It had to happen sooner or later....

I knew that we had to catch a break sooner or later. The odds of every job going bad for so long is very slim. That break came today. I had an electrician come out at 10 a.m. and hired him on the spot. His guys were free this afternoon and finished the fan and some work in the kitchen that needed to be done. I had already checked him out on Angie's List and checked his contractor license, Better Business Bureau rating and insurance, so I felt comfortable hiring him.

I originally wanted him to just move electrical stuff in the attic so the fan would fit, but it turns out his guys could do the whole installation. The prices was right, so I gave the go-ahead. It was very worth saving us the effort. The finished today and the fan works. We can run it yet though since the ventilation isn't in the attic yet.

I called the roofer who put the roof on in 2006 and asked him to give me an estimate on the ventilation. I decided to hire him as well. I called a few other roofers as well, but several did not return my call (What economic crisis?) and one acted like I was an idiot for making the request. I have the roofer scheduled for Tuesday.

We ended up saving a ton of money on the fan installation, so I am glad I stepped in and acted as general contractor.

I also got the fire pit fixed and found a great handyman. We bought a gazebo and table and chair set back in APRIL, and it is finally done. It took the store 3 weeks to get the items ready for pickup, and then it took a few weekend work sessions to get the gazebo and chairs assembled. When we started on the table, we found we were missing a few parts. The company is in Canada and it took 2 months to get a few washers sent. Then we traveled for 9 days, so by the time I got the table assembled, 5 months had passed. The table has a propane fire pit in the middle, and I was SO excited to get it done, but when I finally turned it on nothing happened. I found a guy that repairs gas grills on Angie's List, and he's a handyman and former general contractor as well. I decided to take the path of least resistance and pay to have it fixed. It would have been a triangular battle between me, the seller and the Canadian manufacturer and I just wasn't up for it. The handyman diagnosed the problem as a faulty design, and bent some parts of the ignition system to make it work better and poof, we have fire! After so many months of this hanging over my head, it feels great and I am looking forward to using it. In fact both this and the whole house fan have felt like a ton of bricks on me, so it is a huge relief to have them done.

I also got some ivy cut, but not much it seems.

Here is one of the other jobs the electricians did today. They installed under-cabinet and in-cabinet lighting that I had purchased. This is the in-cabinet lighting, which looks great with the rest of the lights out. They also installed under cabinet lighting under this entire bank of cabinets, which has added so much light to the kitchen and adds a lot of lighted workspace. That's my drills and handles sitting on the counter top. I've been just leaving it out between work sessions since we have the space and because the whole house is such a mess that it doesn't make things any worse.