The Contractor Game

First off, apologies for shirking my blogging responsibilities.  The task of working through issues related packing/moving/job changing/child rearing/life living has proved to be a bit time consuming.  Last week, however, I was given a gentle nudge by my husband in the form of a formal re-invitation to author this blog and so here I am.  Part of the difficulty in getting back to this (after an admittedly feeble start) is that so much has happened, I feel overwhelmed at the thought of trying to backtrack through events to keep people up to date.  Although truthfully, I'm not sure that the details of the day to day are all that interesting even to us and so recounting all of that has gone on may be an unproductive task.  And believe me I am working hard to try to be as PROductive as possible these days. 

With all of this in mind, let me see if I can quickly summarize with the following list of events and descriptions:

The Move:  A 9 hour ordeal that included 1 moving crewmember walking off the job 2 hours into it (I guess he wasn't much of a reader and was resentful about having to haul boxes marked VERY HEAVY down 3 flights of stairs) and another being taken to the hospital by paramedics after tangling with a bed frame and receiving a gigantic gash to the head.  

The Initial Rehab Burst:  An exceedingly productive period of about a week wh en my parents swept into town and kept us moving for several hours a day in order to make critical changes necessary to sustain life in the house and to prepare for our son Ben's 3rd birthday party (admittedly insanity overcame us when we agreed to host this 1 week after moving in).  In addition to simply moving in and getting things put away, we also tackled other projects.  Examples of this included removing approximately 9 bags of yard waste, taking down the green bottle bottom shutters on the kitchen window and door, installing new overhead lights in the kitchen

and dining room, painting the kitchen, and much much more (see pictures).  There were numerous shopping trips to IKEA, Lowe's and Target involved as well as shifting adult supervision for the kids. There were also some happy discoveries such as hard wood stair treads!

The Birthday Party:  After an exhausting push to make the place presentable, I was reduced to tears when my 7 year old niece asked me why we had purchased the house and following the adult response that we liked the bones of the place, she matter of factly and rather insightfully informed me that the place smelled like a combination of old lady and dirty baby diapers. 

The Storm:  A once in a 50 year experience (according to our backyard neighbor Lou) that resulted in fallen limbs, a flooded basement and crawl space and a 3 day power outage.  The novelty of the candles wore off very quickly with the kids.  It also seemed to have been some sort of exercise to validate much of the information the inspector provided with respect to a history of water seepage and leakage.  At least we didn't get backed up raw sewage rushing into the house like many of our neighbors experienced.  For over a week, giant panda bears, sombreros, sofas, rugs and other remnants of people's basements and lives lined the street.

Through all of this, we've had a steady stream of emails, phone calls, and visits from contractors in an attempt to get some picture of how on earth we are going to get beyond initial rehab burst and get the place into some kind of shape.  So far we've met with an HVAC contractor, roofing company, window replacement rep, waterproofing expert, crawl space finisher, duct cleaner, and talked to countless tree services.  Mostly what we've learned is that NOTHING is cheap and when people hear the word insurance, the ballgame changes dramatically.  Who knew that to remove a branch off a roof could range in cost from $500 to $2,400!  I mean, I'm no arborist, but it seems to me there is probably not a signficant amount of variance in how this task is executed.  Start the chainsaw, cut, yell timber, and start feeding pieces into the chipper.  Maybe the more expensive ones have a better treeside manner.

Comments

[Priscilla Yeager]

Very good, Sarah. We were glad to help a little bit. Hope you get the branch off the roof without paying a fortune.
Your house will be lovely someday. It is just frustrating now to see all that needs to be done. We are pulling for you every step of the way.
Mom

[Wendy Morris]

The place will come alive with your energy, talent and determination. While you do that I will work on my child's manners.

[Wendy Howell]

Oh Sarah, I promise in the end you will love what you have done with the place. In the meantime, remember what Shirley said and the lifetime full of memories she and her family made there. You are building a "home", layer by layer, shingle by shingle, tear by tear, in love peppered with laughter. Think of all these tribulations as mere anecdotes for those lifetime memories you are now making. One day in the not so distant future, you will be reminiscing about the 50 year flood to your grandchildren as they gaze over at Ben or Jillian with that familiar "Please save from Grandma's stories" look in their eye. "Home is where your story starts." Here's is to an epic!!! Hugs!!