We had finally picked an exterior finish for our little house. We had ended up going with a style of board and batten siding for the country look. It wasn’t at all what we had expected to go with, but both of us were drawn to it. And we really felt like it would give our house the country style and look we wanted. I’m not a fancy person or a rich person, so we went with what was in our budget that we could afford. And I said about a million prayers that it would look good when it was finished.
Scott had called Sunday night to say he was going to make all the measurements and call in the order by Monday afternoon. If all went well, they would deliver by Tuesday morning and he would start working by Wednesday. Yippee!!
The roofers had the roof completely done by Tuesday!
We had to wait a little longer than we had wanted for the roofers, but they did a lovely job.
The kids were inspecting the roofing job. Well, Maleah was inspecting the roof. Cam was riding his bike and Maylin appears to be competing in a dance contest.
The roof is done! Whoo-hoo. This is going great! Until…
Problem number 1. (Surely you were expecting that?) Well, Scott called in the order on Monday afternoon like he said. But, they had just received a big order and we were put behind that big order. The exterior we were going with involved “ripping” boards in half to achieve the battens. They weren’t charging extra for this service and it was saving us a lot of money. But someone else’s order was being “ripped” in front of ours and we would have to wait for a delivery on Friday afternoon. That meant Scott wouldn’t be able to start until Monday. Okay, then. That was another week of waiting. Sure, no problem. Waiting is just how things go lately. We should’ve named this place Waiting Around Farms. I mentioned that to Jim and he laughed hysterically. He thought I had said Waitin’ For It Farms. Now, why would that be so funny?!?!?!? Anyway…
Problem number 2. (Their couldn’t be just 1 problem! They come in doubles at least!) We called the inspector on Friday morning to schedule an inspection for the following Friday. Yep! The electric was done! Joe had done awesome work! The plumbing was close to being done. Doug had loaned his concrete saw to someone and they had returned it broken. And he needed it to cut the concrete back an inch to make the tub drain fit. Once Doug got his saw back, he could put in the drain and he would be done. Since the HVAC was scheduled to be done on Tuesday as well, we were going to be needing the inspection on all 3. Whoo-hoo!! We wanted to make sure we had all our ducks in a row for the inspections.
Well, the inspector told us the rules had changed and we had to have the framing inspected! Ummm, what?? Then the inspector said we had to have all 4 of those inspections done at the same time. What?? That meant Scott couldn’t start on the exterior until after the framing inspection. And the framing inspection couldn’t happen until the plumbing and the HVAC were inspected as well? That made no sense to my pea brain.
We called Scott. He was not happy. He also has some pull with the building inspectors and said he would call us back. He was quite determined to work on Monday apparently because he got the okay to start on Monday. That man is awesome! To this day, I have no idea who he talked to or what he said but he was given the green light. When we called on Monday, they said “Continue”. I knew better than to ask questions. The problem had been dealt with and I was happy.
Problem 3: Well, this one wasn’t really a building problem per say. But it was time consuming and frustrating at times. We were trying to get quotes for everything. HVAC, drywall, insulation, gutters, painting, etc. We had planned to do a lot of this work ourselves, but Jim was staying so busy and I never seem to accomplish much with the kiddos in tow. One of my half pints is always, sick, or getting hurt, destroying something, wandering off, etc. They are just kids being kids when and I am expecting a 60 hour work week out of them. What is wrong with me? Alot, obviously.
So, anyway, we were getting estimates to see what we could afford to have done by other people. That way my kids could remain kids and I could remain with out a straight jacket. Am I crazy or does the thought of a clean, quiet room with padded walls sound a little appealing sometimes? Never mind, please don’t answer that!
It seemed easy to get the estimates. Nope. People don’t show up when they say they will. Or they call the day before you are scheduled to meet them and expect you to meet them right then. Or they show up and their estimate doubles from what they mentioned on the phone. We were trying to get at least 2-3 estimates for everything and it was taking all our time. One day Jim and I each met 3 different people out there at 4 different times. The crazy part was that I was supposed to meet 3 different people all at 9am. Only 1 showed up at 9. Another at 10 and the other never showed or called.
Jim was supposed to meet 3 people after work that day. Two of them showed up sometime earlier in the day and the 3rd person never showed or called. Jim didn’t know any of this until he drove out there, waited an hour and then called all the people. I’m not trying to complain though. We have met some great people and the others we haven’t met…well, I hope they are great people too!
Problem 4: Did you know that some people buy exterior doors that are just primed?? Not painted, just primed and ready for you to paint? Yes, people like us do that. We were quoted for a door and it was a great price. We just didn’t ask the right questions apparently. So the doors had already been installed by the time we realized they needed to be painted. Yeah, that was not on my to do list. But I guess it is now! How fun. Trying to paint 2 exterior doors with the kids running around. Oh yes, I can only imagine how fun that will be. Any volunteers?? Anyone????? Suggestions at least???
