On-ward and Up-ward...or actually DOWN-ward!

Digging two feet down for an 8' basement has officially started!! We had another slight delay with our neighbor, because she got the flu so her house couldn't be inspected until she was feeling better. What's another week after waiting almost two months, right?!?! I don't have any pictures of it yet, because Mike and I have only stopped by at night. I could barely see what was going on, much less get a decent picture of it. But we are back to thinking about house stuff, which is great!

Next up is that we have a meeting with the contractors a week from Wednesday (Feb 6), after the basement has been dug out, but before they frame it. So we'll walk through with them and figure out the exact layout of the basement. We want to fit in: a decent-sized family room, a full bath, decent-sized bedroom (with its own exterior door), and a laundry/storage room. I hope that we can get the storage room to be large enough to fit all of our crap - suitcases, golf clubs, skis, tools, etc. We've accumulated a lot!

The decision after that is kitchen cabinets! As I've mentioned before, we've spoken with a couple of places about cabinets. We had been set on an off-white cabinet, but with all of this extra time, we may be changing our mind. Mostly because we were inspired by this kitchen that we saw on House Hunters Renovation:

Yes, this is a picture of our TV. We are very sophisticated here at Putting the Can in Canton.

Love the white cabinets, white subway tiles with gray grout, the hood, colored knobs, and splashes of red accent (hard to tell from the picture, but they are there). Mike had been talking about white subway tile backsplash for awhile, but I was never convinced until I saw the tile with the gray grout. I like it a lot better, so I may be convinced now! We would not want glass cabinets though - we would just keep solid white.

Any thoughts?

FINALLY!!!

(alternatively titled: SHE SAID YES!!)

So, I’m BACK! I know there has been a void in your heart for all of my loyal blog followers, but it is officially official. OUR NEIGHBOR SIGNED THE CONTRACT! WE CAN DIG OUT THE BASEMENT!! WE WILL LIVE IN THIS HOUSE!! WE CAN ENJOY THIS PROCESS AGAIN!!! I FINALLY HAVE STUFF TO WRITE ABOUT AGAIN!!!

This is HUGE HUGE news. Not a thing has been done on the house since November. Bye-bye a month and a half of mortgage payments!! And up until November, our contractor said they have been working at “60%”, since they knew there was a potential that they’d have to stop working.  So we are super, super psyched that starting on Friday, it’s full-steam ahead. They still have to pull the permits and do an inspection of the neighbor’s house, which is why the demo on the basement won’t start until Friday.

It’s one of those things – I don’t think I realized how stressed out I really was about the neighbor until it was all resolved. We found out at 4:30 on Friday that she finally, finally, finally signed the contract. It was as if a huge weight was lifted off our shoulders. Mike was sick (damn flu), otherwise we definitely would have gone out that night and had a big celebration. Instead, I woke up Saturday morning and went for a long run. It was a combination of a randomly beautiful warm day in January, the fact that the Ravens were playing in the playoffs that afternoon (and I just KNEW we were going to win, despite the 10-point spread against them), and our neighbor had finally committed – I just felt so incredibly amazing. What a great feeling! We can continue this process with full hearts and all of the initial excitement that we had, knowing that we WILL be living in this house and all of these decisions will be for US! AHHHHH – SO AMAZING!!!

Some major kudos definitely go to our contractor, Jon. He worked tirelessly to get this done. He helped our neighbor out during Hurricane Sandy, which in turn made her trust him. He convinced her to get a lawyer to look over the construction drawings and insurance, and explain to her what everything means. Then he followed up constantly to keep them on track. After she talked to the lawyer, she agreed to sign the contract that states that she won’t be responsible for ANY damage to her house as a result of our rehab – even above and beyond the basement. She also threw in a clause stating that our contractor has to install a sump pump in her house – at no cost to her. So there were definitely some sacrifices made (luckily all paid for by our contractor), but the end result is that the contract is SIGNED and we can finally move on.

PHEW.

So in other news, we have also been dealing with a super-annoying city fine on the house that we received right before Christmas. It was a $500 fine for not being registered as a vacant. WHAT? It is under construction! Not a vacant! After countless calls to the City, emails with our contractors, two visits to the Housing Authority, hours of internet research, and verbal fights with our title agency (who we think is ultimately responsible for this fine), we finally actually figured out the reason we received the fine. It is crazy that it took so much time just to understand why we got the fine and how we rectify it. Loooooooong story short, we had to pay a $130 “vacancy registration” fee, and we scheduled a hearing to dispute the $500 fine. The fact that all of this happened while no work was being done on the house anyway was extra frustrating.

So, onward and upward!! We are going to meet with the contractors when Mike gets back from Italy to find out the schedule. I’m anxious to find out when the new move-in date is scheduled to be. Originally it was tentatively scheduled for February 1^st. Considering that is only three weeks away, I’m guessing that it will be pushed back. It would be amazing to be moved in by April, but we’ll see.  I’m excited to make a million more decisions, keep up with this blog, and see what this house ends up looking like!!!

I also have to mention the AMAZING win by the Ravens against the Broncos. I went out that night (sans Mike unfortunately, since he still had the flu) and had such a fun time watching the game with friends. It was one of the best games I've ever seen - of course, it helps that the right team won :) Next stop: Foxboro for the AFC Championships!!