Home Sweet Home.

Yesterday, 13 months to the day of our fire, we moved home. At long, long last! We left our computers for last at the rental and are doing some post move clean-up, now. After we disconnect and move our machines, we won't have Internet at the new house for a short time. But, when we are connected again and I get a chance, I'll get you all caught up with pictures of the progress from my last picture post up to the move. I've just been too crazy-busy getting the house as close to done as possible to keep up with posting pics to the blog along the way. Waking up in my own home again was one of the best feelings I've ever felt in my life. Not quite up there with the birth of my kids and seeing their little faces for the first time, but not too far down the hierarchy from that. :) Mel.

Gas Update

Still no gas. Site coordinator went up the chain and the big boss was astonished that I first called for installation in November, but absolutely nothing had been done, yet. He assured us that the crews will be at my house every day until the installation is complete. Day before yesterday (Mon Jan 27,) they strung a bit of caution tape, dug a little dirt up where the meter will go and placed three traffic cones next to where the meter will be (which, btw, is nowhere near the road.) Yesterday (Tue Jan 28,) they came out to trench in the line but did not bring a trencher. My contractor was on scene to watch them work when hubby and I arrived. As I've stated before, this isn't my first rodeo, just my first in a long time. I started with my folks about 40 years ago and in the nearly 20 years that I've been on hiatus, my contractor has been busily building houses all over the state. Neither of us had ever seen what we saw yesterday. The crew poked several holes in my yard with a large piece of heavy equipment. This is not work that needed to be done for any reason, at all. They didn't bring the correct piece of equipment, the big boss said they were to be at my site working, so they found something completely useless and potentially destructive to do. Plus, we were told the crew was given until tonight (Wed Jan 29) to finish and since it's not a multi-day job, but a couple hour job, I suspect they are dragging it out on purpose. It should be noted that they have complained bitterly about the ground being frozen. It should also be noted that the ground was not frozen when I first called in November. It should also be noted that they do have the equipment to trench in frozen ground... this is something everyone knows without even realizing they know it. Proof? Ok, if there's a gas leak in one of their main supply lines (for example one carrying gas into an entire portion of a town,) they can and will trench down to it no matter how frozen the ground might be and they will not let it just hiss away down there or shut off service to an entire portion of a city for three months while they make up excuses for why they can't do the job. Meanwhile, as those crews bitched about the weather -- and it was cold, holy cow was it ever -- my siding crew was hard at work on the north side of the house and they were freezing, but they weren't complaining. Here's hoping the gas crew is out there, now, doing some actual work and that we have heat in the place tonight. We cannot progress on the interior until we can heat the house. So, we've been at a standstill they finished hanging our drywall.

Quick long-overdue update.

So, when I last posted to the blog, we were on the waiting list for gas installation and we had been told it "could be up to a two week wait." We still don't have gas. BUT, I have the best site coordinator on Planet Earth and he called then and pitched a fit for us and supposedly, we will have gas and thus heat by end of day, today! WOOT!!! Since my last post, we've wired the whole place, all the drywall is hung waiting for heat so we can finish it and half of the house is sided. It's been so miserably cold over there that I don't have many pictures and I'm eyeballs deep in wrapping up the content claim by the deadline, so I haven't gotten around to sorting and posting what I do have. I'll do a photo catch-up post when I get a chance... I promise!! :) Heat will definitely put us back on the path to home. Can't move forward without it at this point.