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.

I spoke too soon

This issue was apparently not about the money. Rich went over and the issue is that the place we picked the carpet from needs a two week lead time to get that particular carpet.  There's another type that's similar that only requires a one week lead time.  I'm super annoyed because I gave him the carpet specs weeks ago when we gave him the paint chips with the colors we liked.  If there isn't enough lead time for the carpet why didn't he order it then?

Not that it matters much. I've already pushed out the final inspection with the bank because the propane tank won't be delivered until November 5th and there's no way I'm signing off on the house until I'm sure the furnace, water heater and stove work properly.  Two weeks on the carpet really wouldn't delay us.

No more money

I've decided that I've spent enough extra on the house and I'm not letting the contractor squeeze me for any more cash on this project.  What started as "I think we can do everything you want for what insurance is giving us" has turned into almost $5000 extra that I've paid out of pocket.

We've picked out the carpet we want and it's more expensive than what is listed in the scope of work.  By my calculation, it's approximately $550 more than what is covered.  Today's text reads, "If you get a chance I would like to meet up with you to go over some carpet details thanks". There are no details to go over. There's one room that's getting carpet. We've picked out the carpet and pad.  There's already tack strips around the room (or were) so those shouldn't need to be replaced.  Well, unless his guys who pulled up the carpet tossed them too.  They have a bad habit of throwing away things they shouldn't.  Anyways, there's a little extra expense on the carpet.

The scope of work also included money for new ceiling fans in the dining room, office and pantry.  $259 per fan (roughly) and I've already purchased these out of pocket for each of the rooms.  So by my calculation that's over $700 that he owes me back for the fans.  Yes, I understand that that amount probably includes the installation work too and that's fine. If he doesn't want to install the fans, we'll do it ourselves.  At this point I'm so over all this all I want to do is move home.  If we have to we'll finish up the rest of the work and take him to court over the rest of the money and how the final bits all shake out.

Almost there?

The cabinets are in, the tile is down, the paint is being sprayed up this week.  So far things are coming right along.

That does not mean, however, that the rest of this is without stress.

I somehow need to get the front porch pained before next Monday before they put the screen up.

I'm still incredibly worried that the contractor is going to ask for more money at the end of all of this in spite of originally saying all the work would be done for what the insurance company would give us.

We have to spend an extra $1100 to get our well going again because sitting for 4 months has killed the motor.

The library is up but I still need to paint the exterior and we need to finish off the interior.  I got the estimate from the contractor and I'm really torn.  The quote on the electrical work is way more than he originally said it would be and it doesn't cover enough electricity for what we need.  The insulation and drywall is really expensive and way more than I anticipated it should cost.  We were already planning to put the laminate floor ourselves.  I just spent $850 on a heater/ac unit for the building.  At this point I don't know if we can afford to get everything done or if all the work can be done before we want to use the building for storage so we can move back into our house.  We're still thinking through all the options.

Home stretch!

Things are moving much more quickly now (or at least they appear to be).  The inspections all passed so now the interior finishing work can be done.  Drywall is up and being finished. Tile has been selected. The tub and fixtures have all been purchased and are ready to be installed.  The outside work is coming along - siding is up, soffit is repaired, porches are being finished.  I'm practically itching to get back home.

I still don't know how much all of this is going to cost me.  We decided on tile that was more expensive than budgeted so we covered the $600 difference.  I don't know what the other changes will be.