I mean as soon as Bob jacks up the house just a teenie bit more... which will be once he's finished some other jobs. Maybe he's waiting for our first check to arrive... I sent it to him Monday and he hasn't cashed it yet. Biggest check I've ever written and it's only $6,000! The remaining four I'll pay him when the house is down safely, which I'm sure it will be - hopefully within two or three weeks!!

Jess Dirt

Well, with the house securely in the sky, we finished digging out last weekend with the help of our old friend and landscaper/contractor/dude with machinery Nick Mitchell. He brought Dusty and a small CAT to the house on Saturday around 8am. By 5pm, the digging was finished. Mike and I hung out all day to take pics, help Dusty, burn some junk wood, and provide pizza and CocaCola.

I'm thinking I may write a press release and attach some of the pics and send it out to the local papers. Nothin' like a good 'ol fashion house raisin' here on Cape Cod... I know it happens all the time, but I've never seen one pictured in the paper. Might be a good story.

Anyway, the foundation guy Ernie from All Cape Foundations is out at the house today. (I passed his trucks on the way to work, isn't that cool?) He gave me a price of $10,900 yesterday, which was perfectly on point with my budget. I'm so excited. He didn't tell me how long it would take, but Nick estimated that if all went well, we'd have a foundation by Friday or early next week. Too cool. You can already tell how awesome it will be by standing under the house.

So cool. here's some more pics. I'll write more details despues de trabajar today... yes my spanish is bad, I know.

If you've been thinking about making the switch...

Ok - I should have knocked on something yesterday.

Our good friend and carpenter Chad stopped by the house randomly yesterday while Mike and I were at work. That eager beaver wanted to start replacing beams - with the house up and everything!! He called Mike yesterday night to express concerns about our other friend Nick Mitchell doing the remainder of the digging. Nick's company has done foundation holes, but not for lifted houses. He strongly recommended that based on his lack of his experience, we hire someone else.

Well that got us thinking that maybe we should. I mean, even though the house is pretty stable - a hard knock with a big machine could do some damage. Even with a nice insurance check, we would be devastated to lose the house or have to re-do work that we had already done inside. So if Nick hasn't started today, Mike is going to turn to another friend of his who has apparently worked with our house lifter before.

Making this all the more tricky is the foundation dude, who's coming on Mon Tues. I'm not going to delay him - even if that means paying a little more for the escavation. (How much more could it be? We already dug half of it, right?)

We'll see tonight. I'm working late so I'm sure I'll be dying of anticipation around 7 or 8pm as to what the verdict is.

And if you're wondering what's going to be next after the house comes down... hold on to your respirators gang - the asbestos siding is coming off! And who better to give us an estimate than the local ASBESTOS MAN!! Du duh duuuuhhh!



Seriously, his company is called "Asbestos Man." I love that. More to come houselovers. More to come.

Progress is Progressing Nicely

Well, everything is going along just swimmingly. Weird huh? I better knock on something. It was an Easter weekend of digging dirt and moving cinder blocks for Mike and I. The basement's about halfway dug now. Our escavator is coming tomorrow or the next day to finish the job. (We'll let him dig around the rigging and figure out the depth and level of the thing.)

I talked to the foundation peeps this morning and they'll be able to come out next Mon or Tues. Pretty sweet. Of course, I still haven't gotten anything in writing from them. I know I need to do that. They need to come take a look at the site too. I want to specify - yes, I want windows. No, I don't want the underground kind - sunken I guess you'd call them.

Meanwhile, I'm almost enjoying life in Brewster. The dogs are tolerable and haven't eaten my cats yet. Plus, I was able to clean the place and it feels so much better when clean! And of course, I wanted to clean it as a thank you too. Then there's the cable... mmmm.... cable. Makes me eager to get it activated in my own house.

More to come!!

Pics At Last!

The front of the house - this is before we really started digging. Now there's a ramp down right between those two front windows and most of the dirt is gone.

Here is the back corner of the house - on steel and shims, up in the air!!

Here's a closeup of the wooden jenga-like tower that holds up the steel beams.

Incredible

Ahhhh... know how it feels to wait forever for something, work so hard for it, and then have it all fall into place? Well, it may be early, but that's how I feel now. The house nearly ready to be lifted - access holes go all around - and the time lapse camera is setup to record it all - the whole process.

I set up the cam last night out back - would have preferred a front view, but I needed power from the garage to run everything and a place to put the VCR. It'll still be awesome!

I know I haven't gotten those pics up yet. I wasn't able to sneak away yesterday. Definately this weekend I'm going to get some shots.

In the Hole

It's started! I can't believe the lift of a life time has started! I'm going to try and sneak away at lunch to snap some pics of the progress. I'm so excited... but I'm also pissed at myself for not getting the time lapse cam up in time. I'm going to do it tonight after work... I just get worried that the thing will already be off the ground by then!

Anyway, let me elaborate. The first step in the house lifting process (after all necessary permits and disconnections of course) is to create several access holes around the house using a backhoe. This was the state I found my house in last night. Piles of dirt, a big machine, and holes on either side of the house. It was amazing!

Mike and I still had a couple things to do, however. First Mike got out the trusty skid steer and, using the forks, took out the concrete front step... all in one go. It was heavy - I thought the whole machine would flip down the front yard from the weight. Luckily, Mike knows how to run these things and that didn't happen.

We also put up a silt fence - per order of the conservation comission. Home Depot didn't have hay bales, so we couldn't get those. We get out of work too late to go to a home and garden or other smaller construction store... which sucks. Hopefully the comission won't come by and freak out. We'll get it up ASAP... I hope those neighbors don't turn us in either... I won't think about it.

Then, we reinforced one supporting beam near the back of the house that was really rotted. It should really be taken out, but that won't be able to happen until the house is down on the foundation and well supported. I felt pretty nervous just being under the house - I mean, what if it fell or shifted? That would suck considering the contractor's insurance probably wouldn't cover something that was our fault.

While underneath, we disconnected el poop pipe (ie, the septic pipe) and capped it off. We also nailed up no trespassing signs and boarded up the one open entrance to the house. (Though the mudroom - cause it has no floor now because it was previously cement. Remems?)

So, as you can see, work has in fact begun, but the work is not over for us. Water won't be disconnected until Friday unless the contractor can expedite that process... time shall tell. It's only tomorrow, after all.

The Time Is Now, And the Place?

Well - despite me being stupid, this weekend was quite productive.... Yes, Friday night I got completely sloshed and was hung over on the couch, sick as a dog for 90% of Saturday. Mike was furious, seeing as how he had to finish cleaning the cement out of the mudroom himself... plus the weight of it all broke the skid steere bucket in half. Believe me, I wasn't too happy with myself either.

Luckily, by Saturday evening I was right as rain again and started packing up all our belongings for the move-out.

Sunday we really cooked! Especially with the added daylight of the spring forward time change. Mike began fixing the bucket while I packed up the rest of our neccessities. Then, we did one last load of dishes and shut down the furnace. We hooked the old chimney up to the skid steere and pulled it down in two peices. (Some incredibly cool video there by the way.)

We then used the lawn tractor trailer to carry the chimney peices in back of the garage to pile up. The large peices we dragged out with the skid steere.

Once that was cleaned up, we disconnected the water heater and took it out of the basement with the skid steere. (More cool video.) That thing is heavy! It actually fell off the forks once.. but only dented a little. It was stressful, a little dangerous, but we made it safe 'n sound.

At the end of the day, we packed up the cats and moved back into Mike's parents' house. I'm grateful to be able to stay there... I'm just worried about the cats... stupid dogs. Not that I don't like dogs - but these two are untrained and very rude if I do say so. And I'm worried about the cats peeing on the carpet - I don't know what it is about their carpet that the cats don't like - but it happened last time we lived there. Maybe just dog smell... anyway

Then, last night Mike's friend Hal stopped by and they got the oil tank out of the basement. I had a meeting soooo... no cool video this time.

Tonight Mike's going to disconnect the septic and Friday the water department is coming to shut off the water.... after that, it's just the hay bales and silt wall... hopefully we can do that on Wed.

This is the Way Uh Huh Uh Huh

So day number 0 has arrived. We're not ready yet. Not that I've heard from bob... but I don't expect to. I'll have to call him on Monday morning and say, "We're reaaddy!" because hopefully - no definately - we need to have everything done by Mon.

That leaves a lot for this weekend. I mean, a real lot.

Finish clearing out the mudroom with the skid steer
Take down the chimney and clean that up
Move the trash hut
Disconnect plumbing
Empty and remove oil tank and water heater from basement
Pack up cats and other necesseties
Bring said stuff to Brewster
Do any dishes or cleaning that will require water
Setup time lapse and test

(Oh yeah, I forgot to tell you guys I got a time lapse VCR and a survelliance cam coming to record this whole thing! Isn't that freakin' smurf?)

Wooo - I'm tired just from making that list. I hope we survive. We might need some help....

Sweet Cuppin' Cakes

Mike wasn't feeling well last night, so nothing got done. I was a little p'terbd... weird word, isn't it? But I can't slave drive the man! He's worked so hard on that mudroom floor already. Plus, we get home so late, I feel bad about running the skid steere or tractor to move the rubble out of the house and back into the yard... damn work schedules.

We almost need to both take a day off to get stuff done... but both of us are jammed at work. Speaking of which... back to transcribing television spots for tomorrow's sales meeting.

T-minus 2 days

Captains Log - Monday

Just another manic muffin... er, Monday. Feels like Friday never really turned into Saturday and Sunday. There was no weekend, just one loooonnng night. I tell you.

Work continued in the mud room. Mike hammered away. Our friend Tom made it over on Saturday to help hammer and to provide some much needed muscle. He and Mike brought load after load of cement pieces out of the house and piled them next to the garage. Meanwhile I cleaned out our new home away from home slide in camper.

Sunday we made a run to the dump and then spent the afternoon rearranging vehicles in the driveway. Sounds very easy, but not so when you have a slide in camper, boat, truck that doesn't run, two car garage with only one door and a '69 camaro on one side and 3 motorcycles and an ATV on the other.

We put the truck that doesn't run in the garage, then moved the slide in camper where the truck had previously been. We stuffed all the bikes around the truck in the garage, then toed the boat to Mike's grandparents' house so it wouldn't get in the way during the house lifting.

Now, all that may not sound like a lot, but it's like those word puzzles where you're the peasant and you have 2 sacks of grain and a sheep that you need to get across the river and there's a wolf involved so you have to do it without the wolf eating the sheep or the sheep eating the grain in a certain number of boat trips - it's confusing and takes a million years to figure out. That was my weekend.

I'm nervous about getting everything accomplished. I want Bob to start ASAP and I know that a whole lot more needs to happen before he can.

We have to

finish the mudroom floor
take down the back chimney
put up the hay bales/silt wall
make all necessary disconnections to plumbing
get water shut off
remove oil tank from basement
remove hot water heater from basement
move out

Will it all get done in time for the end of this week? Time will tell.

What's that Number again?

T-minus SIX and counting down.

Foundation guy called me back yesterday and told me not to worry, he'd take care of everything. For some reason, I'm not worried. I'm confident that once that house is up, Bob will do whatever it takes to get the foundation poured ASAP so he can put it down and get on with his life.

I'm sure he's sick of me calling him by now anyway.

T-Minus SEVEN

Seven days to go... you guys know I don't count today as a day right? Ok, just makin' sure. Last night Mike really started venting some house lifting/conservation comission frustration on the mudroom floor. We got about half of the plywood up by cutting into it in small peices with a sawzall and jigsaw and then prying them up.

Then, we started in on the cement floor underneath. Mike took several whacks with a sledgehammer to see how easily it would break. Turns out - very easily! The concrete is thin and crumbles like Crumb Cake... mmm, Entennmen's Ultimate Crumb Cake. So crumbalicious. Anyway, my job was to put all the concrete peices into the wheelbarrow. We had sledged out about a 4X4 foot section when my friend Kylene and her beau stopped by - so that was a welcome break.

They suggested renting an air hammer from home depot instead of a jackhammer like we were originally thinking. I guess they're super cheap to rent and do a great job on thincrete like this. We may look into it for tonight.

Meanwhile Mike hired his muscly friends Tom and JP to work for us on the weekend - we provide beer and pizza, they provide some lifting. Then we'll really get this floor out of the mudroom AND the concrete front step - which is going to be a thick one, I tell you.

Meanwhile meanwhile - I called the Foundation place again today. Told them I needed an estimate for their part of the job. I want to make sure everything is OK and Official. ie - I want signed contracts. I don't need to lift this house up and then find out that the foundation will be something crazy unaffordable like 40,000 or some other rediculous number. Hopefully, this place will actually get back to me today... what a novel idea that would be.

Business Days

It strikes me that I don't really have T-minus 5 days now, because those 10 days probably refer to business days. So I wanted to correct myself. T-minus 8 days. No matter there's plenty to do. Tonight, Mike and I are going to take the carpet out of the mud room and start taking up the plywood subfloor. This will lead us straight to the concrete one we have to jackhammer.

Yaya! Making progress on the homefront.

Population Tires

Ever been to Strong Badia? No? Go to www.homestarrunner.com and check out the Strong Bad emails. Anyway, our population of tires was at a whopping 40. We inherited them all when we bought the house, and until recently, due to high dump costs, were unable to get rid of them.

But on Friday, inspired by the bitchiness of our neighbor's daughter, I contacted the local "We Get Rid of It" company (www.wegetridofit.com) and scheduled them to come on Saturday afternoon.

So Saturday morning, Mike and I got up super early and drove straight out back with the Dodge. We threw in tire after tire until the truck was full, then drove up, stacked the tires in the driveway, and drove back for another go. When all the tires were stacked, we pulled out all the junk metal and other trash back there we could find.

The We Get Rid of It people came on time and took all of them for the low low price of $300. This saved us over $100 at the dump's $10 or more per tire price tag. Then on Sunday we took the rest of the metal trash to the dump for $9. Not too shabby for another couple hundred pounds of junk. Plus, while waiting for We Get Rid of It on Saturday, we got a burn permit and took care of 90% of the brush we had piled up from last year. Thank god.

I tried to rake a little. The leaves are still everywhere and it looks like crud-o. Now if we could just grow some grass... the backyard still looks like a sandpit from when the septic was done 2 years ago. Poo. Hopefully soon.

Sunday night we began cleaning out some of the furniture from the mudroom. We rearranged the guest room so it would all look nice in there. Now it's just the washer/drier and carpet in the mudroom. Oh, and the locker. All that will have to be moved this week too so that cement floor can come out.

Move out is next weekend - we're so excited. Disconnections will be made and cement will be jackhammered. T-minus 6 days until lift off.

Old Ladie

I was so nervous going to the Comission meeting last night. Mike and I dressed up a tad bit to look like upstanding young citizens and arrived 20 minutes early in case it was a "first come, first served" type situation. Turns out, we were last on the Determination of Applicability list, but still, that only meant we would be there until 7:30 when Notices of Intent started.

It was good to observe some other people plead their cases - all were approved with minor stipulations. That made me feel good. The comission was fair, nice, and reasonable. They moved efficiently from case to case. Then it was our turn.

We got up and I described the project - house lifting, fieldstone foundation is in disrepair, yada yada yada. They listened. The conservation lady, Heidi, gave her site report and agreed that the job was reasonable, only requesting we set up haybales and a silt wall. Reasonable requests that we expected. We agreed to that.

Then, this crochety older pudgy woman got up and said she had some concerns that the fill would be dumped out back and adversely effect her mother's backyard and water well. She said we cut brush in her mother's yard and continued to cut even after they told us not to - to the point where they had to pay a surveyer (which cost oh so much money) to re-mark the property. She complained about the tires and other trash in our yard.

I felt dizzy. I was going to faint. I sat down. I saw all our hard work, money, and time swirling away. I felt like crying.

When we first bought the house, Mike had accidentally trimmed in their backyard, having been mis-informed about where the property line was. He had apologized at that time - he told this to the comission members. We again apologized to the woman at the meeting and asked her why she had not come to us sooner with this concern. I offered to pay her for the surveyer. She had nothing to say to that - no apology of her own for being such a bitch.

We then explained that dirt that would not be used as fill would be taken away. A condition that we had not planned on, but that we were willing to meet considering how pissed off this lady was.

As for the tires, we explained, we inherited them with the house. They were expensive to get rid of and so that was why we hadn't done so already. The comission was surprised, Heidi remembered the tires from when they did the septic. The previous owner was supposed to have disposed of them. We were surprised at that, but we promised that since they were a concern to this stupid woman, we would dispose of them. We also said that one of our neighbors had tires too. The comission asked about how many -

At that moment, our neighbor Sal stepped forward. He and our other neighbor Dana had been sitting in the back of the room the entire time to support us. I felt ready to cry again, this time for joy and thankfulness. Sal introduced himself and explained that previous owners had built a retaining wall out of tires to hold the hill. If his tires were removed, his yard would go with it. He confirmed everything we said. I could have died, I was so happy for his support, and for Dana's.

The old ladie just sat there with her arms crossed in opposition. She was still angry, I could sense it. But what more could she say? The cutting of brush was in no way related to this job, plus it happened a year ago, plus it was way more than 200' from the wetlands and did in no way fall under the comission's duristiction.

The comission granted us permission to work. We had to put in the haybales and silt fense, get rid of the tires, and remove leftover fill once the job was completed. I was releaved, but at the same time hurt, angry, and offended by this woman who spoke so fervrently about our character and who tried so desperately to hurt us in this case.

I also felt silly for nearly passing out on what, I'm sure, the comission saw as a routine matter. It's just that we've waited so long - gone through so much, spent so much money and worked so hard and lived without conviniences just so we could afford this basement - to improve the house we have loved and worked so hard for. That woman had no idea what passion was. Only hate for such a small matter.

I rushed out of there, feeling the tears hot in my eyes. I felt silly for crying. But all this was going through my head at once, I was overwhelmed. I had wanted to give this woman a check right there and then for her surveyer fee, but at that moment I could not face her. I didn't want to appear weak and silly.

Outside Dana and Sal met us to express their congradulations, promising that we'd have a little party as soon as everything was finished. We thanked them. I felt even stupider for crying in front of them, but at least they knew how long we'd waited and how bad we wanted this.

I'm glad the hearing is over. I'm scared this woman will try to appeal - but then again, what grounds does she have to stand on? Right now I have to focus on the work at hand. Getting the concrete floor out of the mudroom, tearing down the chimney, making the disconnections, disposing of the tires. And tomorrow I'm taking Mike to the Anderson's house, where we will gladly and sweetly write them a check and kiss their feet to try and get them off our backs.

Mike tried to tell me that not everyone is going to like me, no matter what I do. Well, I'm too nice not to try. I don't like when people don't like me. I feel like there's something wrong with me and I need to apologize for my own faults. I know that's silly. But I'll worry if I don't try.

The Comission Meeting

Tonight is the dreaded Conservation Comission meeting. 7pm. Town Hall. Be there or... you can't do your housework. I'm nervous. The conservation babes at town hall didn't give me any information regarding what to expect at this thing.

I don't even know if I'm supposed to bring anything - paperwork, maps, diagrams, diaramas, brownies, mini skirts... What exactly are they going to do? Will they just stamp our shiz and give us the AOK? Will they want to ask us some questions? What will our answers be?

I've waited too long to screw this up.

It's My BDay!

Honestly, it is. And I tell you, things are looking bright. Mike and I had just finished filling out/handing in all the Conservation Comission paperwork, sending the certified mail to all the abutters, and, of course, the lovely filing fee - when we recieved a building permit in the mail.

It was one of those confusing life's moments. Mike comes in with the envelope and says:

"It looks like a letter that you were trying to send out, but it got opened..."

I'm looking at it. It's addressed to me at my address... but it's in my handwriting. I'm highly confused. I stare at it for a good minute or so, trying to figure out what I sent, not putting two and two together.

Then I looked at the return address - town of bourne - and realize, it's a self addressed envelope. I can't remember addressing it, but here it is, in my hands. I flip it open and pull out the permit.

At that moment, all I can say is Holy &*%$! Oh my god, I can't believe it. Holy *#$%. Over and over again as I look at the permit.

It must be a mistake, I tell Mike. Some idiot made some major *&*$ administrative mistake and sent us a permit! Mike just kept repeating things like "Allright!" and "Finally."

So we posted it in view of the road and I left a message from my housemover.... who hasn't called me back yet... SOB ding-dong. Our comission meeting is on the 16th, so I think no work will start until after then.

And hopefully hopefully, this thing will be up in the air by March end. Better be. That's all I have to say.

And what I am doing for my birthday? I'd like not to cook... and I'd like a shoe cube from Closetmaid. I don't think that's too much to ask.

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.

It's a beautiful day for... SHUT THE #*&% UP!

Permit Wars 2006 - duh, duh duh duh duh duuuuu duhhh... Ok, now that I've gotten that out of my system, back to the show. My name's Jess and I'll be your hostess with the mostess. Ew, how I hate that phrase, or fraze for the spelling impaired.

So, the town hall says, no, I can't do any work without the permit. That's a shame. I left a message for Bob but haven't heard anything. I would suspect that someone would call me if there was a problem. But then again, that's the problem. I don't want to be called if there's a problem - I want to be called when everything's ok.

"Hi is Jessica there?"

"This is she."

"Just wanted to tell you that everything's going as planned. Things are awesome! Put yourself at ease."

"Awesome-kay-possum-dudicator!"

"Ok luv ya bu bye."

That would make me feel loved. But seeing how I'm not loved, I have to worry about it. I mean, what if xxxxx xxxxxx xxxxx xx xxxxxxx. And that's just the beginning of my uselessness. Confused yet? I am.

What am I going to do with myself this weekend? Any suggestions, internet? No. Damn. Something's ticking. I think my computer is going to blow up. Either that or I have mistakenly injested a bomb. I knew that jolly-rancher tasted weird.

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.

Fiesta Fiesta

It's countdown time for the biggest bash of the year, the annual Halloween party. You may be saying to yourself, "Uh, did you notice that Halloween is over, by any chance?!" Well I did. This party is always on the Saturday after Halloween - this way, we take advantage of HUGE markdowns on Halloween stuff. Evil scheme, isn't it?

Well, in preparation for this momentous occassion - also the first huge party we've had at the house - we've had to hurry like heck to get a whole bunch of stuff done.

For the past two weekends, I've been painting the master bedroom the beautifully dark burgandy red color I picked out about two months ago. I was nervous about it, I must admit. It's a bold choice even for a dark-color-lover like me. But I love the result. The room makes me really happy. To accent the red, we've got splashes of gold in the room - the bedspread, the curtains, and, just this weekend, I re-upholstered my cedar chest in a gold microfiber fabric to match.

Meanwhile, Mike had Chad our carpenter over last weekend to stabilize the living room floor. In its before state, you would jump on the floor and everything in the room would jump with you. So they went down to the dusty musty crawl space of hell and jacked it up, stabilizing the whole area with wood supports - basically just a lot of shimming the floor up. (I think that's the right word.) Now you can jump all you want and the pictures stay on the wall! Perfect for a night of dancing!

Plus, BONUS! My couch de resistance was delivered today! I'm so excited - I haven't seen it yet, as I'm on lunch break at work right now. I was thinking of zipping home, but decided against it because I know I'm going to want to cuddle with the couch for about 5 hours. Anyway, this means that the couch and love seat that were in the living room can go upstairs to the office where we had originally planned to put them. Extra seating and space for party guests!

Tonight I'm doing some of the post-halloween sale shopping I talked about earlier. My friend Amanda is taking care of the food, Mike is taking care of the keg, and once we have everything assembled, Amanda will come over on Friday and we'll start the mad task of decorating and cooking up some delicious holiday specialties!

It's true, I wish I could have prepared the house more. I wish I could have all the bi-fold closet doors up and more recessed light trim. I wish Mike would install the pendant lights in my office and put in a breaker for the office outlets. I wish the outside was more organized and that our fire pit looked more presentable. Maybe next year, right? We had to focus on the important stuff.

Getting High In My House

Wait, no. That title is misleading isn't it? Well, probably got your attention. Again, Mike and I talked to a friend who's dad is friends with our house mover. He told him to tell us that he thought we should call the house mover again and let him know we have the money in our bank account.

So, I gave him a call, expecting to leave a message. Of course, the one time I want to leave a message, he answers the phone. (I feel like I'm being super annoying because I've called him so much... although once a month shouldn't be considered super annoying...) Anyway, he said he would be in the office Wednesday evening and could talk to me then. He also said he had a job he was doing near my house, sooo, he could do my house at the same time.

It's all very good news... except for the fact that my Halloween party is in less than 3 weeks. THE BIGGEST BASH O DA YEAR peepholes. I'm scared that my house will be in the air on the date of the party. I don't want to cancel, because I haven't been able to hold this party in two years! I'd be very sad. But I know if Bob says he has time to do the job - I need to jump on the opportunity.

Ooops #1,982,345

Everyday this house foils me. Once I complete one task - there they are, 10 others unfinished. I begged and pleaded and Mike finally gave himself to the house last weekend.

Our first task was trimming out the closets for doors. In the laundry/mudroom, we discovered that we hadn't counted on trim when we built the closet door opening. So the finished opening wasn't wide enough for the doors we had originally planned on. Now we have to go with one larger bi-fold and one smaller one instead of two large ones. Ooops #1.

Then we discovered that we had trimmed the inside of the guest room closet before it had been drywalled. So, we had to cut the drywall, get the old trim out of there, and nail on the correct trim boards. Ooops #2.

Next, we headed upstairs and trimmed the two closets there relatively painlessly. However, when we went to put on the one set of closet doors we had, we discovered that they were the short doors and not the tall doors the closet opening had been built for. Ooops #3. And we can't return these doors because they've already been opened and have sat in our garage for 4-6 months. AND and, they won't fit anywhere else either. Ooops #1,982,345. Nothing is ever easy!

We also installed the curtain rods on the second floor. That went well, no oops there, thank goodness. It's finally good to get the curtains I bought 2 months ago up in the bedroom. Privacy sweet privacy, if you know what I mean.

But then it was on to the kitchen and the super-sale cabinet pulls I bought online to replace the ugly knobs that were on all the cabinet doors and drawers earlier. You know, the ones that have also been sitting there a good 2-3 months or more. Well, turns out the supplied hardware is impossible to work with. I can't even tell you why, it would boggle your mind. Imagine screws that you have to cut and there's no template to tell you where to drill the 2nd hole for the pull and you can't screw in the screws all the way because of their weird blank space in the middle of the threads design ahhhhhhhh. We finally had to go to the Depot and buy washers so that the pulls could be installed correctly. I'm not sure if all the headache was worth the money I saved on the pulls themselves. And they're still not done yet. Fatigue set in after we finished the upper cabinets.

Rumors of Good News

I've been at work all night, watching random TV and ripping DVDs. Don't ask. I was thinking about our house. How much I want it up in the air. How much I hate waiting and waiting and not hearing. I looked back on blogs past to find out when it was the last time I'd heard from our contractor... it was a month ago, nearly to the day. What did he say then? That he was finishing up on several jobs and would mail us out a letter with a start date asap.

I really hoped I would have this job done before I made the first payment on our equity loan, but no such luck. I mailed it at the end of last week with a heavy heart. If we could just get the basement poured, I could get the appraisal done and get this damned PMI off my mortgage payment and pay this loan a lot easier, a lot faster.

Mike's friend Chad whos dad is friends with our contractor told Mike who told me that the contractor is the type of guy who makes you wait and wait and wait until you've nearly given up hope (Like I have) AND THEN, and only then, he shows up at your house and wants to do the job that very day! Only, when will our day come? If he wants to be crazay like that, fine, but I wish he'd let me know when he's randomly going to show up.

Meanwhile Mike and I put up curtains and vacuum the rugs and buy little red toaster ovens while we wait. I'd rather be tackling the basement.

Pics

The Wheel Wreath

So long ago in a galaxy far far oasis I promised you guys I'd show you a picture of the steering wheel wreath, made from the old steering wheel we found while digging up the yard. Oh, and you probably want to see that too - the excavation sensation that's gripping the nation... or at least I thought it was pretty cool the way we took down that annoying and ugly hill next to the garage.

So in this pic you can see the remnants of the hill to the right. Imagine that hill stretching up to the wall of the garage and all the way back... even beyond where that trailer is in the middle of the picture. That's what it used to look like. Now it's nearly flat. And there's my truck and my boat and way in the back is our John Deere skid steer.

Ok, on to the wreath. I forgot to take a before picture, so you'll just have to imagine what the rusty crusty steering wheel looks like underneath all the pretty stuff. I think it turned out pretty cool.
It looks better than this in real life. In the pic it just looks like a pile of leaves and flowers and the color's kinda off. Sorry everyone, all the pics on this site are taken with my Palm and the resolution isn't fantastic.

Middle - Middle

The upstairs office in the beginning of the middle of finish work. This was after the bad drywallers, before the good drywallers came to fix it. Notice the crappy cutting around the windows.

The office in its current, middle of the middle state. See the lovely color block between the windows? That art peice is a decorator fabric, found on Ebay that I stretched on an artists canvas. I call it Symmetic Ladies... no I don't, I just made that up.

The living room - beginning of the middle. Would you believe most of this junk is my friend Kylene's? Well it is, or it was. She lived with us briefly, but sadly, she began work nearly an hour away, so had to leave us.

The living room in its current state. Sans couch of course, that will take another 40 days to arrive, but the room is coming together nonetheless.

The downstairs bedroom when Mike and I had to live in it because the upstairs drywall wasn't good enough to live in yet and it was the middle of winter and there was no heat up there. (And all our crap was disorganized and all over the place.)

The downstairs, now a guest bedroom, but still containing a couple junky items that we don't have any other place for... plus all my girlie decor from college.

You've seen this before - the laundry room when we first moved in. Look, Kamikazee is sitting on a pile of kitchen tile, still yet uninstalled at this point.

The current laundry/mudroom. Notice the pile of carpet samples I have yet to cut into a cool carpet-tile-like pattern. Hmmm, if Kamikazee had just been sitting on them, the circle would be complete...

The kitchen - notice my computer on the kitchen table. This was again, because the upstairs wasn't done and we were still sanding drywall in the rest of the house. See that coat on the chair? I threw that over the CPU whenever we sanded.

The kitchen now. It's hard to see the details. Those three art peices on the wall are all paintings of martinis. I'm a big appletini girl.

My Bidding...

Last weekend Mike hit the trails in New Hampshire for a little off-road R&R on the Kawi with his guy pals. Meanwhile I was stuck at home, dealthy ill with some sort of nasty stomach bug/food poisoning/migrane/hormones/you know. Very first time I stuck my head in my toilet... quite a momentus occassion. That aweful green color did not help the nausea, I tell you.

Since returning to 99% efficiency, leaving the customary 1% procrastination, I feel the need to be productive on the house this upcoming weekend. I mean really, when was the last time something got done? A project completed? I know we're waiting on the house lifter, and we're hesitant to spend excess dinero, but come on. There's so much to do that can be done.

I'm working on Saturday, so I'm going to tell Mike, we're working on the house on Sunday - no ifs, no ands, no skuttlebutts about it. We should at least finish the damn stairway. We put the first coat of stain/varnish on the steps what, a month ago?! We could at least give them a quick rub down with steal wool and hit 'em up with a second coat, if nothing else. The coats take 6 hours to dry, so ideally, we should do that Saturday night after work so they'd be ready for either a third coat or an install on Sunday.

Warm days are going to run short here on Cape Cod. We've already entered into what they call the Cat Nights.... you know, dog days of summer, cat nights? Anyhoo - if we're going to be sanding plaster and priming the hallway/stairway, I'd really love to have the doors and windows open with the fans-a-flyin' without freezing to death.

I don't think its too much to ask Mike to do my bidding for a day. And when did it become MY bidding anyway? It's our house, jeezus! You would think he'd want it done too. I know deep down he does, but he doesn't like sanding and carpentry's not his forte' either. Don't think we're fighting or anything, cause I've been lazy too and I admit it. I just have to take the initiative and stop being lazy first. Then I'll just feed him an Amp or two and we'll both have at it and have a wonderful time like we always do.

Good News

On the decorating side - I got an email from Fay from China with pictures of my sofa. My ACTUAL sofa that they just finished building. I ok-ed the pictures and hopefully it will be in the next shipment to LA and then to me! Here's one of the pictures Fay sent me.

Stagnant - Like Puddle Water

Doo bee doo, la la, na na, - OH, it's my audience. Hi everybody. Don't mind my quiet singing to myself, it's just a sign of my complete transition into boredom. Thousands of thousands of dollars are sitting in my savings account, just waiting to help lift up my house. And if not lift up my house, re-do my bathroom, build a fireplace - who knows what else! But, as happens very often in the wide world of contractors and homeowners, I have lost track of all my bargaining chips and am at the will of the contractor.

I talked to our house lifter last week... I hadn't heard from him for over a month, and so I called to say, "Hey what's going on? I thought you were going to do this job over the summer - SUMMER"S OVER!" Good news was, a mutal friend of ours mentioned us to him. Never hurts to have a connection, no matter how small... keeps things human.... or so I keep telling myself.

Anyway, he said he was finishing up a few jobs. Again confirmed that our house would be easy and he wasn't going anywhere. He said he'd get a letter/contract with a start date in the mail ASAP.

That was a week ago. *sigh* So here I am, back to twiddling my thumbs. I have a feeling it will be another month before I hear from him. And I'll have to call him. It's depressing. I know he's a good guy - he is the undisputed source for house lifting on Cape Cod and I'd never go anywhere else. I just wish we could be first on his list.