The Long, Slow, Slog

The last month has been filled with inactivity. Move-out happened on September 21, with the full expectation that within a week the last two gates would have been cleared to get the permit for demolition. It, of course, hasn't worked out that way.

To get the permit, we needed to: (1) have the oil tank pumped and removed from the house; and (2) have the electric utility disconnect the house from its grid. Sounds easy.

The oil tank folks were to show up on the 22nd, and never did. Of course, they didn't respond to our call ever, and only returned out builder's call about a week later, claiming they knew nothing about the job. Through our builder, we networked to some other folks, who were definitely on the ball and - amazingly enough - even called when they expected to be 15 minutes late! We like them. So, the oil tank is pumped and removed and here's a shout-out to Arthur's Oil Company for coming through.

Our electric utility has been a bigger problem. They seem to handle disconnects only when Mercury is in retrograde concident with the Planters Moon. This being Autumn, that's not seeming to happen. We got a subtle sign of progress on Friday. The daily call to their customer service team generated the following: "A team was out there yesterday, but they couldn't find the <>. We have another person assigned to it for Tuesday." Hmm. At least they know we exist and have a request.

Meantime, we'd like our builder and his subs to be at work...they actually need to have work in progess to put income on the ledger. There's a small worry that some of the guys are going to have to pick up other projects, creating that nasty cascade of delays. You can't blame them, but it sure would be a drag...

On the plus side - there's no going back. The November issue of Dwell magazine references our project in the context of the Dwell/Empyrean partnership. The issue is focused on prefab, and while I haven't had much chance to look at it, it seems like it might contain some interesting things for people interested in pre-fab and kit construction. This is the kind of stuff I'd like to see them focus more on, rather than some of the commercial and product-y emphasis of recent issues. Hopefully as some of the buzz around this will increase people's interest in pursuring this style of home, and to managing the footprint and impact of the house on its environment.