I know you are all losing sleep over this like I am, so here are your updates!
First, the insurance saga continues. I think we are close to figuring out a solution, but it’s a few more hundred dollars out of pocket to make sure we have the appropriate insurance to protect the entire property and our belongings. The long and short of it is that there never should have been a change requested to our policy, but since there was the insurance company rejected the new coverage which resulted in the cancellation of our homeowners insurance. It’s extra complicated by the fact that we have out buildings (barn and detached garage), not just the property under construction. Lesson for those at home that ever take on a project like this is that you should talk to your insurance provider, figure our if it makes the most sense for you to carry the policy or your contractor, have them document everything, and never close on a loan when your insurance guy is on vacation.
Also, the labeling didn’t really work on everything in the house, I almost cried when I discovered this cabinet had been junked. Not because I was sad about the cabinet, but mainly because Mike was right when he told me the week before that we should just take the time to remove it so nothing happened to it. I kid. We saved all the upstairs cabinets to potentially be reused downstairs if we put in a mother-in-law apartment and this was the last one to the set. Heartbreaking.
Last week they got the east foundation dug out. See the house plans here if you aren’t familiar. It’s a crazy big hole even though the house is only coming out about 5 feet on that side. The gas company hadn’t come out to move the gas yet, so they couldn’t finish that side out completely.
A few more photos from that stage that I never got around to posting last week are below.
Darwin took one look at the hole and wagged his finger at the excavator and said, “No, no, no.” He told me that the tractor made a huge mess and it was in trouble. He still tells me that the tractors stole the house, but they are going to put a new one in the hole so it’s okay. Poor little guy, it’s a lot to take in!
We have to pay to have all this dirt trucked out of here, so I am working on finding people on Facebook that want it all. Who knew that dirt brokering was such a lucrative business? Tomorrow we hopefully have a couple coming to get it all for their back yard and that will save us some money.
Fast forward to today and now all the sudden inside is outside and outside is inside because windows and walls are coming out!
A lot of demo has been done, but there is still a lot to do. Both the bathrooms still need to come out, the exterior of the entire house is coming off, and there are exterior walls that need to be removed, including large sections of the existing foundation. We are on our second dumpster already and there is so much more that needs to go.
We don’t have internet again. When they took the utility panel off the back of the house, the cable apparently ran through it. Darwin is devastated that Netflix is not working. We do have a port-a-potty though, so that’s a pretty good trade-off, right? I am hoping Darwin never discovers what it actually is or I will be taking 11pm trips to the port-a-potty, I guarantee it!
We met with the contractors and are finishing up most of the color selections and finishes. We have all the flooring, all the tile, the exterior finishes, and the cabinets picked. We just need to finish up by selecting countertops, backsplash tile, and a paint color. It’s a lot of work and it’s hard to visualize it all coming together so it will be exciting when it does. I feel like every time we meet we think of something that we didn’t specifically include in the bid like window well covers, an outside railing around the new basement stairs, egress ladders, etc. I really like our contractors though. They are very on top of things and pretty calm and collected which makes me feel better.
Trailer living is trailer living. I think the only part I really hate is dishes. Our sink is so small and the kitchen really has no space to dry everything. I need bottles for Trixie so it’s a bit of a never-ending process. Showers are similar, the shower has hot water and works just fine, but it’s just so small and I love a good bath so it’s hard to get used to really fast and cramped showers. Laundry is sometimes a problem, but not too bad. Mike had to run to his parents and do an emergency load of kid bedding on Monday for the first time, but at least we have options. We accidentally unplugged the trailer this weekend when we went to the lake house and lost all the food in the trailer fridge- we just weren’t thinking about it and were so used to closing everything up like we did before when we were hooked up to a converter. It’s been hot in Utah this week, a few days in the triple digits, but we’re decently comfortable all things considered. It just takes a while to cool the trailer off when we get home at night. It has pretty good storage everywhere except the kitchen and in our room, but having so much space in the garage and that being so close means thats not too big of an issue.
I’ll try to update again this weekend as I suspect there will be lots of big noticeable changes around here the rest of the week!