In Memoriam

Remember the mice? Well we found out where one of them ended up today.
While the man was working upstairs building another wall something fell from the ceiling.

Yes that is a dead mouse...pretty gross.
I am sure we will find more. There is one that we heard set off a trap followed by a dragging sound in the ceiling of the dining room. So I have a feeling that when the plumber starts taking up the floor in the upstairs bathroom, where the dragging sound was coming from, we will find a mouse and a trap.

Oh joy of joys.

Payback's a bitch

We found out something hilarious last week. Remember the assholes who called the township on us? Well it turns out they messed with the wrong person and they are getting their comeuppance.

The assholes live next door to a nice family. Their driveways are right next to each other with a strip of grass between them. Well apparently the assholes have been a royal pain to them for years, starting years ago when the nice family's sons were shoveling the driveway one snowy morning and they decided to be neighborly and shovel the assholes driveway as well. Well the assholes called the cops on them. More incidents followed and they basically don't speak to each other any more.

Turns out that while we were on our honeymoon the assholes decided to remove a stump between the two driveways. There had been a tree there years ago that died and the nice family had cut it down and didn't bother grinding out the stump. So they had potted plants on it to more or less cover it up. The nice family came home one day to the stump missing. This confused them because they didn't pay to get it removed and it was on their property. They even went so far as to have their property resurveyed to prove that the stump was on their property, which is was. So now the nice family are going to sue the assholes! I am not exactly sure what they are suing them for and I don't really care. They are nosey and obnoxious and they should just mind their own fucking business.

YAY Karma!

More Progress

Well the man got most of the first wall up. Took him a while because he had never done it before and he kept getting interrupted and well the aforementioned ADD. So that's a good thing.

The guy who is putting our windows in came on Friday to look at the mess, he will be over Wednesday to close off the windows we don't need. Then he will come back to put in the 4 windows that we bough on Thursday.

The HVAC guys were back on Friday putting the heater in the attic.

Did I mention we don't have permits yet?

Let me explain...We did apply for them. However, we found out that the inspector decided to retire, giving the township 3 weeks notice. He was the inspector for everything (electric, HVAC, plumbing and construction). So the township is having a hard time replacing him because they basically need to hire 4 guys with a budget for 1.

So basically we need someone to sign the permits to make it all legal, but they don't have anyone to do it. So we are trying to do as much work as we can without the permits. This means we can put the walls up but can't sheet rock because the walls need to be inspected first. We also can't put the windows in because that needs a permit just to do it. We also shouldn't do the electric before the walls are inspected either. So in about a week we are going to be at a standstill.

We asked the woman in the office what would happen if someone called to complain about us. She said "I'll tell them you have permits, cause I have them right here." So that's a good thing for us. It helps to make nice with the office people. :)

So today my dad came over and we built the wall that goes between the two bathrooms. It was a little difficult because our ceilings angle inward on either side, so building that part went a little slower than the rest. It's such a lovely wall, eh? The plumber is coming next week to start taking out the old plumbing and start laying out the new stuff.

So that wall is done and now we have to finish the main wall in the hall and then the wall for the walk-in closet and the wall splitting one room into do. So in other words, still a lot of work to do.

*sigh*

Progress Bullety Points

• Working without permits so far. Apparently the inspector quit and they don't have a replacement yet to get all the permits signed and out. Who knows how long that will take.
  
• The dumpster is gone.
• The entire upstairs is gutted.
• The HVAC guys started running the vents to the 5 formerly 3 rooms. They also put in a much needed attic fan.
• The man may go and order winders.
• Guy installing winders is coming tomorrow to assess.
• Some electric will be done tomorrow.
  
• Walls will start going up tomorrow. Hopefully the man will work slowly to ensure straightness and plumb. He tends to rush through things sometimes and is a little ADD.
  
• Shopping for bathroom fixtures is Saturday.
• Plumber is coming sometime next week to start.

All in all things have been going nicely. It would be so cool to have everything done by Christmas. But there is still a lot of work ahead. Even after the drywall is done there is, trim, painting trim, painting walls and moving everything back to where is belongs.