August 2, 2019

Today was an exciting day!!  We got water!!  Danny came out from the town and turned it on for us, and was patient enough to turn it off and on while we worked out the leaks.  Thanks so much Danny!  And  a big thanks to Arnold also, as he uncovered the fact that we already had a 3/4" line and didn't have to dig one.  I love small towns!  The people are so helpful and friendly. 





Additionally today we went to the landfill, went to Lowe's, completed the electrical requirements from the real electrical inspector that got into town and came to do our rough-in inspection (but he apparently called in sick today and therefore didn't show up all day.)

Leah and I finished painting the final coat of paint on some of the trim, with her painting off of the ladder, and me painting on the ladder (she is into her 8th month of pregnancy.)

John and Jake worked on removing the shingles and tar paper from the bathroom roof, as once we worked on some things requested by the electrical inspector, we noticed we could see sunlight through that roof.  Here are pictures of Jake learning to remove nails and shingles with a flat shovel, and John instructing and sweeping the roof so as to not leave anything on it that might be slippery.

July 29, 2019

Well, we have done lots of work on the house mostly.  We have removed siding, insulated, sheathed, housewrapped, and put on vinyl siding, changed out windows, door, and electrical.  We called Duke Energy and they (yes the same ones that told us we could get electricity if we were not required to permit) told us they could not give us electricity unless we get the county to inspect it and put an orange sticker on the box.    According to our reading of the codes, if we bought it, were doing all the work, were not adding any heated or cooled square footage, we should not have to permit it.  However, we needed electricity so we got a permit.  Then the guy who was standing in for the regular inspector came out and told us he would not sign off on our electrical because we also needed a building permit, plumbing and hvac permit and a more expensive electrical permit.  What do you do?  We went and got the other permits. . .Now we have lots of inspectors to satisfy. . .But life is still good. 

June 25, 2019

Ok, so I have been inactive on my posts.  The reason for this is, that temporarily our lives have been less about farming than about finding my daughter and son-in-law an affordable place to live.  The problem is, banks don't want to loan money on fixer uppers, and they would prefer not to loan less than $60,000.  Well, when they tell you that you can't really afford a mortgage more than $43,000, what is a person to do?  Thankfully, these two have us who are willing to temporarily help them find an affordable place and fix it up in a way the bank will accept it.  So we did just that.  We found a fixer upper we could buy affordably and are trying to stick to a budget of $10,000 to fix it up, which of course means that we don't get to hire anyone to do any work. . .Here is what we found in a small town near us, but closer to our son-in-law's job:

Bathroom

Kitchen/Living

Master bedroom

Second possible bedroom

Second view of the one bathroom