Hi all,
Hope all is well there. I’m giving a status of how the house is doing here. When last I wrote there were some to-do items on our list.
Photos
I’ve moved the pics of the house to a new and improved place on my site.
Please log in and take a look. Userid is [—] and password is [—]
Weather
Dry so far, this weekend (Memorial weekend) some rain is predicted but not much, thank goodness.
Exterior/ Windows
The original contractor we had come out has not provided an estimate yet. He was supposed to email something and I called to verify his plans but so far no news.
We called out a second one who did provide an estimate and I’ll scan in the doc and send it along. The photos of the work he will be doing here are on the picture site also, and we’ll put up more to help explain what all needs to be done. His company does a lot of work in the Memorial area and we have seen examples of his work.
I’ll follow up with some photos of places his company has already done, and will ask him to provide references as well. Actually he should be able to do this as well if you ask him to do this.
[—]’ Dad used to run a contracting company who built homes here in [—] so she is very much experienced in the business and is good at weeding out the good ones from the guys who don’t know what they are doing or who are overbidding. She’s comfortable with the gentleman who came over and he was coming up with ways to keep the cost down without compromising on quality or taking shortcuts. She’s also a tiger on the negotiating floor so you will definitely have a good advocate working for you here!!! (I’m glad I married her because I couldn’t afford her help otherwise.)
Exterior/ Backyard/ Patio
[—] has hired a guy to help her clear out the (small) trees and overgrowth coming up from the bayou area to the back decking. She bought some plants and ground cover to keep the exposed dirt from eroding over time. It will look quite lovely when it’s all done and the breeze is nice now. The birds and squirrels love the new look too, and [—] and our youngest [—] spend a lot of time watching the activity through the sliding glass doors.
Master bath / Toilet
We hired a plumber to reseat the wiggly toilet. Unfortunately it was a little more than anticipated (isn’t it always though?). The flange that holds the screws to anchor the toilet to the floor was not replaced when the new floor was set down over the old floor. The flange is supposed to be flush with the floor, and it was no longer flush (pun unintentional) with the floor but actually under the new floor by a few inches – enough to cause the issue. The guy did the work to reseat the flange and finished out the reseating of the toilet. It was a few hundred dollars but we’re covering this cost since I authorized the work without consulting you first.
[—] took pictures and they are on the photo web site listed above.
Dryer getting hot
Issue sorted. I found the dryer outlet outside by the front door and it was indeed plugged up with the fluff that got past the dryer’s internal filter. The dryer’s happy now as are we. Yay!
Upstairs neighbors
I haven’t gotten round to exploring the attic yet but it’s on my list this long weekend.