The next took a little longer but was still very easy. Trim the trees over the house. Most had been trimmed already but these were over the covered patio. Okay, done.
The third was a loose shingle and peeling paint on the window trim outside the downstairs window. Nail the shingle, scrape, patch and paint the trim. Done.
The fourth was not so easy. Well, it was, but... We had blue tarps on the roof. For good reason! We are worried about leaks. Taking the tarps off was the easy part. Praying for no rain was important, here. God is good! No rain! So, Dan and Bob (thank you, Bob!) have been working on the roof. Now, what the roof really needs is a complete tear off and re-do, but there's no time or money for that right now. So, the next best thing is to tear off the really bad parts and do some proper patching. The roof has some really funky shapes to it - parts that are raised for whatever unforeseeable reason and other weird junctions due to the strangeness of the additions. Anyway, the guys have been hard at work setting things right. Or at least making it so we don't have leaks. Countless hours have been spent on the roof on the weekends. We all appreciate your hard work, guys!!! So, crisis averted, our insurance has been reinstated. Yay!
Oops! In the process of fixing the roof stuff - and getting our insurance reinstated - the insurance company noticed that we have several different types of roofing. Rolled composite (??), shingles, corrugated metal and ??? Anyway, They don't insure houses with rolled or corrugated metal roofs. We were told that they will cover us for initial year, but unless we re-do the roof with an acceptable material we will be dropped on September 29, 2012. No problem! We'll just add that to the long list of 'must do, ASAP'. :-)
Another interesting thing that happened was that we received the bill for our first full month of gas/electric usage. Well, let me back up. Toward the end of November we received our first bill. It was for about two weeks worth of time, during which we didn't yet live here. That bill was less than $40. I loved it but figured we'd be hit with a big bill after we were in the house. Nope. Next bill came about ten days ago. Less than $80, and, we'd been in the house the entire month of the billing! Hmm... Upon looking closer Dan noticed that our electric usage was ZERO. Not possible. I can't remember if I wrote about the whole electric meter snafu before we moved in...PG&E wouldn't put in a new meter because the previous inhabitants had bypassed the meter and were stealing power...did I blog about that? Anyway, it was a mess and had to be fixed - by Fannie Mae, not us, thankfully. Obviously the meter went in - a new one at that, so what is the problem now? Well, I called and after quite a conversation I was transferred to an asset specialist. I explained the issue and told him we didn't want to get hit with a $500 bill down the road so I was calling to find out what was going on. He told me that it would be investigated (and, yes, he was very clear about noting that I was the one who called and reported the problem). I further explained the issue we had before moving in and he did some checking. It seems it's not only possible to bypass the meter, but it's possible to do it two different ways! Who knew???? Rhetorical question, obviously, since the previous owners knew, apparently. So, eventually someone will be out to check on things at the meter. In the meantime, we are not using any power, according to PG&E. So, we see the savings now, but we'll have to pay to have whatever the problem is fixed. Hmm... I think I would have rather had no issues, here.
On a much more pleasant note, school is out for the semester so the girls and I are around more. I've been working on my little office. I say little because it's smaller than my last office (10' x 12' with a sizable closet). This office is about 8' x 9+' with a corner (2 x 2 1/2') cut out. And not really any usable closet. I really like the space, though. It's just been a challenge to find a place for everything. By everything, I mean...desk, filing, sewing, quilting, crocheting, drawing, oil painting, beading, photography, Avon business and last, but not least, READING. I like books. So sue me. :-) It's still a work in progress, but here's where it stands today.
I'm getting there!
Not much else inside the house has been done,
but we did get a little bit of decorating done for Christmas.
Oh, and we added a little bit of stuff downstairs. Dan's dad, brother & sister were here for Thanksgiving and we tried to give the first floor some warmth - okay, not literally.
Oops! We've yet to tackle the bedroom, but since the TV went up last weekend the girls have been practically living down there (playing the Wii).
The niche under the stair case is perfect for all our old VHS movies.
Area rugs help to warm up the ice-cold floor. I hope.
More rugs in the kitchen.
Dan has the next week off so he's busy trying to get things done around here. Of course, the first things had to do with one of the vans, but that should be taken care of today. We're hoping to start work on our bedroom next week. Of course, we have friends coming into town on Monday and family arriving at various times throughout the week. Then my family is celebrating Christmas on Thursday, so the week's work will be chopped up. We'll get done what we can and post pictures when there's something to show you.
In the meantime we are enjoying being home as much as possible. Whether we're working around the house or yard, relaxing in front of the fire or on the deck staring up at the stars, we love it here. I think the house (with all of it's many issues) was made for us. We are blessed.
Have a very Merry Christmas!
Ownership, Day 85
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