#11 - That (almost) Really Stinks!
There's been a little lull in home renovation land! Our slab has been finished for around 2 weeks, and we've been waiting for the framer's schedule to open up, so not much has happened on the physical building lately.
That doesn't meant there hasn't been forward motion though!
Friday was a big day!
First, we received our first draw (MONEY!) from the bank. Hallelujah! Here's how this works (for those interested) - as I mentioned before, we were very picky about how to go about paying for this addition. The only way we felt comfortable taking out any type of loan is if it could be rolled into our mortgage. Thankfully, we were able to do just that. Only, you don't get money up front. Oh no you don't! You leave the bank with as much money as you had when you entered the bank!
The way you get money is by completing the work! You know how you complete work?! By paying MONEY to buy materials and pay the workers. So, everything we've paid for thus far has been paid for out of pocket. We could've actually avoided having to pay for anything out of pocket if we had hired contractors and counted on them to provide materials and labor. But we couldn't find contractors with the right price on both. So, we purchased a lot of the materials ourselves without going through the contractor. And then paid the contractor for the labor. Counting on the contractor to provide materials wouldn't have saved us as much money, but we also wouldn't have had to pay so much upfront. It would've been another possibility.
For the bank, not giving the money up front is smart. They don't want Joe and Sally to drive off and buy a pair of His and Hers Harleys. Once the work is complete, an appraiser comes and determines what percentage of the work is finished and then they inform the bank and the bank issues us a check for the percentage of the loan that will cover the portion of the completed work. In this case, the appraiser told the bank it was 15%. Lucky for us, Matt countered that appraisal and was able to show the bank that 20% is actually complete.
Money from bank - check!
Secondly, my brother got married this past weekend! It was a wonderful, wonderful day! The venue was about 2 hours from here, so we spent Friday-Sunday away from home. The kids started school the Wednesday prior to the wedding and I spent that Wednesday and Thursday shopping for a dress (still!) and packing and prepping for the wedding. On Friday morning, I left with my mom and dad to get to the venue asap and help with setting up for the rehearsal dinner. Matt and the kids came later in the day after they were finished with school.
On Friday morning, I was flying around here trying to tie up all the loose ends of preparing and packing before Mom and Dad came to pick me up. (Road trip with Mom & Dad = flashback to 1987.) Meanwhile, Matt had Friday off, so he was here waiting for our window order to be delivered.
He was rearranging the contents of our garage to make room for the windows, and earlier that morning, he noticed that our American flag, which was in the garage, was shredded to bits. He came inside to ask the rest of us if we knew anything about what happened to the flag. Obviously in these situations, we always assume the kids are guilty until proven innocent. The 3 of them claimed they had nothing to do with it, and didn't know anything about it. In the midst of getting the kids to school and getting ready for my parents to pick me up; I didn't really care about what happened to the flag. That sounds very unpatriotic. Please don't read anything into that. It could've been a flag, a pair of underwear, Elvis Presley's iconic white suit... anything (well, anything except the dress I spent 400 hours trying to find for the wedding!) anything at all, and I would have had zero interest in finding out what had happened. Didn't care. I was just trying to get out of here without getting frazzled and stressed out (the #1 goal of every vacation--pack without a freak out!) Matt continued to investigate.
He rearranged some things.
He cleaned up the bits of flag on the floor.
He saw scratches on the wall.
He pulled out the lawn mower.
Saw grass clippings strewn about much more chaotically than your typical mower/garage mess.
And then...
He saw...
A SKUNK!!!
In the garage!
Where we were planning to put our new windows!!
So there we are: about to leave for the weekend, needing a place to put our new windows and there is a skunk in our garage!
Now the number one goal is no longer to get me out the door without a major freak out (I never freaked out by the way.) The goal is to get that skunk out the door without a major spray!
The night before, I noticed that the garage door was open around dusk, so I simply pushed our indoor button to close the garage door. I was near the open window of our front door and at the moment, I smelled a skunk. I even turned to Eliana and said, "Huh. Do you smell that? There's a skunk. Yuck." I didn't even give it a second thought. I'm not the investigator in this marriage. Note to self: investigate bolts on dumpsters and skunk smells. Apparently, I had trapped him in the garage and he tried to claw his way out all night!
You know the thing about skunks? They're nocturnal! They don't like the light. So when Matt opened the garage door, the last thing Pepe is going to do is run out into broad daylight. So, he did what comes naturally. He walked deeper into the garage. He slowly meandered his way to the back corner and hid behind a large set of shelves. And what are we (Matt. I still barely care. I had 12.5 minutes left to tie up lose ends) going to do about it. NOTHING. Because we were leaving for a wedding and nobody can afford to get sprayed and be the guy at the wedding who had to bathe in tomato juice but still smells like a skunk.
At that point, we decided to put all of the windows in the living room. There is no way they were going in the garage. We could not risk Matt (or the new windows!) getting sprayed. The skunk had the upper hand 100%.
I hit the road with my parents and left Matt to deal with the skunk.
The ending to the story is very non-dramatic or exciting. Matt left the bottom of the garage door cracked for the whole weekend while we were gone. We were already a bit worried that someone would come and steal all of our construction supplies from the front yard. And now, not only were we leaving piles and piles and piles of wood in the front yard, but we were also leaving our garage door cracked. It was like a Construction Material Thief's Dream! Thankfully, whoever that is wasn't working our neighborhood over the weekend. It was Matt's hope that Pepe would leave once night fell. And sure enough, when we got home from the wedding, he was gone. All's well that ends well. And no body stinks.
The wedding was gorgeous. My brother, Clayton, was as handsome as ever. He moved to Alaska about 8 years ago. Legend has it that the ratio of men to women in Alaska definitely does not favor the men! But, he met Kirsten right away and not only is she beautiful on the inside, but she's lovely on the outside too! They're a good pair and I'm thrilled for them.
And our sweet, sweet little lady, Miss Eliana, was the musician for the wedding and she did a beautiful job. She was so poised and professional and played her music perfectly!
We returned home yesterday and my heart is still overflowing with the joy that was the weekend.
Money-check!
Windows-check!
Gorgeous weekend celebrating with friends and family - check!
That doesn't meant there hasn't been forward motion though!
Friday was a big day!
First, we received our first draw (MONEY!) from the bank. Hallelujah! Here's how this works (for those interested) - as I mentioned before, we were very picky about how to go about paying for this addition. The only way we felt comfortable taking out any type of loan is if it could be rolled into our mortgage. Thankfully, we were able to do just that. Only, you don't get money up front. Oh no you don't! You leave the bank with as much money as you had when you entered the bank!
The way you get money is by completing the work! You know how you complete work?! By paying MONEY to buy materials and pay the workers. So, everything we've paid for thus far has been paid for out of pocket. We could've actually avoided having to pay for anything out of pocket if we had hired contractors and counted on them to provide materials and labor. But we couldn't find contractors with the right price on both. So, we purchased a lot of the materials ourselves without going through the contractor. And then paid the contractor for the labor. Counting on the contractor to provide materials wouldn't have saved us as much money, but we also wouldn't have had to pay so much upfront. It would've been another possibility.
For the bank, not giving the money up front is smart. They don't want Joe and Sally to drive off and buy a pair of His and Hers Harleys. Once the work is complete, an appraiser comes and determines what percentage of the work is finished and then they inform the bank and the bank issues us a check for the percentage of the loan that will cover the portion of the completed work. In this case, the appraiser told the bank it was 15%. Lucky for us, Matt countered that appraisal and was able to show the bank that 20% is actually complete.
Money from bank - check!
Secondly, my brother got married this past weekend! It was a wonderful, wonderful day! The venue was about 2 hours from here, so we spent Friday-Sunday away from home. The kids started school the Wednesday prior to the wedding and I spent that Wednesday and Thursday shopping for a dress (still!) and packing and prepping for the wedding. On Friday morning, I left with my mom and dad to get to the venue asap and help with setting up for the rehearsal dinner. Matt and the kids came later in the day after they were finished with school.
On Friday morning, I was flying around here trying to tie up all the loose ends of preparing and packing before Mom and Dad came to pick me up. (Road trip with Mom & Dad = flashback to 1987.) Meanwhile, Matt had Friday off, so he was here waiting for our window order to be delivered.
He was rearranging the contents of our garage to make room for the windows, and earlier that morning, he noticed that our American flag, which was in the garage, was shredded to bits. He came inside to ask the rest of us if we knew anything about what happened to the flag. Obviously in these situations, we always assume the kids are guilty until proven innocent. The 3 of them claimed they had nothing to do with it, and didn't know anything about it. In the midst of getting the kids to school and getting ready for my parents to pick me up; I didn't really care about what happened to the flag. That sounds very unpatriotic. Please don't read anything into that. It could've been a flag, a pair of underwear, Elvis Presley's iconic white suit... anything (well, anything except the dress I spent 400 hours trying to find for the wedding!) anything at all, and I would have had zero interest in finding out what had happened. Didn't care. I was just trying to get out of here without getting frazzled and stressed out (the #1 goal of every vacation--pack without a freak out!) Matt continued to investigate.
He rearranged some things.
He cleaned up the bits of flag on the floor.
He saw scratches on the wall.
He pulled out the lawn mower.
Saw grass clippings strewn about much more chaotically than your typical mower/garage mess.
And then...
He saw...
A SKUNK!!!
In the garage!
Where we were planning to put our new windows!!
So there we are: about to leave for the weekend, needing a place to put our new windows and there is a skunk in our garage!
Now the number one goal is no longer to get me out the door without a major freak out (I never freaked out by the way.) The goal is to get that skunk out the door without a major spray!
The night before, I noticed that the garage door was open around dusk, so I simply pushed our indoor button to close the garage door. I was near the open window of our front door and at the moment, I smelled a skunk. I even turned to Eliana and said, "Huh. Do you smell that? There's a skunk. Yuck." I didn't even give it a second thought. I'm not the investigator in this marriage. Note to self: investigate bolts on dumpsters and skunk smells. Apparently, I had trapped him in the garage and he tried to claw his way out all night!
You know the thing about skunks? They're nocturnal! They don't like the light. So when Matt opened the garage door, the last thing Pepe is going to do is run out into broad daylight. So, he did what comes naturally. He walked deeper into the garage. He slowly meandered his way to the back corner and hid behind a large set of shelves. And what are we (Matt. I still barely care. I had 12.5 minutes left to tie up lose ends) going to do about it. NOTHING. Because we were leaving for a wedding and nobody can afford to get sprayed and be the guy at the wedding who had to bathe in tomato juice but still smells like a skunk.
At that point, we decided to put all of the windows in the living room. There is no way they were going in the garage. We could not risk Matt (or the new windows!) getting sprayed. The skunk had the upper hand 100%.
I hit the road with my parents and left Matt to deal with the skunk.
The ending to the story is very non-dramatic or exciting. Matt left the bottom of the garage door cracked for the whole weekend while we were gone. We were already a bit worried that someone would come and steal all of our construction supplies from the front yard. And now, not only were we leaving piles and piles and piles of wood in the front yard, but we were also leaving our garage door cracked. It was like a Construction Material Thief's Dream! Thankfully, whoever that is wasn't working our neighborhood over the weekend. It was Matt's hope that Pepe would leave once night fell. And sure enough, when we got home from the wedding, he was gone. All's well that ends well. And no body stinks.
The wedding was gorgeous. My brother, Clayton, was as handsome as ever. He moved to Alaska about 8 years ago. Legend has it that the ratio of men to women in Alaska definitely does not favor the men! But, he met Kirsten right away and not only is she beautiful on the inside, but she's lovely on the outside too! They're a good pair and I'm thrilled for them.
And our sweet, sweet little lady, Miss Eliana, was the musician for the wedding and she did a beautiful job. She was so poised and professional and played her music perfectly!
We returned home yesterday and my heart is still overflowing with the joy that was the weekend.
Money-check!
Windows-check!
Gorgeous weekend celebrating with friends and family - check!
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