Construction and preparing for renting the house

January 27

Geez, where does the time go? We have had a great guy, Pake, who is Hawaiian, working like a Trojan on insulation, drywall and texturing. The week before last he worked six and a half days and this past week, he worked six days. I was glad that he finally took a full day off on Sunday. Today he is back. I asked him if he relaxed yesterday. He said he slept in and took his grandkids to the river for a barbeque. We are grateful for his work ethic.

There was a meeting scheduled today with the missing electrician, the project manager, and Ron. The electrician said he had an emergency and the meeting got canceled.  Ron has asked that the electrician be fired and today the project manager said if the electrician missed the meeting tomorrow, he would fire him and get someone else to do the job. At last!

Jan 28

The electrician showed up and did some work, promising to return tomorrow to do more. Let’s hope so.

I had an acupuncture appointment this morning and I truly love my doc. He is Chinese and 15 years ago or more I used his services. He told me fascinating stories about growing up under the Mao regime. His parents were jailed (academics) so he and his sister had to fend for themselves. He told how they learned to steal food in order to survive. When he was in medical school, China was desperate for doctors so he was pulled out of school before finishing his studies. He was in some rural village and a man came in with a dislocated shoulder. Dr. Zhou ran into his office and read about how to repair the man’s shoulder before he treated the patient. OY!

Today we got some pavers to put in front of the apartment exterior door as the workmen will start using it tomorrow. It is a bit muddy, so Ron will place three of the pavers near the door to help reduce the amount of mud being tracked in. The floor has been covered with Kraft paper, but I worry about how much rain we are having and the mess it could make on the floors. I also put a rug on the inside for workers to wipe their feet. The inside doors to the garage and the apartment are kept closed but it is amazing how much construction debris and dust enters the house with Ron and Pake walking in and out. Rick, the contractor, and Kris, the project manager were both here today. We are hopeful this project will be completed by the end of the first week in February but a lot depends on the electrician doing his job and everything else falling into place with no hiccups. I sweep parts of the house daily. All the throw rugs (front door, bathrooms) need to be washed or swept frequently. I can hardly wait for this to change.

Although we are hopeful that we will have time to move into the apartment and that we will have time to get the house rented before we leave for Mexico at the end of February, it may be too much to accomplish in the time we will have. We will need to store all of our furniture in the garage that isn't used in the new digs. Plus providing selves for all boxes (64) and large bins (11) in the garage. We will either buy more shelving or Ron will make some for the garage. Neither of us wants to drive ourselves crazy between now and when we leave. 

We have started working on renting the house; writing up the terms of the lease agreement, creating an ad and looking at what the house would rent for. We need to get more information on how to set the rental price. Each day we try to accomplish something towards these goals.