After almost two weeks of rain delay, my roof happened from Wednesday to Friday, my moving day. They were pretty great, despite that I had to meet them every morning to give them access to the house so they’d have power, which forced me to wake up early every day – not my favorite thing. But they worked fast, did a really great job, and cleaned up after themselves so that I didn’t have nails or bits of roof all over the place. The big project was the skylight, which took a bit longer than a day – cutting the hole in the roof, building the shaft for it, roofing around it, and framing it out so it looks nice from the inside. It is amazing how much more light my studio now has – my house is really very shaded by trees, which is great, but makes for a general dimness of the indoors. The studio is now the brightest room in the house, which makes me want to be in there a lot more – unfortunately, I’m still getting quotes on the sliding door to the backyard, and there’s no point in setting up that room if it’ll soon be covered in brick dust.

I did have to paint the inside of the skylight, which is way higher than my ceilings – the ceilings are a standard 8 feet, but the highest point of the skylight is more like 12 feet, so figuring out how to get a ladder that’d fit under the ceiling but get me high up enough to actually paint the whole area was a bit of challenge. Luckily, my dad has an old wooden ladder that’s almost exactly 8 feet tall, so we brought it in and set it up very carefully. The inside of a skylight chase is a fun thing to paint – it’s just 2 feet wide, so only slightly wider than my shoulders, by about 3.75 feet the other direction, and then 4 feet tall. Every time I’d turn to paint a new side, I’d brush one of the already-painted sections with my elbow, or shoulder, or hair – there is at least one piece of hair embedded in the paint for all eternity, because I didn’t see it ’til the paint had dried over it. Anyway, here’s how it looks, and the view through it as well.

When last I wrote, I hadn’t even moved into my house yet. And now I have to catch up on three weeks (!) of move-in, furniture rearranging, and acquisition of stuff. So brace yourself, this is going to be a slew of new posts all at once. And bracing is highly appropriate, since at this very moment there are two guys in my basement making very loud noises as they install the braces on the south wall, which will keep it from falling in. YAY!

I didn’t post that I actually didn’t get my house on the 13th, but rather actually closed on it on September 11th. Great omen, there, after all the issues with closing. But anyway, I have a house, now. And I have refinished floors of awesomeness too – it is amazing how much better they look now that they’ve been refinished. I did a very undignified happy dance when they sanded a chunk of floor and let me pick colors – I went with Early American, which is a lovely reddish-brown tone, a bit darker than what was there before. It is ridiculously awesome and I loves it, my precious, I do.

My roofer just called, too. He was supposed to start my roof last Tuesday. But it rained. And then it continued to rain for the rest of the week. But it looks like he’ll maybe be able to do my roof this week, assuming the weather holds out. Which will be REALLY EXCITING. Because it will be beautiful, but also partially because I really hope the mosquito invasion is because the gutters suck, and he’s replacing the gutters as well as the roof (current bugbite count = only two, because I remembered the bug spray. Bite count the first time I hung out on my porch for fifteen minutes = 25. At least.). YAY.

I’m also painting and getting carpet in the bedrooms this week. All of which will bring this house closer to what I know it can be. Oh, right, and I’m moving in on Friday, too, so at that point, all these projects won’t require me to remember which place my toolbox is, or cause me to carry my vacuum (wow that thing is heavy) across town because floor refinishing produces sawdust like that was the actual goal.

This house thing is giving my dad projects too – like fixing the front step so it’s level, and adding a layer of brick on top so it’s not an incredibly low step followed by a big step. And figuring out what the heck is up with the northeast corner of my basement, which is never actually wet with puddles, but is constantly damp. I am not certain that I would’ve been willing to take on this level of fixer-upper of a house if I lived somewhere further from my parents – having him to obsess about certain details leaves me free to obsess about different details, and yet they all get handled.

Today I closed on my house! This is cause for celebration, congratulations, etc… except for how, when we arrived at the closing, the deed had not arrived. In fact, it’s not going to be there until tomorrow. And since the lawyer is in Charlotte, they’ll have to send it up to Winston to be recorded. Which means it’s not going to be recorded until MONDAY. Good thing I wasn’t planning on moving in this weekend!

So here I am in this curious limbo. Until the deed is recorded, the house isn’t technically mine. And yet I’m meeting contractors there in the morning, I’m fixing things, and the electricity and water are on and in my name as of today. But this house, it isn’t officially mine yet. I’m running with a feeling of overall excitement, tempered by frustration. This will flip to pure excitement once the deed is done, but could easily go towards anger if something goes wrong. So keep your fingers crossed for me, the kinda-sorta-maybe homeowner.