It’s late, so a fast update.
In no particular order:
- Gravel trucker will stop by in the morning to assess our “driveway”. To allow for a pull-in one or two cars deep, we need a load of gravel to bring the grade up to the level of the roadway. Later in the season, and as budget permits, we’ll plot out the rest of the semi-circle and condition it.
- Internet (DSL) and phone are ordered, will be turned on tomorrow.
- Chimney inspection scheduled for next Wednesday.
- Address officially changed with USPS.
- Applied for Maine auto insurance, expect a quote tomorrow or Friday.
- Picked up a ‘portable potty’ — basically a bucket with a seat — to ease our workdays at the house prior to the completion of heat and plumbing. Though we may extend that to a full-fledged Porta-John, which are not that expensive to rent. We shall see.
- Meeting the heating contractor in the morning for a detailed walk-through of their bid, hopefully to sign a contract and make a down payment, and schedule the job.
- The electric contractor, previously scheduled for noon Friday – repeated here so I don’t forget.
- Spoke with the tax assessors — our purchase price was MUCH less than the current assessment, but the sale price may not be applicable as the seller was a bank, and thus may not be considered an ‘arms-length’ transaction. However, they CAN take into account the condition as of April 1, and as it had no heat, no running water, was half-gutted, and was not habitable, it should figure quite favorably into an abatement. We’ll know more in 3-5 weeks.
Finally, finished the night with a visit to Mark, a dear friend of my sister-in-law, and an experienced general contractor. He was the one who had made the original builder’s inspection of the house when we were making an offer, and now that we have some walls and ceilings down, and actually own it, I’m leaning on him again to provide guidance on our overall renovation approach.
We had an invaluable conversation that ranged across the wacky load-bearing beam, plumbing standards, the attic insulation, the staircase, and more. He’s going to be doing a lot of work at a different property about 1/2-hour from us over the next few months, and has offered his time on an as-needed basis to plot out each stage of our project, and in some cases, provide tools and hands-on assistance.
That’s a good friend. And I’m hoping to repay him with a trompe l’oeil mural. His wife would like cherubs. Who wouldn’t?
You read this far. Here’s some eye-candy from last week:
