(don’t) lean on me

I wish I can blame my absence on something other than the lack of things to tell you about. Here is the house update, they finished digging out the basement and putting in new cinder blocks to support the rest of the house. Last time you saw it, they only did half of the basement.  Reminder:

The next step would be to start the foundation/framing of the extension and then eventually rip down the back wall of the house. BUT we ran into our first (and ONLY?!?!?!) hiccup! Let’s first rewind to before the dig out started, apparently you have to ask the neighbors on either side of you permission before digging out your basement. Seems kind of silly, right? Turns out, they (whoever they are) have had some issues with contractors who didn’t know what they were doing (not mine!) and started to dig and then the neighbors houses started collapsing.. or something. Probably wasn’t THAT dramatic but this is my blog so the house collapsed and crumbled to the ground. Kay? Baltimore City then passed a law/rule/suggestion that you have to have your next door neighbors sign a waiver that they’re cool with you digging. So we (our contractors) did just that.

This brings me to the hiccup. After they were done with the basement dig out the dig out people realized that the next door neighbor’s little extension was resting on OUR support columns. They then had to bring in an engineer to explain what to do to move forward with the project and to make sure everyone’s houses weren’t going to collapse. SEE! It really is kind of dramatic.

As you can see our house is the only house with he red brick columns. The other houses only have gutters back there!!!

That hiccup obviously cost us a few days on our already short and tight timeline so we’re currently accepting names of people that are willing to let the three of us stay with them for a few weeks come April. HALF kidding, Our Contractor is still telling us that we should be okay but I somehow don’t believe him, it seems like its right around the corner. I’m going to stay positive and do everything I can to help speed up the process. Hopefully all of these RAKs will bring some good Karma our way?!?!!??

Fingers crossed that framing for the extension will start tomorrow.