Progress!

We're working on home repairs, now that we got the old house sold, and our breath caught after that.

We knew, when we bought this place, that it would need some work.  A good bit of it has already been done--we replaced all of the carpets, and we replaced all of the plumbing drainage within two months or so of buying the place.

We were also trying to stretch to cover some basic repairs to the old house at the same time we were doing some work on the new one.

And then...then the budget shrank dramatically.  The university I'd worked at part time for twelve and a half years decided they didn't have any sections for me to teach anymore, and let me go.  It's fine--I don't miss it, and really didn't have the health to keep doing it--but it put a real strain on repairs, so we...paused while we were getting the old house fixed, on the market and sold.

So.  Breath caught, I started looking for local handymen.  No dice.  Signed up with a leads generator for home repairs--Home Advisor--for the top two priorities in the repairs and improvements.  Signed up last week, then kinda forgot about it while I survived a CFS flareup. 

I got two different quotes day before yesterday, thought about the businesses, and picked one* of the two.  I made the call to the guy we decided to go with this morning, and have a tentative date scheduled for the work to be done.

The roof repairs, on the other hand...that could end up being problematic.  To the point we may have to schedule some time off work for Odysseus so that WE can do the work ourselves, to the best of our ability (and hope it holds for a while).

So far, before today, I hadn't had any luck with trying to find someone to do the repairs we need.  Local roofers don't seem to want to do anything but put a whole new roof on, even when all you want/can afford is repairs of a few minor issues.**

Even that is moving--I literally just got off the phone with a roofing and construction company.  The owner is a town over right now, at his aunt's funeral, but says he'll try to swing by and take a look at what needs done this afternoon.

Hopefully, before long, we'll have the repairs done, and some overhead lighting in the living room/library for gray, dreary days like today, and not have to depend solely on floor lamps anymore.

Update: The roofing and construction guy showed up--turns out the world is, indeed, tiny.  He's done work for us before (couple of years ago), and his wife was one of my all-time favorite students.

*One guy's young, and his business is 3 years old--this is the guy we're going with.  The other guy plans to retire in ten years, assuming he survives: he has a habit of making sure the right breaker's been turned off for the work by crossing the live wires to throw the breaker before he starts working.  

**We need a few joists braced and repaired--they're cracked, from what looks like an impact on the roof.  There's a small leak where one of the turban vents' flashing isn't sealed properly, and a small hole that looks like a branch punched through into the attic above the garage.  Oh, and the carport will need repaired, but that's a longer term project.  We don't need a whole new roof at this point, yet.  The rest of it is sound, and we can't afford a whole new roof at this point.