Back in the house!

We're finally back in the house and most of our stuff from the rental has been moved over.  We still have more furniture, etc in storage but that's being moved over next Tuesday to give us time to get some of the current stuff put away before we're completely buried.

The house is great....but there are still a few things wrong.  Like the toilet in the new bathroom keeps running and we can't get it adjusted so it's not wasting water.  Or the door to the hallway that won't close or latch because they put it back up wrong.  Or the closet door in the babies' room that was hit so hard it broke the pin at the bottom and bent the track.  Seriously though, these are fairly minor things and we'll be following up with the contractor on Monday when he stops by.  Since we hold the final check, my guess is he'll be motivated to work with us.

Still no word from insurance about the additional invoices from the contractor.  He's been historically slow on any sort of responses so I'll wait a few more days before I follow up again.  I need to scan and send more receipts anyways and I'll ask then.

The house is done...

... as done as a house ever is really.  We're still waiting on one more screen door for the back porch and the dumpster and port a potty need to be picked up.

Now the moving begins.  I've already started moving over some things from the rental and the ServiceMaster folks will move over the rest of it and the furniture on Tuesday.  I'm glad I'm going into the office that day!  The rest of the stuff from storage will be moved out on the 19th.

Today is the day?

We have electricity!  Today between 11 and 1 the propane tank is supposed to be delivered.  Also during that time the AT&T repair guy is supposed to be out to see what's up with our phone line and why I don't have service yet.  Also during this time the contractor is supposed to be out to finish up the last little things....like the tub handles being backwards and the light in the hallway not working and the kitchen and bathroom sinks leaking, etc.

More delays

We did not pass the final building or electrical inspections today.

The electrical inspection went pretty well, all things considered.  There are a couple of outlets that need to be added and one of the smoke detectors didn't work and needs to be replaced.  This should be easy to remedy.

The building part of the inspection is pretty frustrating.  There's a beam under the one end of the house that is sagging.  This whole time the inspector hasn't said a thing about it until TODAY during the final inspection when he decides it needs to be replaced.  This is not a minor thing.  This requires a 30 ft engineered beam with a couple extra piers and will cost around $2000.  The contractor called the insurance guy to see if it'll be covered and we still don't have a clear answer on that.  We're supposed to have the contractor write up the invoice for the work and submit it to the insurance guy and then he'll decide if it's covered or not.

Never mind that we still don't have an answer on the $15k worth of additional work the contractor did that was submitted to insurance earlier this week.

I'm really trying not to stress about this.  One way or another I'm moving back into my house and everyone is just going to have to figure this stuff out somehow.  I don't have the money to cover all this extra stuff so I guess if it really comes down to it the contractor can keep a lien on my house and we'll end up in court or something.

Oh, and I pulled a muscle in my lower back so I'm in incredible amounts of pain, can't stand up and it hurts to move or stay still.  This should make moving back into the house interesting especially because I'm supposed to get all this stuff magically done in the next couple of weeks.  Sure, we'll get "help" from the ServiceMaster people again but there's a lot of stuff I personally need to move and take care of without them.  I really don't know how I'm going to pull this all off.

Restocking the pantry

One of the reasons why we originally bought this house was because it has a huge pantry/laundry room.  I think the room is 14' x 16' or something monstrously large like that and there's space for freezers, the washer and dryer, and a whole bunch of shelving and cabinets for storage.  I like to purchase things in bulk because it's so much cheaper that way but my pantry has always been a disaster. It's where I shove stuff to get it out of the way or the other rooms.  Now it's all gone because it was all pretty much destroyed when the tree crushed it all so we're rebuilding, bigger and better.  Part of that is restocking the shelves.

At one point a few years ago I decided to try an experiment and just eat out of our freezer and pantry (except for fresh fruits and vegetables) and see how long we could go.  After about three months I got tired of the experiment but it became clear that I had enough stocked to last six months or more.  It has been making me crazy that I don't have my in-house stores to cook from.  We just don't have the storage space at the rental for me to re-purchase everything until we're able to move back home.  That hasn't stopped me from planning though and I've been updating my price book and clipping coupons like a mad woman for the past week or two.

I have a few goals for the new pantry.  I want to keep it organized so it's easier to find things.  I want to keep it inventoried so I know what we have and how much of what we have.  I want to keep track of expiration dates better so I don't find a can with a best by date that's a couple years past.  I'd really like to know how much of each food item we typically eat on a monthly, quarterly, yearly basis so I can more effectively buy in bulk or shop sales.  I'm still trying to figure out the best and easiest ways to do this but I've definitely got some ideas to start off with.  I know there are plenty of blogs out there that cover exactly this sort of topic but I really want to throw my two cents out there too.  At some point I'll quit writing on this blog (since the house will be back together again and my tree disaster will finally be over) but I'm thinking about morphing it into something else or starting with another blog as I track my pantry and trying to stay more organized overall.

Almost done

They're down to the final bits and pieces so I thought I'd show some pictures.

This is a view of the pantry from the dining room.  This was completely demolished by the tree and totally rebuilt.

This is the main bathroom completely redone. There is now a jacuzzi tub and a huge shower area.

A view into the living room from the kitchen. No more drop ceiling or paneling here!  The carpet isn't in yet.

A view of the kitchen from the main hallway.  There are still some finishing touches to be done (appliances, etc. but it looks great with the counter top in.

Another view of the main bathroom with the new cabinet and counter top. It no longer looks as though we have a second kitchen in the house.

This is the kitchen from the dining room.  It doesn't look like the same house with all the changes.

Oh, and the final bill from the contractor for items not in the initial scope of work is around $15k.  I've submitted it to insurance so hopefully they'll cover it.  I'm not sure what happens if they don't.

Additional casualties

Our string trimmer and three 5 gallon cans full of gas were stolen from our house yesterday evening.