Just a few days after Hurricane Irma the progress on the house was full speed ahead. I was thrilled! There was a whirlwind of activity out there, but the progress each day was astounding!
Maylin was so happy to have doors and windows in the house!
Maylin was so excited she didn’t even realize that Camden was going in the door first without her. Trust me, we would never have heard the end of that!
On Thursday, Joe, the electrician was leaving to go out of town for a few days. He called the guys to tell them he wasn’t bringing his generator and that the power wasn’t supposed to be restored to that side of town until at least Saturday. No power=No work. So, the plumber went elsewhere to work for the day since he thought we wouldn’t have any power. ARRGGHH!
Ironically, by some miracle, the power was already fixed at our place by the time the builder got out there. Oh, yes, God does have a sense of humor! By the time everyone knew the power had been fixed out there, they had already made other plans for the day. Just when things were really getting going, we were getting stalled again. AAAHHHHH!
So, the builder, Scott, showed up with a generator, just in case, and realized that no one is out there working. Bummer. Major Bummer. Scott started working anyway and then the roofers showed up! Yippee. Maybe the day could be salvaged after all. We might have shingles on the roof by the end of the day. An actual roof with shingles! Yes, it’s the little things in life that make me giddy. At this point, shingles on our roof is one of those little things. It’s been a long journey and I’ll take the small victories at this point!
So we have shingles. They are just not on the roof. Still not on the roof…And there’s a giant mess on the ground. I know that is how the work in progress goes, but I still can’t help but clean up every time I go out there. It’s just in my nature to be crazy…and obsessive…
However, when we showed up out there later that afternoon, we found no one. Hello? Anyone? No one. No one!!!! Everyone had left! Scott had left to take his generator back to his buddy who needed it. The roofers had left because the plumber didn’t have the vent pipe in the roof yet. The plumber didn’t have the pipe in the roof because he thought we didn’t have power. It was enough to make my head spin! But the plumber promised to be there first thing in the morning to work and the roofers were supposed to show up again as well.
I think I need to start serving breakfast out there every morning to assure that people are encouraged to come out there to work. No power? Oh well, let’s go to the Carter’s place anyway to get a free breakfast. Hmmm, maybe it could work. I should at least try it, right? Especially since the plumber and roofers didn’t show up again on Friday. Yep, I am definitely going to give the free breakfast idea a try….Donuts or biscuits? Maybe both!
With not much else going on that needed our attention, Scott had wanted us to go ahead and think about exterior finishes before he moved on to another job. So, Friday we set off to find an exterior finish for our cute, little house. We walked around for hours. Literally hours. I am not exaggerating either! We looked at every exterior finish known to man. And somehow we finally settled on a board and batten style. Not at all what we had originally planned for. Not at all.
We currently live in a log cabin and we agreed that we would not go with wood again. I really love our log cabin but the maintenance is just a lot to take care off. We are always staining, sealing cracks, chasing away carpenter bees or spiders or whatever insect or animal that wants to live in our house. I tell the kids all the time that we basically live in a giant tree house so, of course, snakes, bees, spiders, ladybugs, etc. want to live with us. My kids are not usually amused when I tell them this. Oh, well.
So, we weren’t looking for another wood exterior. But the vinyl siding, the Hardi-plank and the barn siding just didn’t feel right. By that, I mean, that Jim and I couldn’t agree on which one to go with. I liked the idea of vinyl siding and Jim hated it. I liked the Hardi-plank board and batten style and Jim hated it. He liked the Hardi-plank siding and I didn’t. He liked the barn siding and I thought it would look better on a barn. Oh, the joys of marriage! We both liked stone but…well, who can afford to have stone on their whole house. I would have to sell my first born child and my second and third born child. Stone is beautiful, but expensive. Nope, stone wasn’t going to happen. Same with brick.
After a few more trips around the place looking at every exterior under the sun, we finally decided. We both liked the board and batten. The wood board and batten. The wood exterior that we had agreed to stay away from. Yeah, we are just creatures of habit, I guess. Or just doomed to repeat our mistakes. But we both really liked it…So, board and batten it was. In a few years, when I start complaining about a wood exterior, feel free to say, “I told you so”. I deserve it.
So, we were going with the wooden board and batten. Except we couldn’t get ahold of Scott to chat with him about it. We just had a few questions we needed to ask. Ok, I had a few hundred questions or so. No big deal. It’s me. Scott should know by now, that I would have questions. Jim certainly wasn’t surprised. But we couldn’t get ahold of Scott to ask him my questions. So, we couldn’t place the order on Friday which meant Scott couldn’t get started on Monday. Yep, back to waiting….. I should be really good at that part by now…. Why am I not a quicker study?
Dear Lord, please send me ample amounts of patience. And understanding. Yes, ample amounts of patience for me and ample amounts of understanding for those who have to be around me. Thank you and Amen.
