Permits and Potty - We're in business now

< --- Before After --->

For the week ending 09/23/06

Highlights:

1. As you can tell from the pictures above, the palm trees got a haircut. I (Bo) was the barber using a 14" chainsaw while standing on a ladder. Man, that's hard work.

2. BIG NEWS!!! - The porta potty arrived Friday afternoon! We're official now! Whew, I don't have to go to the gas station anymore. (For those of you in California, no, this is NOT a Texas plumbing permit.) I couldn't figure out how to insert it at this place or you would have had a picture.

3. We have permits - one from the Historic Preservation Office (that any subcontractor has to have to mess with the exterior of a historical landmark) and a City of San Antonio permit for general repairs. I have listed roof, foundation, exterior repairs, and interior remodeling that includes kitchen, baths, electrical, and plumbing.

4. We finally have the multi-purpose yard/jungle cleared. After only 5 pickup truck loads of vegetation, the place is looking like someone has been there in the past decade.

5. Guests this week included Buck and Katy, Eric and Kristy Bailey from Gravitt, AR, Bill, Dale, and Rachel (Katy's family), two ladies who were looking at the house across the street, and the mailman.

6. Working like this is a great weight control program.

Next Steps.

1. Select roofing contractor - hopefully before the monsoons set in

2. Finalize foundation repairs - 20 new piers, replace some beams, level house, ...

3. "De-Duplexize" the house, i.e., demise the entry room by removing two walls that were added decades ago. This huge inprovement will make use of the natural light coming in from a bay window and a single window that are on the west side of the house.

4. Set up the Pat & Bo Historic House Restoration Foundation. I don't believe that your donations are tax deductible quite yet.

About to sign on the dotted line....

For week ending Saturday, September 16, 2006

Highlights

There are beautiful red lilies blooming in the front yard. Consider the lilies of the field...a good reminder to thank God for blessing us with this house. One of the fun finds this week was a china berry tree in the back yard like Bo used to climb as a boy at his Granny Sue's house. We began talking with contractors about foundation, roofing, painting, and plumbing repairs. Coincidentally, one of the painting contractors is named Brockman and his wife's name is Yvonne. Bo's mom's name was Evonne, with an E, not a Y, as she liked to insist.For the first time in probably 10 years, the inside was swept. Thankfully, Pat had made a Wal-Mart run and picked up filtration masks for this kind of cleaning. It seems that the neighborhood cats had used the living room as a litter box from time to time. Yuk! Nasty cats! We met our soon to be next door neighbors. They are a couple about our age with three adult children and have been living in (and working on) their house for about 4 years now! Yikes! What have we gotten ourselves into?On Friday Bo went by the City of San Antonio Historic Preservation office to begin understanding what it means to have a house that is already designated as a historical landmark. Should be interesting working through this process. Stay tuned.

Next Steps

We are scheduled to close Monday, September 18. We will continue meeting contractors to get bids. The most urgent needs are roofing and foundation work. It is raining as we type and there are some big holes in the roof. (But we are thankful for the rain!)