Category Archives: Adventures with the City

The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly

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The Good

They installed the windows several weeks ago. It’s difficult to get a decent picture of them. Perhaps taking panoramic shots on a phone’s camera with shaky arms after a long day of physical labor isn’t best. Still, this will give you a general idea of how things look:

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See the protective film on the windows? I will use a rudimentary knife fashioned from a flat head screwdriver to shank the person who tries to pull that film off before I get to it. Some people do bubble wrap. I peel film. It must stay on until the drywall is up and everything is painted. It’s killing me.

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Look! In the sky! It’s a bird…it’s a plane…

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We have a foundation!

And some other stuff!

As the crew was pouring, I kept looking up, certain I would see pigs gliding across the sky on newly sprouted wings.

As with everything else associated with this project, this was not an easy task. The pour itself went flawlessly, but issues with the city the day before nearly threw us off track again. No need to bore you with the details, but you should know we’re grateful to the one person in the Public Works Department who gets things done. If we were younger, we would name a child after him.

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Now Serving

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It’s been a little over two months since the last update. This update wasn’t supposed to happen until they poured the foundation because, let’s face it, it’s not really a building project until the foundation goes in, right? We still have no foundation, but here’s an update anyway.

We’re in the middle of a beautiful spell of weather and we were so hopeful concrete trucks would work their magic this week, but a meeting with our builder burst that little bubble. It seems we’re not the only project in the world (gasp!) and the projects in line ahead of us have dealt with the same nasty weather so everyone is behind.

It feels a bit like standing at a deli counter, looking up at a sign that says Now Serving #76, then looking down at the #149 ticket in your hand. I’m not typically a negative person, but I fully expect to be in the middle of a six-week-long ice storm by the time they call our number.

All is not lost, though. Here’s what has happened in the last couple of months:

We ordered windows while they were on sale. The sale allowed us to upgrade the energy efficiency of the glass while staying below budget (win/win!). Unfortunately, the manufacturer wouldn’t hold them indefinitely – the exact amount of time this project will take – so they’re living in a storage unit near the construction site.

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Sloe/Slow Progress

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I’ve taken to drinking sloe gin. Except it’s spelled s-l-o-w around here, just like the work on the sewer pipe.

After serious delays due to weather – we can’t curse the rain that came in mid-late November since Texas has long been in a serious drought (but oh how I would like to) – the city moved the pipe and constructed a new manhole. Typed out, it seems all easy-peasy, but reality is far different.

Step One: Digging out the old pipe.
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Dour Whiskey Sour

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For those of you just catching up, we’ve run into a problem with a wayward pipe causing problems severe enough to possibly scrap this whole project, so now I’m doing the only grown-up thing I can think of: drowning my sorrows in liquor (my husband, as always, is being a better grown-up by not drinking and not wallowing).

Originally, this was Whiskey Sour Week but in keeping with the theme of this house project, “WSW” ran into a problem too. The issue with this drink rests solely on the shoulders of the bourbon .

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Pond Proximity, Plumbing, and Peanuts

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Last we spoke, the house was impinging on the pond. Nothing has changed – it’s still a problem. Fortunately, the fix isn’t too spectacular (note: spectacular is code for freakin’ expensive). You can see proposed drawings of the revision by clicking “continue reading” below. This problem is still a dent in the pocketbook – not only ours, but also the builder who had to pay for a new survey and lost man-hours. Conversations about how to make this right are in the works.

In the meantime, the plumber is on standby to start his job, but I think the city is trying to decide something about drains before they’ll sign off on plumbing permits. I don’t remember the details of the issue, honestly. Any time someone on this project says “the city” my brain shuts off and the person speaking takes on the tone of an adult in a Peanuts cartoon.

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