It Always Looks Worse Before it Gets Better

Things aren’t always perfect in new-house-land. As they might say on an HGTV show, “this house has issues.” I’ve mentioned before that we’ve had waterproofing problems. The waterproofers have been back to rework that again, and this time, it seems to be effective, as we’ve had some torrential downpours and so far no seepage through the basement walls. But we’re waiting to make sure, so there is still sort of a moat around the house until they decide it’s good and re-grade.

Check out the spacing between the windows. It’s one of those things you don’t notice, until you do. Then you can’t un-see it. Definitely not what we paid for!

But the issues go beyond that. It’s taken a lot of back-and-forth with the builder (including getting an attorney involved), but he’s apparently decided he cares about his reputation and really, really doesn’t want to go to court (because he’ll lose), so he and his crews have been here this past week to start fixing our house. They are working on reframing the back wall, so the windows are evenly spaced. Given our budget constraints, the builder had used a cut-rate framing crew who didn’t even give him what we paid for. I guess he won’t be using them again. The fixes are being done by the builder’s employees, who do good work (they did the carpentry and the beams we love).

Dogs make everything better

So for the next week or so, we are living in a construction zone.

Not what we’d planned. And yes, inconvenient, but not as much as it would be to move out for a week. All of the work needed is in the great room; the bedrooms, bathrooms, and my office are fine. We love them and the outdoor space, and will love the rest of the house once it’s fixed. For now, we just have to remember that with any home project, it always looks worse before it gets better–but it will get better.

We saw this fantastic rainbow the other day when we decided to go check out the local dragstrip

What I’ve Been Reading

I started a novel and a nonfiction book, but haven’t finished either yet.

What I’ve Been Writing

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I did write five days this week, but don’t know that I put the whole half-hour in. I’m still going to consider this one a win, because I got through another scene, plus reviewed three others that needed minor cycling back through. I did not get through all of my learning, and only did about half of the week’s videos for the online workshop.

This week, our daughter and her partner are coming to visit, so not much writing will get done, and that’s OK. For the workshop, I want to view the last couple videos, and do the assignment. And for writing, I’d like to do some tonight and on Saturday, after our guests take off.

What about you–had any plans not quite work out lately? How did you work around them? How’s the weather in your area–have you seen any great rainbows? And how are you doing on whatever goals you might have, whether writing or otherwise? Please share in the comments–I love to hear from you! 

Jennette Marie Powell writes stories about ordinary people in ordinary places, who do extraordinary things and learn that those ordinary places are anything but. In her Saturn Society novels, unwilling time travelers do what they must to make things right... and change more than they expect. You can find her books at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Smashwords, Kobo, iTunes, and more.

The Pit of Doom in My House

No, not the new house! The one where I live now. Last week, my husband decided to get started on the myriad little fixes it would need in preparation to be sold.

As they say on those HGTV shows, we found some “unexpected issues.”

You’d think we know this house inside and out after living here for 25 years. But even then, there are surprises.

This house was a Cape Cod when we bought it (we added a second floor that turned it into a Colonial). It appeared to have a converted breezeway connecting the garage and house. Except the breezeway never was; it’s our dining room. And there’s a little room beneath it off to the side of our basement.

The Pit of Doom, after all the rotted floor was removed

I imagine this was originally intended to be a canned goods cellar or something like that, or maybe a safe room. When we moved here, we found an excessive number of outlets, plus some odd ventilation pipes, that led us to believe it also served as a pot grow room at one time, LOL. My husband figured it would be the perfect place to store his gun collection, as it had a sealed door and would be easy to dehumidify.

So that’s what he did. Over the past few years, we noticed the floor was getting… shall we say, squishy. My husband theorized that the floor had just been thrown down over a dirt floor. So to begin his fixes, he pulled that up.

And found he was right. All the floor was, was plywood tossed over some stacked bricks. What he didn’t expect was that it was full of water. That had allowed the bricks to sink and rotted out the plywood floor beneath the vinyl, hence the squishiness. And hence, the pit of doom. The only reason it’s not a massive ball of mold is because of his dehumidifier, which ran pretty much 24×7, and now we know why.

So DH’s first project will be much bigger than expected. He consulted with a couple of friends in the construction business, as well as the restoration contractors we used for our flip house (who assured us that thanks to the dehumidifier, there was no mold). He then tore all the floor out of the pit of doom (or “the swamp,” as he calls it), and is going to add a French drain to hook into what we already have, then add pea gravel and finally, a proper concrete floor.

Meanwhile, down in Tennessee, things are moving along with our new house. Our builder sent us pics last week, and it’s beginning to really take shape:

   

What I’ve Been Reading: I haven’t finished anything this week. I’m enjoying the novel I’m reading right now, but it’s a really long one, so it will be a week or two before I finish. And instead of reading nonfiction, I’m taking a WMG workshop. This one is called “The Future: Refresh and Renew.” and deals with planning for a long-term career in fiction writing. So far it’s really good!

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What I’ve Been Writing: My goal this past week was to write 500 words/day, for five days, double what I’d been doing. I met my goal, with 2,875 words! Next week is going to be tricky. I’m shooting for 750 words/day, working toward 1,000 that I’ll need to meet my overarching goals of finishing two novels this year.

How has your new year started out? Any surprises, pleasant or otherwise? What are your goals for 2019, if you set them? And how are you doing with whatever goals you might have, writing or otherwise? Please share in the comments–I’d love to hear from you!

Jennette Marie Powell writes stories about ordinary people in ordinary places, who do extraordinary things and learn that those ordinary places are anything but. In her Saturn Society novels, unwilling time travelers do what they must to make things right... and change more than they expect. You can find her books at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Smashwords, Kobo, iTunes, and more.