When it rains, it pours!

 So I drove out to the house hoping (& praying) to meet the two drywall contractors I got in touch with but, due to different circumstances, they both had to reschedule for tomorrow.  Even though I felt like the hour long trip was in vain, it did give me a chance to see how the yard looks in a down pour.  I think we're going to need a French drain installed because there was a huge puddle of water in front of the house that I don't think will pass inspection.  

The front puddle

 Out the back, in the natural drainage ditch, there wasn't all that much water.

The back drainage ditch

The back drainage ditch

Beast started leaking rain water in through the top somewhere...I checked the house and thankfully no leaks there.  So I'll be driving out to the house again tomorrow...

Water coming through the passenger side handle

Water coming through the driver's side handle

Water coming through the DVD player

One Step Forward, Two Steps Back

 The Bible says 

"The heart of man plans his way,
    but the Lord establishes his steps."

That's certainly been true this month.  At the beginning of November I'd made a weekly plan for our house progress, aiming to move in December 1.  

But that's not going to happen.  

This week has blown all my plans out of the water.  I should just stop trying to plan it out.  There's no way I can nail down a move-in date.

After all the trees were taken care of, I thought we were finally on the path forward.  But on Wednesday I received word that we were going to need to find someone else to do our septic tie-in and drywall work...the guy we had lined up for that was MIA.  

To be honest, I had a breakdown.  Thursday night I was feeling the overwhelm...I WANT to get the work done, but I CAN'T and the ones who CAN, AREN'T.  I'm trying to juggle two houses, two cars, budgeting the finances, caring for the baby, cleaning, cooking, taking care of my own health, and I can't do it all.

After spending some time having fun, I spent yesterday and today searching for new contractors who can help us finish our house.  Pray we can find the right people.  I reached out to half a dozen.  I may be meeting one company on Tuesday.      

At this rate, it'll be next year before we get to live in our new house.

So close to inspection!

I had to wake up at 7am this morning, leave our apartment at 8am, drive almost an hour to our new house, and hook up the lift to tow it back to the rental store by 10am.  I did it all by myself!  Then I went back to our new house and tidied up the trash pile outside, sealed around our skirting vents with spray foam, and scraped the old glue off the edge of the countertops where the tile had been.  I wish I'd had my broom and dust pan to clean up the mess but I'll just bring them next time. 

While I was there, the electric guy came by again to inspect the trees and gave us the green light as far as they go.  That's right...THE TREES ARE DONE!  Finally, no more of this "you have more trees to cut" nonsense!  Now we just need the inspection done and the blue sticker of approval to get power on! 

But to get the inspection done, we need just a few more things:

1.  Septic tie in (hooking up the septic tank to the house drain pipes, which our drywall guy is going to do for us tomorrow & the next day)
2. HVAC to finish being hooked up (I talked to our HVAC guy today and he said someone messed with the box of 14" flex duct he had and cut off part of it, so now he doesn't have enough and has to use something else.  He's also missing a few other pieces he needs and is working on getting them).
3.  The last outside light in the front needs to be installed.
4.  The underbelly needs to be taped up if there are any holes/tears in it.

I need to go back to the house to trim off the excess foam from around the vents so they look nicer, and clean up the messes I made with the old glue.  I wish I could vacuum in there, but that'll have to wait. 

Now I gotta figure out a good primer, get the whitewash paint for the cabinets, and figure out how much we'll need...and start packing...

My First Time Towing!

 Today was my first time towing anything - and I did it all by myself!  After Max & I borrowed a triple ball trailer hitch mount with a hook from my dad, we drove to the rental place to sign for the boom lift.  We were then instructed to talk to the guy in the storage lot and he had me back up to the lift (done in one shot).  He hooked it up for me and then we were off.  I had to drive up a side road to get to the nearest light so I could make a left to get back on the main road, since the entrance I came in was blocked by a concrete traffic median.  Everything went pretty smoothly on our 26 minute ride to the house.  Once we were on the main road into our neck of the woods, the lift did fishtail a little but slowing down got it to stop.  I took turns slow and drove around the long way so that I could back it into the driveway easier.  It took a few attempts (even after watching videos about how to do so) but I did it!

Tomorrow afternoon our drywall guy is going to start trimming and cutting.  We should have everything done for the electric guy to come out and inspect things on Monday.  

While I was there, I removed 3 broken door knobs on the inside.  Two will be replaced by the new door knobs I got this week.  They are so pretty!  I plan to replace them as I can so they all match.  The current ones are cheap and falling apart.  Here are the new ones:

I also got a shot of the fridge, which fits PERFECTLY. I was so afraid we'd have to remove the cabinet over it, but thankfully we don't!