There’s a question that dogs me these days, everywhere I go. Everyone wants to know the same thing: “How’s the house coming along?”
My answer is always the same: It’s not coming along at all, really. No one’s done any real work on our house for months. We are living in half our house and basically pretending the other half doesn’t exist. My virtual buddy from Bloomington, Lee the Magic Man, asks, “Is it getting close?” No, it’s not anywhere near close. I wish it was.
I don’t begrudge people asking about the house. I just wish I could gripe in response, but I can’t because if ever I do complain, inevitably the person I’m talking to has a sadder story than me. Mike swears he’s going to have someone here on Monday to start rewiring. And of course I believe him. After all, I ate Thanksgiving dinner at his house. We’re practically family.
My contractor watched my dogs while I went away. My house, like yours is still a mess. I ignore it too.
Ah Dralin’ Betts and I are in the same boat. Been six weeks since the gutting and remediation was finished, we have our SBA flowing, and we can’t get a house raiser (they come out but haven’t submitted bids.)
I don’t know what to safely do until the house reaches it’s new height. I mean, can I put in the new flooring first? Is it safe to make the interior changes we desire before the raising? Will we be messing up if I put in the insulation and the walls first? It’s a Catch-22.
In the next few months folks will be getting their Block Grant monies and then all of us will be back-logged for rebuilding, and also getting screwed by the new Supply/Demand paradigm we will all find ourselves in.
This cannot stand. We need to be able to bring in qualified contractors from outside the Gret Stet. Our locals are already overwhelmed… they can’t do it all. (And I’ll be damned if it’s going to take another year to get back into our home.) None of us should be subjected to that scenario.
I have other thoughts on this situation, but I’m gonna have to Blog it. There’s just too many evil possibilities from my way of seeing in the current conundrum that New Orleans is in.
Senn Fein!
Tell ya what: you can gripe at me. I bought an old house in Ohio, knowing it was in need of repair, and while we’ve reached the stage where the contractors aren’t coming regularly anymore, our own work is stalled out.
I know you’ve got extenuating circumstances, but there’s plenty of us in the general “rehabbing the house” population who’ll understand.
I know the feeling… I just say what the last thing I finished working on was and say its “moving along.” Problem solved! Actually I’ve been losing sleep thinking about how I’ll tackle the next project, and the next. In 3-6 months I’ll be sipping tea on the porch wondering what to do with all my spare time.