Stress

Jake killed another chicken. Someone (probably our neighbor) is pulling stuff out of the dumpster to sell it for scrap and in the process is spreading broken glass all over our yard.  I can't get a straight answer from our contractor about whether or not there are going to be additional costs to us above and beyond what insurance is paying and if so, how much. I'm tired of living in this little dump with too much stuff and too little space.

We have a roof!

The new roof was finished up yesterday and the house looks back to normal from the outside.  I met with the contractor briefly to go over some details and so far everything looks like it's going ok.  The cabinets are designed and it's all pretty basic stuff but I think it'll look fine - better than what we used to have.  They're supposed to be working on electric this week so we'll need to stop by again to make sure everything is where it needs to be. It's still another month or more to get back in the house but soon....

Roof!

Shingles showed up at the house today!

Kitchen cabinets

The rough framing is now complete (or mostly complete) so we met with the kitchen person and contractor and picked out cabinets.  Rich and I had already been looking at catalogs and online and knew pretty much what we wanted.  Surprisingly, they showed up with a sample cabinet door that looked very much like what we'd already selected.  We wanted a lighter color than they picked but that's just because we know how dark the back of the house can get because of the limited windows.  We also picked out cabinets for the bathroom that are a slightly different style but will be in the same color.  We're also going to get a much larger island than I originally thought we'd have space for.  Sometimes I forget how big our kitchen really is.  We still need to pick out granite for the counter tops, figure out what type of backsplash (either a strip of granite or tile), and pick flooring.  I'd really like tile in the kitchen and dining room but we need to see about costs because the room is huge.  We also talked through the electrical stuff for each of the rooms with the contractor to make sure that we'd get all the outlets and boxes that we wanted in the right places.  This means I should be able to get the ceiling fan in the dining room actually hanging OVER my dining room table instead of next to it.  I also dropped off the specs for the tub we want.  It's maybe a little bit shorter than we'd hoped for but it's nice and deep and will be a whirlpool type.

So, at least it feels like we're making progress.

I spoke too soon...

When I checked the mail late Friday night there was a letter from the insurance company about the loss of contents.  What a mess.  I had the pantry packed full because we were remodeling the living room and it's generally full of stuff anyways.  I'd tried to write down everything I could remember but it's hard to do when the room has the ceiling all caved in.  So I guess they turned this list into an itemized list and tried to assign replacement costs and actual cash value amounts.  The problem is that most of what they gave me credit for was the absolute cheapest version of things.  I had to go through the list and correct a bunch of stuff and send it back to the adjuster today.  Hopefully they won't make this all difficult.

No progress

I've been waiting this week for something to happen so I could post about some exciting progress but....nothing has happened.  No word from insurance about loss of contents, no apparent progress at the house (although it does look like the framing is mostly done).

I guess I need to make some calls on Monday to get things moving again and see what's really happening. I really need to nail down with the contractor exactly what is going to be done at the house anyways so this will be a good excuse to get that done.

Money

The first check from the bank finally arrived on Monday.  I'm not sure why it took a week from when they disbursed the funds until it showed up at my mailbox but at least it's here so I can finally pay the contractor.  Work has been progressing at the house but most of it is in the foundation and framing so it's nothing glamorous or exciting to photograph.  We meet with the contractor tomorrow to sign over the money and discuss some of the details about exactly what we're going to get with the house because at this point, there's a whole lot that's fuzzy about what the final product is going to look like.

7 weeks

We're at 7 weeks post-disaster and work is underway to put things back together again.

Here's a quick list of the updates:

• I've received an updated scope of work that includes a little more money for work on the chimney and a shed that was completely demolished when they moved the tree off the house.
• Inside demo is mostly done I think.
• Wood showed up Monday and they've been pulling off roof and re-framing the house all week.

• We had the bulldozer guy show up to move the tree.  Now we still have a mess to clean up from the crushed shed and the bulldozer wasn't quite careful enough and cracked the lid on our septic tank.  It's just one thing after another it seems.

• I stopped by the scratch and dent appliance place and left information about what I'm looking for along with my name and number in case something good comes in.  Since they tossed my stove and dishwasher when they demo'd the kitchen I'll need to find replacements.
• We've put down two loads of mulch along one side of the big tree.  I wanted to get landscape cloth and mulch down in preparation for the playground.  I also didn't want grass and weeds to grow up along the tree and make it more of a mess to clean up later.
• I've been looking through catalogs for cabinet styles to get some idea of what we might want in the new kitchen.
• I can tell that the mortgage company has received my checks and paperwork and it looks like they've set up the escrow account and made the first disbursement.  We haven't received the check yet but I'm hopeful that it's on it's way.