Saturday, September 26, 2009

Resuming...

So here we are, let me see, almost 6 months later, really wanting to start this blog back up again! They were not dull months by any means, rather, they were action packed and full of drama, hence the lack of typing time. During this blog hiatus, I said goodbye to my live-able house, my four+ year relationship, and, sadly, mourned the loss of four family members.

But enough of the bad news. The good news is I sold the other house so I am free to begin work in earnest on this one, and jettisoned the ball & chain that was my ex. I feel as though a thousand pounds has been lifted from me. I am currently crafting the final plans and working on getting quotes from the various trades before I pursue construction financing. I continue to go up to the site once a week at least, although tangible progress is limited, my time there is mostly spent keeping up the mowing, weedwacking, etc., in order to prevent the yard from being reclaimed by the encroaching jungle. Some days, like today, we (by we I mean my father and I) actually manage to clear more weeds and brush. But it's a bit of a fluke, as we had to weed-eat and hand saw & clip because the mower deck is out for repair, when we took it off to replace the beat-up blades yesterday (did I mention all the camouflaged rocks in the yard?) we found a bearing to be bad, so off to the repair shop it went. I no longer have the tools necessary for that job, thanks to the aforementioned ex (but I'm not bitter).

The only "real" progress to report is the restoration of permanent power! The electrical service has been updated to a 200A panel, and several temporary circuits tied in, as well as the garage sub-panel. So the main house has outlets on every floor, basement to attic, and the entire garage is powered, lights and outlets. Next I will start demolishing the old BX that is left throughout the house, as well as roughing in the new branch circuits. I expect to be able to do a lot now that there is light, however I feel a bit chastened when I think that this behemoth was originally built well before the days of electricity!