Day 94-98

Let me get the tile business out of the way first. I kind of feel like I’ve been working with a used car salesman—by the name of David. In my previous post I mentioned we told David we’d have the tub surround tiled by his tile guy and we’d do the floor ourselves. He said that was too small of a job and the tile guy wouldn’t do it. At that time I said we were thinking about doing the tile ourselves. A day or two later he called and asked what we were going to do about the tile and I said we were definitely doing the tile ourselves. He then said that if the floor’s the only issue the tile guy would do the tub surround. I told him he had already told me he wouldn’t do that, and he said it doesn’t matter to the tile guy. To me this is why the used car salesman comparison fits. I feel as though he was seeing if we’d cave, and when we didn’t then we got what we originally wanted. It seems so odd to me—especially over a tile job.

We found out another dumb twist in City codes. Apparently the ceiling of the first floor has to be insulated and drywalled. We were planning on doing that anyway, but the kicker is that there can’t be any open areas. That means Lazaro and Arturo had to build a frame around all of the plumbing. We probably lost about 6 inches in height along one of the walls. Oh well.


We’re still being held up by the inspection. To get it resolved we had a new survey done on our lot—to prove the second story has not moved. It was only $250 and if David would have told us this was the issue two and a half weeks ago (and that it would take over two weeks to get the issue resolved) we would have just done the survey when the inspector told us to. I still think the inspector was unfair, but at the same time we didn’t know the survey was the issue. We thought the roof was—which is why they wanted a survey I guess. Per my neighbors’ daughter’s advice we will now always get the inspection reports to find out what’s not passing.

On a positive note, the inspector came by today. Hopefully since it was the same inspector that means we’ll pass this time. I was very friendly to him (well, not that friendly). He seemed somewhat taken aback at my pleasant “good morning, sir”. It made me feel a little sorry for him that he’s probably not usually greeted warmly (but only a wee bit sorry).

The laundry room is completely framed in now. It’s pretty exciting. I can’t wait to do laundry out there. I know that’s a foreign concept to my family in Iowa, but except for January and February it’s great to be outside. To Iowans it’s probably balmy in January and February with high temperatures in the 40’s and 50’s.



ACL Fest starts today, so I’m going to forget all about the garage project and enjoy some music this weekend!