Whirlwind day

Wow, what a tornado today was. We started by meeting a foundation repair guy at 9 a.m. He requested that we both met with him, and I'm glad we did because we were able to sign the contract on the spot. Before he was even gone, the landscaper we really like was here to take measurements of the yard. He had a general contractor with him, so what was to be a simple measurement which I didn't even have to be home for turned out to be a long, complex meeting. The landscaper has worked with this GC for five years. If we are able to put a deal together, this could save me a lot of work and headaches, stomachaches, backaches, etc. Basically, I need to coordinate having plans drawn, getting permits, getting the back door put in, followed by stucco, followed by building the deck. Between the landscaper and the GC, they can do all of this and can coordinate their own schedules. I'm leery of hiring a GC I have no knowledge of, but I'll do my due diligence and we'll see. I need to go to the city and check into what is required for the permit on this.

After handling some miscellaneous tasks around here, I went to Home Depot to try to buy materials for some work we're having done tomorrow. I found a franchised handyman service where all the workers are supervised by a licensed general contractor. All of the work is guaranteed and the employees are bonded and insured. I scheduled them to do a few small jobs to try them out. If it works out, it will be a great resource for some of the more complicated jobs. I had to buy covers for the vents in the crawl space. Even though I measured the size I needed, of course it required a second (and eventually third) trip. They have a million different vents, so I bought a whole bunch of different ones (13 of each, thank goodness they have a good return policy) and none of them worked. I ended up going back at 8:30 at night after pulling one of the covers right out and taking it with me.