6.5.2014

This sign pretty much sums up the last 24 hours.  Yesterday was a really good afternoon with finishing up our first concrete pour on the property.

 

However, as we were cleaning up, we got a phone call that we've been waiting for for a month now - from the building inspector at the town hall.  Unfortunately, we missed the call and when we called back it was after closing hours and the system wouldn't patch us through to the inspector's phone line.  He had left a kind of ambiguous phone message - saying he got our plans but there were a few things he needed to talk to us about.  So we were left feeling very uncertain.  Jim's plans are very atypical and his concerns could cover a lot of ground. 

 

So we went from feeling very happy about the concrete to feeling very unsure about the phone call.  Instead of celebrating, we were kind of in the dumps about what could possibly go wrong.  We both had a very sleepless night.

 

 

But one of the things I love the most about Jim is that he never lets anything get him down for long.  The morning broke and Jim was up and ready to go talk to the building inspector and face whatever we had to face.

 

The first thing the inspector said when Jim walked in was...Wow, that is going to be some building!  He and Jim ended up having a good conversation ranging from structures to people they both knew in common (amazing in the short time we've been here).  The main issue was that he wanted to see the septic design - Jim had already been in touch with the septic designer and he had already been to the property.  He had told us to tell the building inspector that he would be doing the design so it wouldn't be an issue.  Then he went on an African safari and just now got back in town.  The other issues were minor and things that involved codes that Jim didn't know about - window sizes in any potential living space and some weird lighting/lumen issues - both very minor.

 

So after that, Jim went and saw the septic designer.  Again, a very positive meeting with this guy telling Jim again that he would love to have him as a consultant in his office in the future..  They set up an appointment for our perc test for the middle of June. 

 

While we are discouraged that the building inspector had our plans for over a month and then told us things that we could have had finished in that month, for our complicated building plans to have no issues, we felt ecstatic.  He said after the septic design is in place, he had already reviewed the plans so the permit will be fast.  What a major relief!  At least things are moving in a positive direction now!  It's been limbo for the last month.

 

After a few deep breaths, Jim decided that we would go to Lowe's this afternoon and pick up more concrete supplies to do another pour tomorrow.  I met him at the property about 2:30 and he was ready to go.  We loaded up in the truck and as Jim turned the engine over - he discovered he had absolutely no brakes.

 

After saying a prayer of thanks that this didn't happen on Jim's previous trip with the truck on the mountain road home from Lowe's or as we were headed there today...another regrouping.

 

We get out, tip up the cab, and Jim sees that the brake line has rusted through and has leaked all the brake fluid out.  If we were back in Ohio with Jim's shop full of tools and a place to work - no problem.  But we are basically in an empty field with nothing.

 

Jim starts exploring and ends up cutting the brake line and getting the stripped connector loose.  We get in the 4Runner and head into town to buy a brake line and new connectors.  Then it was a trip to the storage unit to get the tube bender and a couple other tools he needed.  We head back to the lot and Jim manages to get the new section of brake line connected up.  We bled the breaks and, believe it or not, within 2 hours we were back on the road to Lowe's.  Jim is definitely my hero!

 

 

Lowe's was supposed to have our concrete ready to be loaded on the truck, but that didn't happen.  After what we had just gone through, no big deal.  We got 14 more bags of concrete loaded and were on our way home.

 

After all that, we decided this was definitely a celebration night.  We walked up to Dango's and had celebratory chicken nachos and beer!  Definitely a puddle day but it certainly had its bright sides too.  I always tell Jim that perseverance is one of his best traits - and it was tested this last week between torrential downpours ruining all our grading/seeding work, to scary permit thoughts, to broken brake lines!