This definately qualifies, as one of those days

So for the last couple of weeks not much has been going on at the house, I have finished almost everything that i have to do, and our contractor is waiting for electricity to complete his side..

Last thing on my list was to cap off the water lines that fed the ridiculous bar, and to finish up the plumbing on the master bedroom sink, the drain line. So today, I thought hey we'll go over do that, get some groceries, Jenn wanted to check out the Lumber liquidators sale that is going on. All told, shouldnt take more than an hour.

First thing first I need to get my plumbing gear, I'm anal retentive/organized so I have a plumbing kit, electrical kit, drilling kit blah blah... But I cant find the plumbing one, being as how I packed up the entire garage. Here is where I should have turned back around, gone back upstairs, changed back into my pygama's and called it a day.... but instead, I unpacked half the pack rat before giving up and thinking, i must have left it at the house.

Jump in the car and over to the house we go. As soon as we arrive it dawns on me, I was so pre-ccupied with trying to get the plumbing gear that I didn't grab the parts off the kitchen counter. Neither did Jenn. Luckily house is only 5 minutes away, so back into the car back to the rental. Grab the parts back to the house. Jenn goes upstairs and I head back down into the basement, open up the duffelbagofwonder and grab the torch and realize, I have no solder... its not in the bag where I thought it was.

This being our second trip to the house, I refuse to leave without doing SOMETHING, so I head upstairs to the ringing laughter of my loving wife, and crawl under the master vanity, valiently pull out the pieces I bought, and growl as they don't fit.

Fine, we're NOT going to do anything then, back into the car and off we go. Once we're done the patrol of southern NJ, i drop Jenn off at the grocery store and go grab some plumbing kit. Now I have every tool known to man, anything I was ever missing I bought, so I HAVE EVERYTHING I NEED to do these jobs AND ITS SOMEWHERE IN THE PACK RAT! Well whatever, having more money than brains (if only just barely) I just buy everything I need again. My father would roll over in his grave, if he were dead, but he's not, so he's just rolling his eyes.

Drop off the groceries, down a cup of joe, grab Sawyer and head over to the house again to do what I need to do. Once I arrive, Sawyer does his usual 3lb crap on the floor, and I realize, I have no source of fire to light up my crappy torch for the plumbing... BACK into the car (those of you counting, that is now 4 trips.. and we're not done yet) back to the rental, drop of sir shits a lot, and grab Jenn's lighter (she doesn't smoke, not sure why she has a lighter...).

Back over to the house I go, and surprisingly I haven't lost it yet.... this is extremely rare for me. I head back into the lovely house head downstairs and get setup, light up the torch and yank off the offending pieces, then I set in to re-attach the plugs and I can't find them. I call Jenn, where did you leave them? In my sweater. I swear to god, I can hear the tears of laughter in her voice....BACK to the rental, at this point, my stubborn streak has kicked in, I WILL FINISH THIS PROJECT TODAY. Back home, grab the caps, back to the house open up the duffelbagofwonder again and that pot of flux, isn't, its a pot of Plumbers putty.

Back into the car, back to Home Depot. I grab what I need for the basement job, and then ask the guy about the upstairs bedroom. He patiently listens to the mess I have constructed, and then sighs and says, I think you might be screwed. Cut off the mess you made and bring it in here and I'll get you what you need.

Awesome, because after 7 hours, thats EXACTLY What I wanted to hear... Anyways back in the car, back to the house where I finish the soldering job in about 6 minutes... Then go upstairs and start to saw off the mess I made. It's making a weird noise though, so I reach back and realize its not black PVC piping like I told the guy, its metal... Its a threaded plastic doodad on the metal pipe, so I just unscrew it and bring it to the guy. About 2 minutes later he has me with all the parts I will need (the right parts, not the half assed BS I was doing) and I go home. Screw it, I won't finish tonight I just don't have it in me....

Pray for me, I'm going back tomorrow.

20 days later, still no electricity

So here we are, 20 days after we passed the electrical inspection, and the city only got around to sending the information to PSEG today. Yep, 3 weeks lost, so of course now we can't even move in.... None of the other work could take place while we waited for the electrical to be completed, so here I sit on my hands watching as nothing happens in the house...

My work, amazing as it is, was complimented by a friend of mine when he put up the mudding, all of the crooked walls now look straight, and all the holes where there was no drywall have been patched. Place looks great! Of course when the electrical guy rolled through he saw the work, and promptly slapped a stop work order on the house. Apparently my contractor had not submitted the plans I drew up for the basement work that we wanted to do. So we had to iron out that particular kink, city was very forthcoming on what they needed, and as of this morning we have the permits we need and an inspection is scheduled for monday.

What I will likely have to do for that inspection, is tear down a couple of sheets of my newly painted drywall to prove that I did the framing and wiring correctly, awesome no? Yes, I know, I know, get permits and you won't have this problem. Every DIY show in the world states that 3-4 times per episode, so why did I not do it, well I thought I had, but this goes to show you (they also mention this) check up on your contractor early and often...In the end, its your responsibility.

So, 1 week away from our target movin date my contractor has finally said we're not going to be able to make it. Now I have to find somewhere to live, I wonder if my landlord will notice if I just don't move out..

We passed the electrical inspection!

And thank god too, because I really need to get the heat turned on in our house so that the pipes don't freeze again and the drywall mud can actually dry... I did some mudding on sunday around the panel, and on tuesday night it still wasn't dry, just not warm enough I guess.

So next we get the cut in card from the city, and get the meter installed, get the gas turned on, check the boiler and fire it up.... Probably won't actually have heating until the end of next week, but we're one large step closer.

Good times!