This blog is changing formats. Thanks to an errant sewer line this is no longer a home construction blog, it’s a sit in the corner and cry in your drink blog.

The city is taking full responsibility for the pipe that inexplicably runs under our would-be home (inexplicable because it’s not inside the easement as marked on the plat). Which only makes sense because they’re the only ones allowed to lay sewer lines.

While we’re waiting to decide the outcome of our current options,* this space will morph into a catalog of the cocktails I consume during this amazingly ridiculous and disappointing time.

Stop by every Friday for a new cocktail! I’ll include the recipes so you can drink along with me if you want. In preparation for this adventure, you should stock your liquor cabinet with a lot of whiskey, gin, and bitters. Put a lemon in your grocery basket too – we need our vitamin c.

* Current Options:

1. The city will move the pipe. This is a more difficult proposition than you might think and will likely involve the Corps of Engineers, thanks to the shoreline at the “lake.” This might be the cheapest option for the city, but it still comes at a price – in addition to the cost associated with moving the pipe they’ll have to compensate us for repairs to all the work already completed by the builder, compensation for time delays, plus compensation for additional expenses related to our construction loan.

2. We will completely redraw the house plans around the pipe. The cost of this option includes compensation for the construction work done to date, compensation for the loss of property, compensation for all fees associated with renegotiating our construction loan, and compensation for all architectural and engineering fees related to the original house design.

3. The city will simply buy the land from us allowing us to start over somewhere else (not really an option in my book, but after all we’ve been through this one is not off the table yet).

Any one of these options will be costly, so I like to think a city employee or two might choose to imbibe alongside us.