We closed on the construction loan on the new new house yesterday. And our builder, who wasn't involved in that process, met us in the lawyer's parking lot as soon as we walked out and had us sign papers so he could start getting permits from the town and county. And tomorrow we're going to meet him on the lot and finalize the location the house and driveway. Shit's moving fast.

That's the new lot. It goes back about 600 feet.

Walk one mile in that direction and you'll get to our current house.

You might be able to see the two pink flags tied to trees just right of center. That's the back and front of the proposed location for the house (they're about 70 feet apart). And just about 30 feet behind the farthest flag, there's a pretty steep hill. That's going to stay wild.

So, the house is going to be one story. About 30% smaller than our current house. "Green" (geothermal A/C, high-efficiency windows, etc.). Quality over quantity. On just under 5 acres (vs. the 2 we're on now).

It's all very exciting and terrifying since we have to sell the house we're in now before the new mortgage becomes even close to being affordable.

But, things have usually worked out before. So why not keep pressing our luck?

Friday we're meeting with a new builder to try to finalize plans for ... a new new house.

We know where we want to put it, we've been pre-approved for the building loan, we know which builder and which house plan we want, but there are endless details to work through.

The lot's only about a mile from our current house, but is a bit quieter (and a bit bigger). The house will be a bit smaller than our current house, single-story, and we're going to try to get a geothermal heat pump.

We'll have been in our current house two years next week; and two years is what we agreed to stick it out for, once we figured out that we weren't crazy about the house.

Now we get to play accounting games to get the cash for downpayments.

The floor does look better after its second coat. It's not perfect, but it's better than it was before. So, we're going to have him finish the rest.

That means that tonight we all get to sleep in the 'guest room', where the cats are never, usually, allowed. A reward for them, for being locked in the litter box room every day this week.

...

Well, we had him finish the rest of the downstairs. We can't stomach the idea of spending another four days to have him do the upstairs (which is in much better shape anyway). So, after many months of wrangling, we got a free floor refinish. But that is a nightmare of a process, if you live in the house. We've had to work from home, with the A/C off and all the windows open to keep from dying from polyurethane fumes. The cats are totally freaked out from being locked in a room all day and them coming out to see everything in a new spot. We don't want to do another four days of that. But, what we got will be good enough. The floor guy turned out to be decent and reasonable, once the conflict was settled. The builder waves to us when he sees us now. Harmony is upon the land. And we still want to move because, when you get right down to it, we picked the wrong house for us. It's nice, but it's way too big and certain aspects of it are just plain wrong for two people and two cats. We like the lot we're on, except for the road noise from that awesomely curvy road 600' from the back door - a driving enthusiast's dream, apparently. But, land is expensive, and the real estate market has softened a bit lately, so I'm weary of starting something new and being stuck with two mortgages.

There are worse problems to have.

It's been a while since I mentioned it, but the saga of our floor continues nonetheless. Last time I mentioned it, we had just lawyered-up. We debated going to trial but dismissed that idea once the lawyer told us a few facts: a new floor would cost $XX,000; a trial would cost us about a third of that; in NC, you can't sue for legal costs in these kinds of suits; a trial wouldn't happen for a year at least, and it would be a constant fight during that time.

So, the lawyer wrote the builder a threatening letter, instead. That got his attention. After a couple of shouting matches, the builder acknowledged there was something about the floor that needed to be addressed. So, last winter, he had his HVAC guy install a full-house humidifier to bring the moisture levels up, which would make the wood stop shrinking so much. That did help (plus, my sinuses loved the humidity!). And he agreed to look at the floor in the summer, to see how the gaps and crowning looked after a few months with stable humidity.

Summer comes, his people come and look and everyone agrees there's a problem with the floor. Just like we said. Just like the inspector said. Just like the lawyer said.

So, the floor guy agreed to fix the problem areas. He'd fill the small gaps and replace boards where he needed to. And that started yesterday.

He and his helper moved half of the furniture in our downstairs into the other half of the house, filled the gaps with putty, buffed it out, then put a new coat of finish on the floor. Looks like crap. The putty shows in the finish - when you get the light just right, you can see that it's rougher. Also, because the tops of the boards are convex in many places, the putty evaded the sander and spreads out a cm or so from the edge of the wood. And because the putty is a uniform color and wood is not, you can see it pretty well in places. I asked him about that today and he said it will be fine after he does the second coat of finish today. We're skeptical. We don't want the floor to end up looking worse than it started, so we might not let him do the rest of the house.

Night. Mare.

Mrs. is frantically searching for land for a new new house.

See that tree arcing out at 40° ? That's coming down today, hopefully.

When he cleared the lot, the fucking builder left this maple tree on the side of our house. It's about 12 inches at the base, and is growing next to a big oak tree. Not just 'next to', it's touching the oak. And not just touching, either; one might think they were branches of the same tree. Except one's an oak and one's a maple. And the maple is getting the crappy end of the deal. The oak is basically pushing it over. We asked him to take it out after the house was done and he said he couldn't. Grrr.

So I was out mowing the lawn Saturday and I noticed that one of the maple's two big branches is resting on our roof. As you can see in the pic. It cracked enough to lose the ability to hold itself up, but didn't separate completely.

So the tree guy came out this morning to look at it. And he sensed the urgency and said he's going to try to take it down today, when the current rain stops, but before we get the line of thunderstorms that terrorized the mid-west over the weekend. If he doesn't get it down today, that branch could come a-tumblin through the side of our house. Also, because that tree is directly above our septic tank, he can't get his cherry picker under it, so he's going to have to try to get it down with a bunch of ropes and winches tied to the oak for leverage. He said climbing it would be 'suicide'. I'm glad I won't be there to watch.

$800.

Further house joy: we've found five cracked floor tiles. Two groups: one of two and one of three. Within the groups, the tiles have all cracked in the same direction. So, the house is settling too much, and the subfloor is flexing too much, for the tiles to withstand. The abundance of doors that have stopped latching correctly further attests to the large amount of settling.

Once we're done with the lawyering of the flooring, it might be time for some lawyering of the foundationing.

If you're looking to build in Chatham Co, NC let me know - I'll tell you which builder to avoid.

"Complaint?" requested the attorney.

Explained.

"Retainer," requested the attorney.

Retained.

"Request?" requested the attorney.

"Letter of complaint," requested the homeowner.

Intermission.

Builder and floor supplier guy met with Mrs. this AM.

Builder was a shouting, yelling, insulting, storming asshole. Mrs. doesn't stand for that nonsense, so they had some words.

He stormed out. The magic word "lawyer" brought him back in.

Builder says he never read the floor inspector's report that we sent him via certified mail, three weeks ago. Says he didn't know anything about it. So, Mrs. kindly printed him a new copy. They went over that together. Apparently that focused his attention somewhat.

His suggestion is to have the floor installer apply filler to the entire floor, then a new coat of finish (no sanding). We're skeptical.

He also thought it was important to tell us that he lost $X0,000 building our house. Like we give a flying fuck.

Last week, the builder sent his foreman, the guy who installed our floors and the guy who supplied the wood for our floors to come to our house to look at the floors. The installer said nothing and left early - he does not like us, never has, and that is a big part of the reason we're in the situation we're in; if he had just made the repairs we asked for, months ago (and not dicked around, ignored our phone calls, fucked-up the repairs he did do, and refused to do any more) we might not be asking to have the entire floor replaced. But, that's what he did, and so ... here we are.

Anyway, the other two guys looked around for a while, but didn't have much to say. And this week, Mrs is going to meet with those people again to discuss what they think they should do. I can't wait to learn what that is!

We also went looking at other houses last weekend. It's the "Parade Of Homes" season here in central NC, where all the builders in the area build a house or two to show off what they can do. We saw a couple of really nicely-done houses, and if we decide to build again, those builders will be at the top of our list.

While talking about how some of those houses were great and some were really nothing special, we got an idea about how to make the house we're in better: turn the two-story family room into two single-story rooms. While that might be a hell of a construction job, it would fix a lot of the problems we have - a two story room in a house full of hardwood floors is exceedingly loud; a two-story wall is impossible to decorate and the 'plant shelf' that sits in the middle of this 20' wall is just a decorating nightmare; the ceiling fan is too high up to provide any real light; the fan/light and the plant shelves are taller than any of my ladders (so we can't put real plants up there - I couldn't water them!); and, maybe the worst of all, The Mistake:

That's the fireplace mantle, flanked by built-in bookshelves. The TV is mounted in front of that outlet. At the top on the right is the second floor balcony. On the top-left is the "plant shelf". But follow the edges of those two bookcases up. See how the left-side bookcase is about four inches to the right of the wall above the molding ? Now see how the right bookcase is in line with the wall above the molding ? That's The Mistake. We didn't notice it until we had moved in. There's no way easy to fix it - can't make the left bookcase skinnier because that would make the fireplace off-center; can't bring the right side in; can't move the top-left wall in; maybe could move the top-right wall out? We look at The Mistake constantly, since it's right above the TV. And it drives us crazy. Such a fucking stupid mistake on the framer's part, and so fucking stupid of us to miss it in all the months construction was going on.

But, putting a ceiling right where that molding sits fixes The Mistake, helps with the noise, eliminates the plant shelves, and lowers the ceiling fan!

Mrs will be talking with contractors about it, soon.

So, we're not sure if we're moving out or not. Still on the fence. We'll see how this floor stuff goes, and what the new ceiling cost and hassle might be. We like the lot and location, and if we can eliminate the biggest sore spots about the house, staying might be a possibility.

The builder has read our paperwork about the shitty floor - at least the cover letter. And he is furious at us and his foreman about it. Because it's our fault, apparently.

So sad.