morgan_dhu | House: The Second Chapter

The purchase of the house is complete.

I am a home owner. This does not feel right. Grown-ups own houses. I am not a grown-up. Therefore I really should not own a house.

I suppose I'll get used to it.

There were, of course, all sorts of last minute freak-outs and miscommunications and paperwork kerfluffles, such as the broker forgetting to email the appraiser's report to the mortgage provider, and the lawyer sending the wrong pre-authorised debit form to the mortgage provider, and me having to get a rush-job passport because new mortgage regulations require the purchaser to have photo ID, but as of November 15, the house is mine (ours, really, but it's my name on the deed 'cause I'm the one with the full-time job who was actually eligible for a mortgage).

We also remembered to do all sorts of clever things like get homeowners' insurance, switch over the utilities, find a copy of the original survey, get a draftsperson in to draw up plans so we can start talking about renovations with contractors and also be prepared for getting the various assorted and sundry permits, do an energy audit and otehr strange and arcane things.

glaurung is talking to various contractors to set up appointments so they can give us estimates on the work we need to do, and doing very important things like tearing up the carpets and throwing out the drapes and trying to detoxify the house, which was previously owned by a little old lady, who, as is the wont of little old ladies, just loved air fresheners.

We have very cleverly unplugged the fridge, turned off the hot water heater and set the thermostat down until such time as we move in, which could well be several months yet, becasue there are those renovations to be done, and after that, we will have to detoxify the house to get out the chemicals from the materials used in the renovations.

There are times when I really, really hate having Environmental Illness. This would be one of them.

We are going to have to insist that whatever contractor we hire uses special low-VOC paints and other things, use metal or real wood (which we will have to treat with a special low-VOC sealant first) rather than plastic or chemically-treated composite building materials, and so on, which means that materials will be more expensive and in some cases there will be additional labour costs.

And then there's the accessibility renovations. A rant for another day. Let it suffice to say that we have discovered that due to a very annnoying recemtly-enacted city bylaw, we will likely not be able to afford putting in a ramp/low-rise stair access in the best place for such a thing to be, but will rather have to put it in in a far less desirable place, both functionally and aesthetically, because to do what would work best, we would have to tear down a garage (which makes perfect sense in our livestyle, since neither of us drives and we will never own a car) - and it is illegal to eliminate off-street parking spaces, and we don't have enough money to tear down the garage, put up the accessway and put in another parking space to replace the one we tore down.

Grrrrr.

Oh well. Money is tight and the worklist is long, but so far the evil days have come not.