Day 66: Under Contract!

Eager buyer who loves the place and wanting to get in before the 4/30 deadline for the $8000 tax credit. This will make life much simpler for us.

New roof completed. Waiting on plumbing to be finished, which it will be tomorrow morning, and we can call the lender in for another much needed infusion of moolah

Day 38: The wagons are moving again!

Went down about lunchtime pleasantly surprised to see Oscar has finished laying down the siding on at least 2 sides of the house. He had to haul the stuff over in two loads because it wouldn't fit on his trailer. He'd brought a 3rd guy in to help. Hopefully he'll be done with a good chunk of the porch by the time Marc shows up on Wednesday

Day 34: (April 1) Not April Fools Day

The inspector finally showed up and passed the work Oscar has completed but (as expected) found fault with the roof rafters. Apparently about 21 or so of them need to be replaced. Oscar is suggesting some kind of "cathedral" style ceiling. Hmm. And the living room windows on either side of the front door either need to be moved further away from the door (which means making them smaller since we don't have much space on that front facing living room wall) or they need to be strengthened with tempered glass (they don't want some innocent burgler breaking in to bust his hand on regular glass). I don't want less light in the living room, so I think we'll go for the latter.

Day 33 (March 31): Nothing + Nothing = Nothing

After Scott sorted out the mess regarding the missing code to call in, the inspector (Jesus Something) was supposed to show up on Tuesday but didn't. Upon further inquiry, turns out some piece of paperwork he needed was missing. A piece of paperwork that was originally supplied when we applied for the permit. He's supposed to show up Thursday, but seeing that's April Fools day, it might just be a joke.

More $ woes. Our account is overdrawn. Someone who was supposed to come through with money by the end of the month completely dropped the ball, screwing not just me over but the project too. Nice.

Day 28 (Fri March 26): Nothing

Turns out Oscar didn't actually call in the inspection on Thursday like he said he would, supposedly because his workers didn't show up. This despite me giving him a check on Wednesday evening to avert exactly this scenario. I asked him to be sure this kind of thing doesn't happen again, but I'm limited in how much leverage I have. (He has this big restaurant remodel in San Marcos that his guys seem itching to start work on). He tried calling it in today but he needs some kind of code which was missing in the permit paperwork that Scott was given. No-one was able to actually go into the City and of course they don't answer phones down there, so now we have to wait until Monday to sort it out and Tuesday at the earliest before the inspector arrives. There's nothing Oscar can do until the new interior framing, exterior wall, and subflooring are approved. Meanwhile, the clock's a ticking.

Day 26 (March 24): 2nd Draw

We almost have a newly constructed house - new walls in most places, new framing, new joists, new subflooring. I really hope some home buyer appreciates all this!

The permits have been issued at long last! City had to make sure we werent' destroying a "historic home". Right.

Finally completed some items (New bathroom wall, closet, windows!) that are actually on the draw schedule so we can get paid for them. Lender seems pretty happy with how things are looking. Oscar is going to call in the inspection for Friday. He's pretty sure about everything except the roof rafters.

Once we start putting in some stuff we better make sure we have security. Oscar says some dude showed up one evening, wire cutters in hand, ready to get to "work" surprised to see contractors still there..

Day 15: the bleeding has stopped

For now. I say "for now" because a couple of the the roof rafters may need to be replaced and possibly a good chunk of the wiring - but that'll depend on the inspector). Gave Oscar $1000 today so he could pay his workers. The plumber is going to need $3000 on Monday morning so he can get cracking. If all goes well, both the reframing and the plumbing can be inspected on Wednesday and we should be back on track (and only a week behind schedule, not to mention "only" $6000 in the red) by Thursday.