biggerboat's building boondoggle blog
I started this in H&F but this seems a better place for it. These are my H&F posts. A bit long-winded but hopefully entertaining. I'm sure more hilarity will ensue.
I've been debating about doing this, and I sort of thought it might qualify as health and/or fitness so I'm gonna do it.
A little background. I have a very old house that I started to remodel about 10 years ago, then ran out of money and WIM to finish it. I gutted it completely and moved walls and did a lot of interior work. But I never did anything with the exterior.
It is sort of falling apart now. The roof leaks and a lot of the wood siding is so rotten I can stick my finger through it. It needs to be completely replaced.
I just paid the house off so I can sort of afford to completely re-side and re-roof it..............if I do it myself. Another factor is I just got out of a serious relationship and now I have way too much time on my hands. I'm going a little stir crazy.
Now to the health tie-in. The last few years I just haven't been able to do things like this. I used to be able to work sunrise to sundown. But lately I'd be good for about 2 or 3 hours and my back would just tell me to stop. However, due to this forum, my back is really feeling strong again. I think I'm up for the challenge. The other health aspect is mental. I don't feel good unless I have some sort of challenge like this. It gives me something to look forward to. I'm really needing something like this about now.
So, I think I'll sort of log this activity as well as lifting. I'll have to cut back on lifting/running some. Mostly due to time considerations. I'll be working on the house on Saturday/Sunday so no lifting/running on those days.
I haven't committed to this quite yet, but I think I'm close.
On the house front. I went to the city website to see what permits I'll need. It was so confusing that I called, got an answering machine, and never got a call back. So, I went down to city hall to ask some very basic questions. Apparently the appropriate question answerers are only there MWF but a substitute question answerer was available. So, after waiting 1/2 hour the substitute question answerer informed me that he couldn't really answer my question so he told me to come back when the real question answerer was there.
I suspect this will not be healthy in any way.
I tweaked my back Wednesday doing deadlifts.
The back pain has nothing on the pain the city is inflicting on me, though.
Went back to talk to someone again. I at least got the right day. The girl was really friendly and helpful. However, she seemed to not really know what all I was supposed to do. Which, as you will see, nobody could.
The first thing she did was pull up my address.
Apparently, there were 3 expired permits associated with my house. About 10 (or more) years ago, I did a big remodel. I did it mostly myself. The first permit was for an interior remodel. I had to get electrical, plumbing, framing and probably more permits. I remember having each one signed off on. However, apparently there was a final inspection that I never got. This is just conjecture based on what she said and my hazy memory. The second was for a garage. I hired a contractor to pour the slab and I framed and finished it. Apparently the slab inspection failed but the framing inspection passed. I'm not sure how this happens. I really don't recall any of this. The third one was for a bedroom addition. I never did this. I do not recall even applying for this. But, it is there. More on this later.
So I asked a lot of questions and the girl was very polite when she had to repeatedly excuse herself to ask someone else that knew the answers. From what I gathered I can do most of the work on something they call an express permit. However, if I want add a small porch roof I will need site drawings, impervious cover documents, elevation drawings, detailed framing plans and flood plain people approval. At minimum.
Back to the old permits. The girl indicated that I could fill out a form to remove the permit for the addition since I never did it. She then sent me to someone named Tony on another floor to figure out what to do with the other ones. Tony, it seems, did not have his coffee this morning. Either that or he was just an *******. I'll give him the benefit of the doubt. He told me they couldn't do anything about any of them since he had no idea if I even did any work or not. Which is problematic since I can't get any new permits with these on their computer. After much discussion he agreed to go back downstairs and talk to the friendly girl. Tony then came up and informed me that I needed a Life Safety for Expired Permit permit. He informed me that I needed to go back where I started (the line that I waited over an hour in) to start this process.
So, I go back to the window and explain to them what Tony said. They seemed a bit confused on exactly what a Life Safety for Expired Permit permit was. So, they suggested that what I really need to do is re-submit all three permits and get inspections on the work I did over 10 years ago. Even if I didn't do the work. They then put my name in the computer to talk to someone. However, the number of people waiting had swelled considerably and I had already been there 2 1/2 hours so I think I'll tackle this another day.
The holidays were crazy, but I guess that's the case with a lot of people.
We got an offer on the house the day before Christmas Eve. Woot! Inspection tomorrow. Should be fine.
Biggerwife's daughter and significant other stayed with us for a few days. Then, her family (well, half of it) joined us for a Christmas Eve fest. My sister and niece were supposed to be here, but some unexpected "stuff" happened so they couldn't make it. They tried to reschedule flights for New Year's Eve, but my sister got covid. Fun times.
It is soooooooooo nice to get back to normal.
We managed to get a very short bay fishing trip in. Fishing was slow and the trolling motor broke. Fortunately it's a fairly easy fix once I get a part. The wind here has made offshore fishing impossible for the last couple of months. Ugh.
The book is coming along. It's a grind now. It's so big now that it's hard to manage but I figured it would get harder as I went along.
NYE came and went with the usual onslaught of explosions. I used to love fireworks until I moved to Florida. It's a free-for-all here. They start shooting them off three days before the actual holiday and on NYE it goes from sundown to past 2 am. Some really close. Back in the day it was bottle rockets and black cats. Now it's those huge commercial type fireworks that sound like cannons. I have to say it's wasn't near as bad in the new house as it was in the old house. Mostly older people around here and people that actually respect their neighbors. The whole thing has given me this weird ptsd, though. Just hate it now.
According to Word, I've written almost 70,000 words. I'm getting tot the point where it is so big that I'm getting a little stuck. Plot lines need to be tweaked and most definitely I need to clean up the writing. Just seems monumental right now. I know that I just need to put my head down and whittle away but I'm spending more and more time just staring or procrastinating. - like right now.............
Shoot through a first draft before you clean up anything.
Yeah, that's a good idea.
My sister bought a family subscription of master class. If anyone isn't familiar, it's random "experts" talking about whatever. But I decided to watch a few of James Patterson's talks on writing. I had heard the name but didn't know anything about him or his books. Apparently, some think of him as a bit of a hack. Coming up with ideas but farming out the actual writing to others.
Anyway, he did mention a couple of things to do that would hold the audience's interest which I think I'm going to use. The other thing about his books are very short chapters, something I was worrying about doing. Anyway, I got a couple of little tips that I think might be helpful.
Congratulations on the offer, let's hope it holds up.
I will offer my services as an early reader, but I don't know anything about good writing or bad. Pretty good at spotting typos and that sort of thing though.
The inspection came back with quite a few things, which I guess could be expected. The house is old. It looked a little daunting at first glance, but I think it's manageable. I'll need an ac guy, electrician, plumber, handyman, and someone to fix the seawall.
I've already talked to the first 4 and all of them can get right on it. It seems like maybe like the trade guys aren't swamped as they seem to have been not too long ago. Economy slowdown?
I hope I never have to buy or sell a house again.
Another pro tip - don't hire a real estate agent that is your personal friend.
Things are moving along with the house sale. Well, some things. One of my contractors said he would fix the tub and replace the water heater on Wednesday. Haven't heard from him. Seawall guy said he was out there yesterday to patch it. Haven't heard from him either. Well, when he got to the house he noticed that the lock box was open and the key was in the door. Hmmm....... Starting to believe there's a mysterious presence at the house making contractors disappear.
Title company is moving along.
House is getting appraised today. That seems a little long after the initial contract was signed, but oh well. Fingers crossed.
Boat lift is coming along. Posts are in and the lift is on. They are currently wiring everything. The rain has buggered them some. Might not get done today, but things are moving.
Novel is coming along quite well. I'm happy with the plot and the characters. I just need to get the words down. Then edit them. Again. And again...... At least I don't have any writer's block or anything.
Texted both contractors. Nothing. One has already done work for me and the other was at the house already.
Very mysterious.
Probably next door partying.
We decided to drive over to check everything out. All of the work has been completed. Weird that two different contractors finished work and neither has asked for money.I didn't advance either of them. Strange.
All repairs completed and paperwork sent to whoever needs to see it.
Still sweating the appraisal. Hopefully we are ok.
On a positive note, boat lift is complete! I feel much better now that it is sitting on a lift that is rated for a much heavier boat. Peace of mind.
One more thing. Microsoft sucks. Just sayin'.
Holy Moly this title company. Didn't hear from them. Didn't hear from them. No closing date. Nothing.
Finally, today, they are setting up a mobile notary to come tomorrow. One day's notice. Jeez.
But hey, the house is almost out of our hair. Halelujia (or however you spell it).
I'm able to spend about 3 hours, 4 days a week, on the novel. Not really much time but life happens. My struggle now is to not make it too complicated. I keep wanting to embellish secondary characters and I think it's getting a bit messy. Still feel good about the story, not so good about the actual writing.
Congratulations on (one hopes) getting rid of the party-adjacent house tomorrow!
)^&$)%@!!!!
Just got word that the bank needs one more something or other from the buyer's accountant. They think they will get it tomorrow but are postponing closing until a week from today. WHAT THE LITERAL ****
I know you were in IT or development back in those days, so I assume a pretty ****-together person.
Does it frustrate you as well, when things seem like they should be checklisted and something comes up?
Just today, I got a reminder from the utility company that my payment's close. However, the amount was less than the bill I got last week. After searching around their website and finding no explanation, I called them up.
Turns out my credit for the amount my solar panels produced last year was applied in the interim. Why doesn't it show on the payments list? Well, it's a credit, not a payment.
Of course, suggesting that a) no difference to me and b) perhaps they should re-label that tab and show any kind of credit went nowhere. Frustrating, as it shold be a change on the order of 1-2 hours. Literally, make that tab query for both types, and change the label. That's it, and that's all. Sigh.
I know you were in IT or development back in those days, so I assume a pretty ****-together person.
Does it frustrate you as well, when things seem like they should be checklisted and something comes up?
Just today, I got a reminder from the utility company that my payment's close. However, the amount was less than the bill I got last week. After searching around their website and finding no explanation, I called them up.
Turns out my credit for the amount my solar panels produced last year was a
Yes, stuff like that drives me insane.
Some time this year I will be inventing the debit, along with T accounts, and all will be solved.
Up until the 12th Century, a lot of people had the same problem as Goldog's utility company.
Closed on the house! Woot.
Congratulations!
Over in P&S, you mentioned going fishing. (I read, but don't feel qualified to comment there). Anything good from the sea?
