week 4,

so this week has been crazy. We have been trying to get power all week and to get all of the permits needed... well with this caused some serious craziness.
The power needed a temporary poll and a inspection and then someone to turn it on. Hopefully that will be taken care of.
We went to get the permits for the existing house and they asked if we had any trees on the property, and we do, a really big one. Well apparently, here is Charleston they are trying to preserve everything, so if a tree is over 24 inches in diameter, which ours definitely is, you can not build within so many feet of it. With our tree, we were off the chart with how huge it is, but we have to build at least 14 feet away from the tree, which is putting us super close to where we wanted to build our addition. We had to have a tree specialist come in and say we could or couldn't build where we wanted to. If he said no, we would have to move our addition back and change it around, which means we have to change our blueprints, all of them...
well I prayed all Sunday night that this tree guy would be nice and say that it all looks good....
He came yesterday and said that he saw no problem with us keeping with the plans we already had, but to have no liability on his end he wants us to hire a Arborist, or a tree Dr. to come in and write a letter saying that everything is ok. So with a little prayer and an official letter, we will be able to keep our addition the same.
We went to get the permits and they wouldn't release it to us until the previous contractor sends in a letter saying that he is not liable to the construction now. Well he has been "out of town" for 2 days so we had to call and call for him to fax in his little letter. That happened yesterday so I went to get the permits....Eliza and I being 9 months pregnant went to the permit office. Eliza hates elevators so she was crying hysterically when we went into the office. All of the contractor men and workers all came out, like "who is this, babies are not allowed in here" , because apparently I am not their run of the mill contractor picking up permits. So I went back to the house to put up our permit and there was a stop-work order form on our door.... well the permit fixed that..... but the good news is that WE HAVE A DOOR, WINDOWS AND WALLS ... yeah
the next big thing is we need a permit for the addition and turn the power on.
Our expected finish day is now towards the end of September, which is a little more believable.
but now we have walls, windows, a door, and a preserved tree.

week 3 of the house

we have had some complications so far,,, as usual. We were using power for all of the power tools and such, but Monday afternoon, when everyone went to lunch, the power company cut our power. Now we need to get an inspection, which we will fail, before it is turned back on. So it has slowed us down 2-3 days. our neighbors were nice enough to let us borrow some power this week so we could keep working. The new framing is all complete so we will be starting on putting up the outside walls again,,, yeah my house has walls. We hopefully will be starting on the addition by next week. This first part of putting in the new studs for the old ones is the most tedious work. i think that it looks really good. David has been working like a dog. I am so proud of him to be building this house with his own two hands... your a stud.

just because

She had a rubberband in her mouth and so she was a little distracted....

Baby update... I am doing well. Still looking at August 20 sometime. It is hot here but I can endure 5 more weeks. I just pray that our house is livable by September 1st.

house update

We are going to try to give you a weekly update of the progress of the house. we have owned the house for 5 days now and here are a few pics of the "improvements" we have made. I am a little bit scared at this point, but I must be patient. I feel like I am watching one of those "flip this house" and at the end of a half hour I see the finished product.... my half hour will be a little longer.

This is the front of our house, as you can tell they have torn out all of the bushes, walls, siding... well everything accept the ceiling.this is the bathroom

Eliza's toys

Eliza doesn't have any fancy toys. I have a old water bottle with some beans in it and it is her rattle. Here she is playing with popcorn kernels, she played with this for nearly an hour and she never put it in her mouth. She loves to play with my lotions, Q-tips, books, paper and pens, cards, dominoes and anything else she can get her hands on. She is a cutie

Home Owners

It is true. David and I are home owners... now that sounds fine and dandy but wait until you see the house. It is a huge "fixer-upper". It is our way of trying to invest. We got a great deal on the house and we are putting some money into to fix it up and repair the damage in the walls. It is termite damage.

It is a little less than 1000 square feet but we will be adding on to that. It has a decent yard and a great big tree. Below are the before pictures and we are hoping that over the next 60 days we will be able to put up some "after" pictures.

The closing was horrible. Nothing went smoothly, the insurance, the seller, it was all chaos and I am glad that it is over. We did it and I am hoping that the next time will go a little smoother and I am a little more educated about the whole process.