Making a home in limbo

Our house looks like an episode of hoarders. Since the loan process turned into a slow, painful slog, we slowed down on packing.  While we intend to pick up the pace again starting this week, our previous push left our house as an almost unlivable pit.

What was once my formal living room.

Loki is happy I haven't covered the
couch in boxes...yet.

This weekend, we made a concerted effort to create a couple of "safe" rooms that are clean and relatively uncluttered.  I am sure that as we kick the packing process into overdrive, this will change, but for now, we can breath again. In the meantime, we have started using our trailer.  It's neat and tidy out there - and quiet!

The Peanut and I started doing our school work out there a few weeks ago.  Once the weather stopped acting like Seattle, it turned into a pleasant place to work.  We have found the table to be a little small -- it's not even half the size of our kitchen table -- but we are finding ways to compensate.  I do fear what it will be like in the Fall when we start with larger scale projects again.  We are on the wind-down with our school year, so we're done with those for now.

Our first day of trailer school.

The space is fine for one or two smallish things at a time.

The two biggest drawbacks of doing anything out in the trailer are the lack of power and the lack of water/bathroom. The car battery attached to it allows us to turn on lights, listen to the stereo, and open/close the awning.  Nothing can be plugged in and, of course, no air conditioning.  Hook ups will happen once we get the loan squared away, but the need to conserve money trumps convenience.

Since we are in the wind down for the school year, it's also time for me to write up our school progress report.  All the school stuff is in the trailer and I need to work in the house because my laptop battery cannot survive for more than 15 minutes without dying.  

My school supplies....

...culled from this.  Needless to say, we're running lean
going into next year.

I started the report a couple of weeks ago and got frustrated that every time I needed something, I needed to either run out to the trailer or make a note in the report to come back to it later.  So enter our latest exercise in trailer trash living:

Is this thing on?!

We bought a $2 piece of foam that's meant for air conditioners to keep the bugs out and ran a 100 foot extension cord from the house.  I now have a small fan and my laptop plugged in with tunes going on the trailer stereo (which is bluetooth, so Google Play on my phone FTW).  No more running back and forth to grab a book that I need.  And now, I should stop procrastinating and get that report done.

The other end that orange extension cord.

Not a bad workspace.

The Slow Wheels of Progress

It's official: We've been working on this home renovation project for just over 17 months now. I thought I'd put together a timeline of highlights of what we've done up to this point.

I have a notebook to track calls and contacts that I make, which I flipped through while typing up this post. The first mention of architects is on January 20, 1996, when I emailed Mike Hally of Michael Hally Design to start asking questions about the design process. By April 2016, we had a preliminary design settled and drawings in progress.

In May 2016, we started talking with Mike about setbacks, surveyors, and building contractors. Our idea was to rework the design and push things back so we wouldn't need to file a petition for a variance with the Zoning Board of Appeals. We abandoned that plan after a few sketches, plus the fact that we have a steep drop in the back yard, so we didn't have much room to push things back.

In June, I switched jobs, which slowed down progress on the home renovation project. I went from taking the train to Boston to driving into Worcester, saving me an hour each way on my commute. Also in June, we got the Bid Drawings in hand so we could get quotes from contractors.

On Wednesday, July 6, 2016, I called the three contractors and the three surveyors Mike had recommended. Things started to get real at around this point. We had meetings with everyone and waited for quotes to come back.

The dumpster in all its glory.

In August, I called for quotes on a 30 yard dumpster so we could throw out some of the piles of crap that had accumulated after 18 years in the house. In early September, we had the dumpster on site and filled it admirably well. We also paid for some space at the town-wide yard sale on the common on Labor Day weekend, clearing out further piles of crap and making a little money. (We splurged on a Playstation 4 with most of the yard sale proceeds.)

That big dead pine tree needed to go.

In September, we paid Trillium Tree to take down a couple of trees and a few low-hanging branches, clearing the way for construction. Somewhere around here, we chose Johnson Building & Remodeling as our contractor. They offered a competitive quote and made us feel at ease. Scott would manage the project and George would head up the construction effort. It's a small company, but they felt right, and they've been very patient and responsive with us so far.

On Wednesday, September 14, 2016, I made a pile of calls to banks, looking for a construction loan. We had a builder, we had a quote for the work, now we needed the means to pay for it. We ended up going with TD Bank, largely because of the commitment to constant communication by our local loan specialist, Jeff.

In October and November, we had the land surveyed and staked. We had to go back and modify the plot plan a couple of times to support the Zoning Board of Appeals application. It turns out we own more land than I thought we did, though not much of it is usable thanks to a steep slope.

Also in November I started calling well companies. We're planning on building a garage on top of our abandoned well, so we needed to fill it and cap it properly. Winter happened, so this would get pushed off until the spring.

In December, we were moving along in the loan process to an appraisal as we filed the petition for a hearing with the Zoning Board of Appeals. In January 2017, we had a ZBA hearing date set for February, so we needed to take out legal ads in the Telegram and send 11 certified letters to abutters with notifications. Since the ZBA meeting was set so late, we decided to stop the loan process and restart it with the ZBA approval in hand. I learned plenty about what the bank needed for a construction loan, but I was still confused as to why the appraisal process seemed to happen last instead of first. More later on this.

On Monday, February 13, 2017, it snowed just enough overnight to close the town offices. Since the town offices were closed, our ZBA hearing was cancelled. The one big thing we were waiting on needed to be rescheduled. And since various members of the board were on vacation through February and most of March, the hearing was rescheduled for March 27, a delay of 6 weeks. Looks like we wouldn't start construction in the spring like we wanted.

In March, I started to track down Builder's Risk Insurance. In April, we had the approval letter from the ZBA in hand, so we could start the wheels moving forward once again. We restarted the loan process, and started getting serious about cleaning the house out. I reached out to the Department of Conservation and Recreation to start requesting an Advisory Ruling, because a corner of our property is within 400 feet of a tributary that empties into Wachusett Reservoir.

Digging down to cap the well.

In April, I started getting quotes for storage units, either onsite or in a central location. It turns out having a storage container onsite is much cheaper. We started shopping for a trailer to live in, and we got the official OK from the selectmen to allow us to live in the trailer during construction. We also lined up someone to fill and cap the well, which they did on May 1st.

In May, I lined up Stationary Insurance for the trailer, and we signed that loan and took delivery. Between the appraisal and credit check, and in talking with Jeff, we knew the trailer loan would make it tight for affording the construction loan, but it seemed doable. I also nailed down the Builder's Risk insurance, to be paid and in effect when we sign the construction loan. We also received the official OK to build from the DCR.

In June, the appraisal came back. We heard that it wouldn't be a problem, and the first number we heard was right in line with what we needed. The final appraisal amount came in 30% lower than the first number, to which everyone involved said, "WHUT?" That value wouldn't even cover the amount of the loan we're asking for.

This weekend, Christina tracked down comparable sold properties in the area that support a much higher property value and compiled a list. This morning, I sent the appraisal appeal form in, and we'll see what happens next. We may get all the money we're asking for, or we may need to modify the project to afford it. Cross your fingers, folks.

It's been a long road so far, and we haven't even broken ground on the construction part of it.

"Buckle up, kids, it's gonna be a heck of a ride."

Adding Some Stability

I got ambitious over the weekend and played with concrete blocks.

I had a few blocks left over after the support piers went up, so I took about 90 minutes to dig up the grass and pound the blocks level. The bottom landing doesn't move all that much when you stand on it now. The stairs sit on the cinder blocks, so they don't move either. I'll get some wider shims or shingles for the stairs to sit on, since all I had were a couple of really thin shims which won't last.

It's not perfect, but it's functional and stable. I'm really proud that I managed to put this thing together. And hey, it survived the past 2 days of rain.

I charged the trailer battery again today. We get about 3.5 days before the battery dies, as it's powering the clock on the entertainment center and the carbon monoxide detector. Can't wait until we can schedule the power hookup.