Occam's Razor

During the spring we watched our house — supposedly under construction — largely sit there for two months. It was a frame with windows and wrapped in Tyvek but that was about it. Yesterday our house was a beehive of activity as contractors tried to finish it at last, presumably to meet a September 15 deadline. They are unlikely to meet this deadline either, but it’s not from lack of trying during this final effort. Trucks working on our house were blocking traffic in and out of our development. We had to park down the street and amble up to our house. The din of construction equipment had doubtless woken up the whole neighborhood by the time we arrived around 8:30 am. The first layer of asphalt had just been laid on our driveway and was steaming in the morning sun.

We walked slowly on some planks to get onto our porch rather than step in the mud that will eventually become our lawn. Inside dozens of workmen were running around on every level. The smart ones were wearing hearing protection because it sounded like a rock concert in there, principally due to the placement of the staircase to our basement. A carpenter was creating a space for the stairs to sit with his miter saw. The electricians were busy wiring up the kitchen lights, but needed to consult with us on the placement of hallway lights, which was why we were there so early. Upstairs they were nailing down carpet tack in our loft and storage room. The painting at least was done with the main walls colored a nice light peach color, just like in our last house. The kitchen looked nearly done with all the cabinets and the countertop in place, but with the appliances still missing. Our newly stained and polished hardwood floors thankfully were still covered in plastic, since workmen didn’t have time to remove the mud from the soles of their shoes.

We returned later in the day to find the foreman there. The carpet was being installed in the loft, while in the master bedroom the padding was being stapled into the floorboard. A second coat of asphalt was going down on the driveway while the truck carrying it totally blocked traffic. The hallway lights were in place, but the ones in the bathroom remained to be done. We discussed where they should be seated and noted that our toilets had arrived, just had not been connected.

In the midst of all this chaos, the appliances arrived. With the asphalt still settling they had to be lifted over the mud, dollied into the house and then positioned into place. It was organized chaos, but at least the windows and doors were open, letting in fresh cool air. The foreman had a group of guys working on windows. They were already in place but the plastic was still on the panes and the screens needed to go in place. We discussed concerns about a duct that was blocked and a vanity that didn’t quite fit on its cabinet. It’s on backorder, along with a missing light at the top of the stairs.

Even with all this work there was still plenty more to do. The air conditioner needed to go in and a lot of electrical mysteries needed to be solved. Plugs that should have current did not. Outside, there was still no landscaping beyond a general grading, but at least the deck was completed with railings and some steps. Would this all be completed by September 15, our latest completion date?

It was not likely but it didn’t matter that much because we had finally nailed down a settlement date: September 24. This effectively postponed the delivery date and would put our actual occupation date some two months after when it was originally promised. Promises in the home construction business don’t mean a whole lot, so it’s best to have contingency plans. Nonetheless, we were getting antsy. We had given notice that we would be vacating our apartment at the end of the month. Without a settlement date until yesterday we could not book a mover. The mover’s schedule was already largely full, but he was free on the afternoon of the 24^th to move the stuff out of our apartment. I was able to get the settlement time moved to the morning so that would work. Moving the voluminous stuff out of our storage unit will have to wait until near the end of the month when our mover is free.

After a week trying to get a hold of our loan processor, and even leaving a note with her supervisor to call us, she finally deigned to call us back. She ordered the belated appraisal of the property at once, but the appraiser could not actually stop by for nine days. Due to her incompetence, if the house had been ready by the 15^th we would not have been able to settle. It’s still unclear if we will be able to settle on the 24^th because our loan is apparently competing for her attention amongst many others and her boss keeps sending her to mandatory training. New documents were demanded because the loan processor had changed and apparently they couldn’t be bothered to save the records we sent them in February. This meant more scrambling to assemble papers, some entirely new.

It seems both home construction and loan processing aren’t very amenable to deadlines. It helps to know this is normal, so it must have been normal for me to fret and wonder if we would be sleeping in a hotel October 1 with the contents of our apartment in another storage unit. When sufficiently pressed by exasperated homeowners like us things though generally do move toward the finish line at last. I have figured out that it will be generally up to me to dot the I’s and cross the T’s, as it is up to whoever cares the most to shriek the loudest to bring it all together. I am going hoarse.

Still, in a few weeks it will be over. A 14-month relocation odyssey will be over. It will be replete with innumerable pitfalls along the way that only sustained focus fixed. Barring any last minute deal breakers, two weeks from now we should be living in our new house with all the hassles of this relocation appearing blessedly in our rear view mirror.