The question you might want to ask is: what are you talking about and why? You'd be right to ask these things and as such I think it only fair that I answer them.
You might not be aware that we bought a house last September, just before the original expiration of the homebuyer's tax credit, and moved in at the end of October. You might not be aware of this because I've not really bothered updating this blog at all that much over the last year and you likely don't care much about me and the events of my life.
We bought a house large enough to accommodate all us in an area we're both happier living. Our mortgage with escrow is lower than what we were paying for only one of our apartments. It was a foreclosure, however, and therefore needs some work. We've been plugging away on issues here and there, and don't get me wrong it's not a sinkhole of money sucking doom, but there are definitely enough things to work on to keep us busy.
One of the most noticeable issues with the house would be the garage door. Simply put, there wasn't one. In its place the previous owner tacked up four plywood boards and a single 1" x 4" column in the center.
Shortly after we moved in, one of our wonderful neighbors came over to welcome us to the neighborhood. Viktor and Tatiana, a lovely couple who emigrated from Belarus, brought delicious Russian Tea Cakes and an offer of assistance. Tatiana's brother-in-law works for a garage door company and could get a hold of salvaged panels for free and with a little elbow grease we could get the door up ourselves. Now, I imagine that for them, besides the good feeling of helping a neighbor, they were likely tired of looking at the eye-sore for the last couple years and were ready for a cul-de-sac where all of garages had doors of their own.
If you were to keep score, and know anything about anything, you'll know that on this circle, we have been blessed with two incredible and helpful neighbors, one neighbor that isn't terrible, an empty house, and neighbors we've never really met but are far enough away as to not likely effect us anyway.
The goal, when we spoke in November, was to get it done before the snow started coming down. Unfortunately, we missed the goal and spent the entire winter with an ugly garage.
Why didn't we just pay to have a garage door installed, then? While we had the money to do so, it just didn't make sense to spend money on something that we could get done for free. So, we chose to wait instead.
Fast forward to yesterday. Viktor and I began work on the project. Since neither of us are professional garage door installers, it took us a few hours longer than it probably should have, but we're more than willing to point out some of the adversity that has plagued us. Part of the problem, is the fact that the foundation on the garage is cracked and so the garage itself is somewhat lopsided. The left side is almost exactly two inches lower than the right.
It's obvious, after doing the work, that the reason there was no door on the garage when we bought it was because the the tracks had become warped because the foundation of the garage had shifted so far. Without realizing how lopsided the opening was when we started, we were forced to re-hang the new tracks after realizing the situation.
The good news is that the doors are on, the bad news is that it doesn't quite work yet. Because we had to adjust the left side tracks up to keep the door level, the left side of the door doesn't quite clear the rafters at the top. So, we decided to break there and we'll come back with a sawzall and a little bit of lumber later in the week. We're going to cut enough out of two of the rafters to clear the top of the door and reinforce the weakened rafters with some timber.
I have to admit, though, it's really nice to have something that at least looks like a garage now.
The lopsidedness of the garage isn't that big of a deal because we plan to tear it down and build a new one as an extension to the house in a few years, so this thing just needs to get us through a few seasons.
Now, you might wonder why I've told you all of this, and for that I award your house five points. Clearly it doesn't matter in the slightest to most people. I simply like to keep the few people who actually care about me and mine aware of the things that are happening.
Also, I've decided that I'd like to start working on my blog again, and this seemed a worthy topic to write about. The next topic, I think, will be the impending release (finally) of Alan Wake.
Until then, adieu.
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