Good news & bad news

We met with the builder today. He said we can't move in on Jan. 31 because the house won't be livable. This isn't a surprise because there is still so much to do. We've made several decisions that have added to the work. And Ian is doing everything right. He had a punchlist of things to ask us and we like the way he's looking out for us. Yes we are spending more money now, but we are preventing problems later.

The good news is our townhouse in Crawfordsburn isn't rented--we thought it was--so there will not be two moves in a short period of time. My week off between when my last paper is due (Friday) and the beginning of classes will actually be a week off, not a week spent cleaning and packing.

More bad news: The roof is in worse shape than we thought. And the plaster is boast on a lot of the walls. New word for me. It's something to do with how the plaster crumbles instead of being tight on the wall. Ian's team has to do A LOT of plaster work to cover over the tracking exposed by the electrician and plumber. He has to join new plaster to old plaster and, where the old is boast, he will replace it. He will keep as much plaster as he can, but we're not sure how much that will be.

It's funny--we paid a handsome sum for the house. Houses are not cheap here, period. When you look at all that we are replacing (wiring, plumbing, heating unit, radiators, insulation, kitchen)--you begin to wonder what we paid for? We will eventually have to replace the roof and windows. And we are digging up the tarmac in front to put in turf. So I think we paid for an address, a brick shell, and nice trim. There's a nice newell post and bannister (important to me for reasons I don't fully understand). A nice fireplace. And a nice backyard.

Ah well, sure she'll be lovely when she's done.
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