Nine more days to go until D Day! Over the last week I have been busy trying to tie all the loose ends
together before the insulators come in on April 2nd. However I found time to have one more big
project. I decided to level the kitchen floor in prep of the tile installation. In order to do this Clint and I
had to jack up the support beams and put pump jacks under them until we could get the floor mostly
level.I say mostly because A) the house is 128 years old and B) the kitchen floor joins with the new
addition. All in all though, the floor looks good. Once the floor was leveled I went to work with the help
of Arnold and we built supporting walls in the basement which allowed us to remove the pump jacks
and frame out Pattie's wine cellar at the same time.I am still waiting for the arrival of the siding so I can
finish that up before April 2nd as well.
Today is supposed to be the day that the people buying our house sell theirs. Of course this did not
happen, however it is now planned for Thursday and everything is a go, we hope. On our end we are
supposed to close on Friday however our bank threw in a last minute kink saying that they had thought
we would be paying of the loan on Cross Point as well as Boothbay Harbor and needed us to do that in
order to release the Boothbay property. It is quite apparent that we can not do this if we could we
would not have taken a loan to begin with nor would we be waiting for our house to sell to finish the
project. It seems with banks as with lawyers all logic is lost in every transaction.Anyhow to make a
long story shorter the bank sent out an appraiser on Thursday and we are waiting for everything to be
worked out. Both the bank and the apprasier said there should be nothing to worry about.that is the
part that worries me. so now we sit and wait with less than 44 hours to go.
The house should be all set to go by Saturday provided the Boothbay house sells Friday.
FINALLY !!!!.........Finally we sold the Boothbay Harbor House. Friday afternoon at 3:20 we signed
papers and received our money, now we can begain to end the first stage of the project.
All the electrical wiring is done, the alarm system is wired (thank you to Protection One for your quick
service on such short notice) the plumbing is all set and Pattie and I will clean up the house this
weekend so it will be ready for the insulation people on Monday. The sheet rock arrives on Friday and
the sheet rockers start the following Monday. So with renewed spirit and checkbook it is off to the
finish!
Monday was the day the insulators started. They were supposed to be there at 7:00 am and they
showed around 9:00. It took them a while to get going as they needed to have a bathroom on the site
for their workers but never mentioned that to me. So we were able to get the toilet in the barn working
by pouring a bucket of water in it each time. By 1:00 they had left as one of the workers was not
feeling well and so the whole crew headed back home. Tuesday arrived and they started insulating the
ceilings and and they put in a whole day of work. However I was informed that they would not be
there Wednesday as they had a training meeting. While I inspected Tuesdays work I noticed the ceiling
had too much insulation and that it was pillowing which would cause the sheetrock to buckle and
bow. The foreman assurred me they would take care of this problem and that Thursday they would be
all done so that the sheetrockers could start on schedule. So Thursday morning the foreman calls to
say the snow was too much for them to come up (we had 12 inches of snow that night) and that they
would have to work on Friday instead.I reminded him of the original commitment of Wednesday as a
finish date and that the boom truck was showing up Friday with the sheetrock. Reluctantly he agreed
to come up Thursday. I stopped by Thursday afternoon and visited them. The place was looking good
and they said they would need to finish Friday but they had made enough progress that the sheetrock
could be delivered. The product is great I must say very warm and very quiet. So Friday arrives and
the sheetrock shows up and I stop by on my lunch break to check on the insulators progress. They
are done and gone great! That is until I start to look closer.The pillowing problem has not been fixed.
The basement, second floor and third floor have not been cleaned and upon further inspection all the
wiring for the interior kitchen wall between the laundry room and 1/2 bath have been pulled into the
bathroom and laundry room. All these wires were marked microwave, coffee machine etc. but now
they are set to be wired into my bathroom. I tried to push the wires back into the correct location and
this caused the insulation to fall out so I stopped and decided to wait until Monday when they come
back to fix everything else they did not do. The foreman has been great but his workers have not been
and this is why he should have been up there checking everything out prior to the workers leaving. It
is a shame as it will cost them money and cost me time and fustration. Hopefully Monday when the
sheetrockers come we will be able to put them to work in another area as they fix the problems.