progress

less than two months ago, our home insurer informed us that it's independent contractor had inspected our home/property & had a list of repairs that needed to be made before our insurance policy could be renewed. oh, and when it is renewed, the value will be increased significantly (with a related increase in premium). and we had six weeks to get the repairs underway - or else.

well, the repairs noted were things we'd meant to have done, just never seemed to have enough money. but six weeks? contractors in early spring are generally booked for all those big & small things that revealed themselves over winter ~ and here in se pa, winter 2010-2011 was darn tooting nasty!

a guardian angel apparently watched over us, as we were able to line up a good contractor who pledged to make sure everything was done right & proper within the set time frame. we were skeptical. contractors are notorious for being overly optimistic & weather factors are even more infamous for setting even the most asiduous contractor way behind promised complete dates.

thank heavens, our guardian angel (mom?) chose wisely. our contractor got all the work started within the time frame. the independent contractor was delighted with the results & gave our insurer the green light to a) renew our policy & b) increase the value of our home/property (ergo also our premium).

we'd hoped the work could be completed at or near the figure we thought seemed reasonable to us, but the more multi workers showed up throughout the week, the more we realized our prayers were unlikely to be answered. the final cost turned out to be double what we'd hoped, but (to be utterly honest) considerably lower than what the finished work was actually worth.

when you're about to shell out almost every penny you have to your name (seriously) for an unbudgeted expense that will result in other costs going up, it would be understandable to have a flip-floppy stomach & other indications of being stressed out. must be making progress, because i didn't have any stress-induced effects as i drew out literally 9/10ths of our funds to pay 2/3 of the contractor's bill. instead, i offered up thanks that the money was there & that the contractor was willing to let us pay off the balance as more money comes in (might be in dribs & drabs, but we promise to be steadfast to getting it paid off asap).

now, to get the inside of the house looking as spiffy as the outside does. that, my friends, will be PROGRESS!