Bathroom renovation

The bathroom renovation is not going so well. We knew it would be the toughest room in the house since it was the only one that had to be gutted to the studs but wow- I never expected it to take 6 weeks. We're at the four week mark now and there's at least 2 weeks to go, maybe more. We've gutted it, put insulation and vapor barrier on the floor and installed a new subfloor. It took three tries and 10 man hours (times 3 people) to get that floor level. One of the many joys of dealing w/ an old house and its odd angles. We finished the weekend by building a wall to provide the third wall of the bathtub alcove.

It was only once we got 40 minutes away, that my helpers (a.k.a. the parents) and I realized that we'd forgotten to insulate the alcove & top w/ vapor barrier. Which had to be done by today, in preparation for the plumber to install the fixtures, which are currently taking up residence in my living room. So, we get together this morning and drive through heavy fog, to install insulation at 6:00am. Naturally, by the time we finish we're late for work. Imagine then, how irritating it would be to get a call from the plumber at 4pm that he just didn't have time to get to my house today because he had another, more important job to do first.

What I wouldn't give for the money to just hire out all the renovation and someone to oversee it so all I had to do was come back in three months to a finished house!

Neighbors, the flip side

Sometimes, it's the ones you'd never dream of who cause you the most trouble. My house has a business behind, a house on one side and on the other, a church. I figured that would mean I only had one chance for ending up with neighbor trouble. Imagine my surprise to find myself in a property dispute...with the church! No one from the church has even come over to welcome me to the neighborhood but they made sure to wait until I was at work to come chop down a walnut tree in my yard. Luckily my sister happened to see it happening and ran over to stop them. Unfortunately, she could only convince them to "trim" the tree since they're claiming it belongs to them. If by trim you mean whacking off the entire left half of the tree, leaving a bizarre looking, mutilated corpse, then yes, they sure did trim the tree.

I don't have the money to pay for an official survey and haven't had the time to go to the court house to view the lot maps so I haven't bothered to confront them about it. While I don't attend church, I have strong morals and values that center around generally being a good person and being kind to others, so it's mind-boggling to me that the members of this church would ignore a new neighbor and then try to cut down my tree without even talking to me about it. Their reason for cutting it down is so silly- they don't like the messy walnuts. It's a healthy, living thing and you want to cut it down because it's getting your shoes dirty one day a week? Really? Is that what we're calling a Christian attitude these days? I've only owned the place for a few days and before they started this, I'd been sweeping their parking lot figuring that it was the nice thing to do. I wanted to get off on the right foot in my new town, guess that's not meant to be!

We get ice storms almost every single year. Wonder if they'll still claim ownership when that out of balance tree falls and hits my house.

Neighbors

The point of this blog is to be a journal for me so I can remember this time in my life later, so an entry once every few weeks isn't going to cut it. I need to start documenting the little things when they happen. I always say that life is 99% little moments and only 1% big events.

Last night I finally met my neighbor. I only have one since there's a church on one side and a business behind. I was in the back yard cutting down an ancient rose bush when the husband (it's an older couple) came out in his back yard. I introduced myself and he did the same. I asked about their dogs' names (they have two hounds) and told him about my own black lab, I'll call Lulu in this blog (her middle name is Louise). They were so excited to find a fellow dog lover had moved in, particularly since they moved to this town to get away from a neighbor who had been mean to their dogs. We chatted for several minutes and discovered a lot in common. In fact, all three of us work in the same professional field.

One of the reasons I moved here was to find a safe place to raise a family and after talking to him, I feel like I've made a good choice. Though it's a town with little crime, we agreed to watch out for each other. I was looking for that small town neighborly atmosphere and it seems like I found it!

So little time

I've owned my home for 23 days and it's been a challenge trying to spend every moment that I can working on the house. I get irritated at work for interfering with my personal life. I mean, how can they have the audacity to expect me to concentrate on the job they're paying me for- don't they know I have a ancient house to rehab? Try as I might, however, I've yet to find an employer who will pay me to do nothing so I'm afraid spending every waking second working on the house is not an option.

It's funny how much time it takes to get even small tasks completed. And considering how many projects the house involves, it's going to be years before I can even move in at this rate! My parents are helping me and in the past three weeks we've managed to:

• Fix a hole in a roof shingle
• Seal a hole in the soffit
• Fix the cracks in the chimney flashing
• Cut down four bushes that had grown about 10 feet tall
• Attack the weeds on 1/4 of the back yard
• Tear down the paneling in the kitchen
• Tear out two cabinets from the kitchen
  
• Get the furnaces working
• Clear out the junk from the previous owners
  
• Gut the bathroom down to the studs
• Tear out a rotten bathroom window, board up and cover w/ vinyl siding
• Clean the cobwebs & dust out of the entire house
• Clean out the storage building/garage
  
• Find a plumber and an electrician

There are hundreds of items on my 'to do' list and without the money to pay for professionals to do them, this house is going to be a lifetime project for me. I'll just be happy to have a working bathroom!

Can I give it back?

Amazingly, after all these weeks and all the drama, I finally closed on the house on Friday the 16th. I went to the house directly after close and that's when it hit me. I started shaking and I haven't stopped...buyer's remorse has set in. This house has tons of potential and when going through the incredibly long purchase process, that was all I could see. Now, however, the rose-colored glasses have been ripped off and I see it for what it is right now- an old, musty house with termites, holes in the walls, a heating system that's only half working, floors that need to be jacked up, squirrels in the attic, mold...the list goes on.

It's cold, dreary and depressing. What happened to the sunny, warm place that I thought would be a good home for me and a future child? Maybe my feelings are being influenced by the fact that the weather has changed from summer to fall since I last saw it. Or that it appears the costs to repair are going to be much more than I anticipated. Or perhaps I'm just scared and intimidated by all the work involved. Whatever the cause, I've got to get over it and get down to work. Because the rational side of me recognizes that the potential is still there. It's just buried very deep under all the dirt!

Sneaky insurance salesman

Because I'm buying an old house with really old knob and tube wiring, I figured the easiest way to get my initial insurance policy and get through close would be to stick with the company the current owner's are using. Definitely not cheap but the advantage was they didn't require an inspection beforehand and considering all the time I've had to spend running down there for inspections, that was enough to make me say 'I'll take it!' Of course, I have full intentions of shopping around for another provider just as soon as I take possession and update the electrical system.

Yesterday the mailman added another scene to my ongoing house drama. He brought me the statement from the insurance company, which revealed that the policy was written for $30,000 more coverage on the house than we had agreed upon. If I correct it, that dang GFE will have to be re-written, causing yet another delay. Needless to say I told the agent to leave the policy alone and we would work it out later. Good grief!! Is there one SINGLE element to this home purchase that isn't a cluster ****?!

I'm in shock

You'd think I'd be immune at this point but somehow, I'm still sitting here stunned. My appointment to close on the house was today at 4pm. By noon I still hadn't received the closing statement so the bank had to give me an estimate of what the final closing costs would be in order for me to get a cashier's check. That should have been my first clue that it was all going to hell. I disagreed with the approximate amount they gave me but they assured me it would be correct on the closing statement that I'd receive at close and the difference would be refunded to me at that time. The appointment time kept getting closer during which time I exchanged multiple calls with my banker checking in for status updates. At 3:45pm I was sitting in the lawyer's office with the owner and his lawyer waiting to start...4pm...4:30...4:45pm... 5pm...5:15p...and finally at 5:30pm the lawyer's assistant comes in to inform me that close will not be possible today due to a "compliance issue" with the bank. WTF?!!!

With hands shaking from anger, I frantically dialed my local bank rep. He said that the coordinator in Chicago was the responsible party. I should have known that woman would screw this up. I phoned her immediately and she tried to get me off the phone quickly saying it wasn't her fault, that it's out of her hands and we cannot close before Friday. I made her go pull her manager out of a meeting and that's when I couldn't control my anger any longer. They would get this loan closed out, they would most certainly compensate me for the afternoon of work that I've missed and I would NOT be paying for the extra legal fees involved. Turns out the problem is due to a secondary good faith estimate the Chicago rep, a.k.a. the ditzy witch, issued on Friday to give me updated picture of the details since receiving the hazard insurance policy. By law I was required to sign that form and return it no later than three days before close. She not only didn't ask me to sign the dang form, it wasn't even completed correctly!

The only resolution we could reach today was to have all parties agree to meet again on Friday morning at 9am. The part that galls me the most is that the ditzy witch KNEW that there was a problem and she didn't say anything! She let us all go to the lawyer's office and sit there for an hour and a half while she sat up there in her office saying nothing. I know this because her supervisor was being very defensive about how this wasn't her fault, that *** (ditzy witch) had just informed her this morning. What the hell did they think was going to happen- we would just decide spontaneously to leave and come back in 3 days?!!

I'm 15 shades of p*ssed off and at a complete loss as to what to do about it.