Meeting the Neighbors

So I think I'm going to have to do 2 separate posts because I haven't done anything in so long....

The permitting process is longer and significantly more detailed than we thought. In our heads, Kevin was going to run down to the office and pick up a permit like he'd pick up a pack of cigarettes. This is not the case. He was denied last time. We're in the process of trying to get everything together so we can try again. In the meantime, Matt and I have decided that we would tackle putting a garage door on the garage. We're not quite sure why there isn't a garage door, but there isn't. Again, nothing is as easy as we think... We head to Lowe's pick a garage door off the shelf, have Lowe's go measure and assume they'll put it up and done deal. Where is the fun in that?? Not enough work or fun in the previously mentioned plan. After the folks at Lowe's come to measure they realize that we need a custom door. We have come to learn that custom = $$$$$. Needless to say $$$$ is not in the budget, so we decided we'll build our own door. We've decided on barn style door that will swing out. We headed to Lowe's to buy supplies on Sunday morning with high hopes of getting a lot finished by the end of the day.

We got to the house and realized we had all of the tools we would need, but forgot an extension cord. We are resourceful and decided we would move the work bench to the front porch. It was a good plan, but also an invitation to the neighbors to stop by. Naturally, since the house was on the market for almost a year and a half and uninhabited, they're ready to know what's up. First, we met Jim. He's great, has lived next door since the 70s. He knows all and tells most. Then we met Nelson - great guy. His yard is fabulous and he was excited to learn we were "going up." These 2 encounters took up about 2+ hours, which didn't help with our project. We were really excited to meet the neighbors, so it worked out for the best. The most interesting things we learned meeting the neighbors (mainly Jim) were....

1. We bought our house from the original owners. This wouldn't be that cool if our house was built last year, but it was built in 1939!! That's really cool!!

2. Trash and recycling are taken Tuesday morning - that's an important fact!

3. There's some land clause that says we can't add a second floor... let's hope the permitting people are in the dark on this!!!!