LABOR Day Weekend

HALLELUJAH!!!

New Roof and Murphy's Law

or It's So Not Funny That It's Funny.

As many of you will remember, our house had a roof leak that caused an electrical fire before we even closed on the thing. We told them it needed a new roof, and a roofing contractor agreed with us. HUD, though, wanted to do a patch job. We knew it was the right house so we went ahead with the sale anyway. We assumed that the patch would last us at least 6 months. The day we closed, it was raining. And the roof was leaking. So all summer, we have known we needed to replace the roof. Ben wanted a 3-day weekend, so we chose this weekend, Labor Day weekend.

Friday night, Ben's brother called to let us know that he had been in an accident. He was fine, but the dump trailer we were planning to use for all the old shingles was broken. We dumped stuff onto tarps and onto the ground to clean up later.

The sky was threatening, but we decided we should go for it anyway after looking at weather.

Saturday morning, Ben's dad's truck broke down. This made him late, which did not help because we were counting on his professional expertise for purchasing materials and getting the construction work started.

Saturday afternoon, someone started ripping off the front roof, which we weren't going to do until the back was all done. Oops.

We were blessed Sunday. No rain!!! No rain, so no work done. What a lovely day of rest.

Sunday night, the babysitter I had lined up for Monday had sick kids. Monday morning, I had to call around to find someone to help. Thank goodness for good friends!

Monday morning was pretty smooth, except that without a dump trailer, it took over an hour to empty the borrowed trailer at the dump.

My personal favorite, though, is Monday afternoon. I went down to turn the main line on to the swamp cooler to discover that the main water line was leaking. I came up to tell Ben: "I really wish I didn't have to tell you, but..." We turned off water at the street. Now we have no water to the house. Luckily, we have very kind neighbors who are willing to let our helpers use their bathroom! I came upstairs chuckling and shaking my head. "It's so not funny that it's funny!"

Yes, Virginia, Murphy is alive and well.

Thanks so much to all of our friends, family, and neighbors who helped SO MUCH with the roof. Thanks to the lovely ladies who watched my kids and helped with food, too!!!

HALLELUJAH!!!

Things have been really crazy this week! We did close on Tuesday, and we jumped in with both feet on the remodeling. The house is already quite unrecognizable on the inside. The paneling is off, and it's amazing how much lighter and brighter it is. We are basically finished with all the demolition, so now begins the slow process of cleaning and putting things back together! I'm really excited about the new paint and carpet, and I can't wait to see things really take shape. With any luck (and lots of help), we will be able to move in 2 weeks.

We are so very grateful to the family and friends who have been helping with the remodeling work and childcare. My parents, especially, have been wonderful. They have watched the children more than I expected, and they are so gracious about having 6 extra people messing up their house!

The end is in sight!

We finally do have a closing date set on our new house! If all goes as planned, we will sit down to sign papers at 8:30 am on Tuesday, April 14, 2009. One nice thing about buying a HUD home is that we won't have to wait 72 hours--we can go right over and take possession! We are very excited.

There is still a substantial amount of work that needs to be done before it will be habitable, but the end is truly in sight. We need to rip out paneling, then paint, and install baseboards and flooring in several of the rooms. A bathroom vanity would also be quite helpful. Despite the work remaining, I do feel truly blessed for the work that has been done. The new "heart" of our electrical system certainly does bring peace of mind. The basement and back family room are also ready to move into, as is the master bedroom. Buster's room needs the most, including a door and a light fixture!

We are still staying with my parents, which the kids think is lots of fun. I'm glad they have been out of school! Kandy and Missy do return to school on Tuesday, but from now on, if I'm not at the bus stop waiting, they will just walk to the new house since I will be there working. I am so looking forward to not needing to wake up kids to get them from the bus stop every day!

Crazy Saturday!

Well, we didn't close on the new house. It still doesn't have power! We are still having Kandy's baptism and brunch on Saturday. In the afternoon, we will move all our stuff into a storage unit and camp out with my parents until we close. We are praying that it will be soon.

We have drywall!

Yay! They put the new drywall in our new house today! Phew, what a relief. We should be able to close next week (fingers crossed).

So on Saturday, March 28, we will have Kandy's baptism in the morning, followed by the brunch and her Powder Puff Derby. That afternoon, we would appreciate any help in moving.

I have been packing all week. I hope you are all well!

House Update

I know, I'm behind on blogging. I need to write about Missy and Buster's birthdays, but I wanted to write this first today!

We are overwhelmed with gratitude, excitement, and joy as we ponder the latest news on our new house. Due to the fire damage, the electrical panel needed to be replaced. Therefore, at no cost to us, we are getting a brand new electrical panel that will be safer and able to handle a higher load than the old one. We will also have a breaker on the external box, which simple feature would have prevented the fire in the first place. The city is also running new lines from the pole to the house. When I spoke with the electrician, he said those lines were in such pitiful shape that he was surprised they hadn't already had problems! The city will come and inspect the electrical work.

We need new drywall in the stairwell and on the kitchen ceiling. The firefighters knocked one hole to fight the blaze, and the electrician had to make another small hole for wiring.

The most recent news is, to me, the most amazing. This is an older home, so naturally, there is lead-based paint on the premises. We had originally agreed to buy the home as-is, but for some reason, they now need to remove the lead dust in the property. They have removed all the upstairs carpet, exposing hardwood in most of the upstairs! They are going to put down a new coat of polyurethane. They are trying to rush so we can be moved in by April 1, when the new renters' lease agreement starts here.

This fire has truly been a blessing in disguise. We will still need to put on a new roof and do some other remodeling, but we are very happy with what they will have done.

Fire!

We were thinking we would do our home inspection this Saturday. Yesterday, however, something happened to change our plans. I had sent an e-mail to the other agency in the middle of the week mentioning the gas and roof problems. No one called me; no one responded to my e-mail. Our friend/landlord/prospective neighbor called yesterday to tell us someone was working on the roof. Ben stopped by on his way home from lunch to check things out. When he arrived, lo, and behold, fire trucks were there! The silly people who were working on the roof used ice melt to get the snow off so they could fix it. This caused a torrent down the wall behind the electrical panel and zap! a fire!

Luckily, the damage isn't too severe. The stairwell wall around the panel is burned, and the firefighters had to put a hole in the kitchen ceiling to get access to the attic to fight the blaze. It does smell like smoke in there now, though, and the roof still isn't fixed.

The big question, of course, is whether or not we will still buy the house. We don't know yet. We sent a long and detailed e-mail to the other agency yesterday, and we are anxiously awaiting the response. Then we should have enough information about timing and exactly what they will fix to know whether to buy it or walk away.

The worst case scenario is that we just give it up for lost and stay where we are. That wouldn't be too nice to the people who were planning on moving here in March, but they haven't given notice in their current rental. (They're our friends, too.) The best case scenario, of course, is if they have to do new carpet and paint for us to get rid of the smell! I'm not holding my breath though; this is the government.

Home Inspection, take 1

Dave Barry wrote a book called Homes and Other Black Holes. I thought it was a very funny book when I read it in high school, but I'm afraid I might identify with it too much to find it funny now.

Last Saturday, we met Ben's dad at the new house to do our inspection. We had called the utility companies so we could have gas, power, and water to check things out. Upon arriving, Ben's dad went to the gas meter while Ben went to the electrical panel to turn on the power. There was a red tag on the gas meter informing us that the gas had started running immediately upon being turned on. It probably just means the pilot lights were left on. Meanwhile, Ben got a mild shock. It turns out there is a leak between the old house and the kitchen addition. The water was also dripping down behind the electrical panel. Well, we gave it up for lost and came home.

We now need to fix the roof. Thanks, by the way, to all those of our friends and family who have so kindly volunteered to help us do it!!! We will be calling you when we finally close.

I'm just grateful we learned about it now instead of after we move in. I'm really glad it was raining last Saturday for that reason! Really, it's best if you can see a good rainstorm in a prospective house.

Some would call us crazy to buy the home in this condition. We still feel that this is the right home for us.

Well, kids are beckoning. May you all have a lovely weekend!!!

New house

This is a picture of the house we are hoping to close on next month.

Exciting news!

Guess what? We're moving...again. We are buying another house. Yay! It is still in our ward, which thrills them to no end, and it has more bedrooms, which thrills me! There are 4 bedrooms and 1 bathroom, but there is a large, unfinished room in the basement where we can add a bathroom. The sewer runs right through it already, so the hardest part will be breaking up the floor. It was built in 1938 and remodeled in the 60's or 70's. They pushed the kitchen back to make room for a dining room and added a family room. It also has lots of paneling and cottage-cheese ceilings, but it is clean enough to inhabit as it now is. My future commission checks will fund various decorating and improvement projects over the years. It has a garage and two carports. It's not a ton of square footage, but it is a great use of space. We will have enough space that we should be able to stay there for quite a few years if we want to. We will be closing in late January.