Creeping along

Things are moving along on the County permitting front. According to Rocky Anderson, the guy leading me through this process, we should be done (if I'm understanding him correctly) in mid-January. Wow. Then on to the actual design and implementation process. \

Right now, I'm looking at two designs. I like one of them (from Timberbuilt) because it's all one level, and I'm trying to think ahead to when my mobility's impaired. But it's only one bedroom and 1,200 square feet, and I'd really like two bedrooms. Also, if I'm recalling correctly, the salesman's communication skills leave something to be desired. He's snapped at me and failed to respond to a couple emails. That doesn't bode well for communications after they have my money and are being pushed to deliver. The other (by Hearthstone) is more spacious - 2 bedrooms, 1,500 S/F with an attached garage, but I don't like the layout that much an it's two stories. I think I need to take the local (Vashon Island) guy up on his offer to work with me on design. More money.

Speaking of money, I had a big bucket of cold water splashed in my face in October. More precisely, it was a big bucket of dirty toilet water. One afternoon I was doing laundry and heard a weird sound. Went into the bathroom and the toilet was gurgling away...backing up. Plunged a little, it cleared up, and I returned to my seat. The next afternoon, I flushed and it really did back up. Been through this before; just call a plumber, have them cut through the roots in the front drainpipe, and everything's fine. But this time, it wasn't.

The plumber (Ben Franklin) came out and said that the front drainpipe was completely blocked; that I needed to replace it. Cost? $15K. YIPES. Seems to me I had estimates before and they were nothing like that, but if it has to be done, it has to be done. So they got their team together; brought the parts, cut out a couple sections of pavement (turns out my pipe joins the main on the far side of the street) had construction flaggers for the traffic, etc.

Comes time to attach the new drainpipe to the one under the house, and more problems arise. The iron pipe has deteriorated so much that it just crumbles when they try to attach it. Need to replace that pipe as well. But it gets worse. Turns out that the pipe is under slab flooring in the front room, and the only alternative is to cut a trench in the living room floor. Oy vey...the tile. But they do it, replace that pipe and all the pipe going all the way to the back of the house, more or less seal everything up, and poof! We're done, for the low, low price of only $43,000. That's after a 7% discount for paying cash. And since I paid cash, it was drained right out of my Vanguard account, essentially depleting my non-retirement savings. Urgh.

So I'm left broke, but with shiny new pipes that no one can see and that should be good for another 50 years or so...just in time for a market meltdown, erasing all my 2018 gains. And I discover that I've withdrawn a whopping $70K from savings this year, which is way more than I can afford to. So I'll be living like a churchmouse for the next year or so while I try to make it up.