I'm Still Here

I know it's been over a month since my last post. I haven't dropped off the face of the earth. Instead, I've been so busy with everything at the house that I've lost all spare time to blog about it!


So what's happened? My first FEMA certificate revealed that, not only was my front garage floor too low, but also the concrete pad for my A/C unit in the backyard. I knew about the garage, but the news about the A/C pad made me blow my top with the guy from the parish. That's because I had my A/C guy call his contacts at the parish to ask about height requirements before I built it. They had said there were none for my area.


So, after I had the A/C guy unhook the unit, my dad and I moved it and added 6 inches of concrete to the pad. Then I had it hooked up again.


As for the garage, I worked out a deal with the paver guy to use some spare bricks he had from another job to brick my garage floor. I had to pay the engineer $300 to come out and write me a letter saying the extra weight was ok in order for the Parish to accept the change. Then, of course, I had to pay $500 in labor to transport and lay the bricks.


After that, the surveyor measured again and all the heights were ok. Of course, the parish didn't bother to tell me the first time that it was a problem that the surveyor had labeled my back garage as an "accessory carport". I had to wait until after I dropped off the new certificate for him to reject it for that reason... So another trip to the surveyor was required in order to get yet a new copy.


I put up my front door to make it look like someone could be living there. This was so that the insurance agent could take a picture for his records.


The driveway is done. And it looks great! We put up the wooden privacy fence between me and the neighbor who doesn't like me. I'm grateful for not having to always look right into their backyard anymore, and I'm sure they feel the same way. The privacy did bring other unwelcome visitors: someone tried to break into the back door this past Monday (3/9/09). I had left the house at 6pm on Sunday and came back at 10am on Monday. Someone had tried kicking in the door. The deadbolt held, but they bent and ruined the doorknob. I filed a police report, for what it's worth. I suspect it was people living or visiting across the street.


That lead to a renewed push to secure the backyard. This week was a mad dash to get all that done. We finsihed a gate in the alley on Wednesday. Thursday was a very busy day with the driveway gate being installed, Entergy arriving a day ahead of schedule to hookup my power to the house, the countertop guy coming to make final measurements, and the cabinet guy visiting to install the lazy susan in the kitchen!


That brings you up to date. I'll fill in more details when I have time. Here are some recent photos. The only things you can't see here are the front doors and the driveway gate. Enjoy!