3127 I'm in the house

Friday, October 15, 2010

He who laughs last, thinks slowest.

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I'm writing this from the new house. It'll be quick, because I have to get back up the river before Jasper chews his way into the pantry.

The builder's lawyer finally came up with the total I needed for the cashier's check at 10:30 am on Wednesday. I had to leave by 11 am to go to my bank, get the check, and make it down here for closing, with no time to spare. That means there was no time for a final walkthrough, which made me very unhappy.

The closing went ok on Wednesday, except that the builder absolutely refused to do anything about the poor grading on the north side of the yard. My lawn is a foot higher than the neighbor's lawn, butted against a wire fence which the builder folks apparently thought would serve as a retaining wall. Soil is, of course, already washing through the fence onto the neighbor's flower bed. Regrading would require another county/township inspection, and he refuses. Oh, well. To be addressed between me and the neighbor sometime later.

I stayed here Wednesday night and last night. Wednesday night the heat didn't go on. The fan blew, but it was blowing cold air. It got down to 57 degrees by morning. I do not do cold well! A call to the builder Thursday morning produced his furnace man, who found that the gas valve at the furnaces hadn't been opened. (I did have hot water and stove....)

I vacuumed, mopped, did some other puttering around. Shopped for necessities, including a washer and dryer. I discovered that what I thought was spackle dust on the living room floor is actually a very fine paint spray, that scrubbing with a scrubby sponge won't remove. A very nice clerk in Home Depot said "Goof Off" would do it, and we even tested it on store samples of my flooring to verify that it wouldn't remove the finish. So that's the next job.

I was right to wait until I spent a day here before choosing paint colors. The pale mauve I liked for the living room is beautiful in the morning, but gets depressing in the afternoon. A light peach worked better. I have chips stuck to the walls everywhere, have pretty much settled on all the downstairs chips, and two upstairs.

I need to get the mailbox planted, and the lawn mowed. Maybe Monday.

Back upriver now.
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