Home again!

We are home again, this time for good! Yesterday, the building inspector came and did our final gas inspection. We had three conditions to get a temporary certificate of occupancy: 1) put temporary handrails on the stairs, 2) protect the outside deck from anyone going on it, since there are no handrails (and no deck yet, really), and 3) cap off all the exposed wiring and put protective plates over all the outlets. Our contractor put caution tape on the stairs and across the upstairs sliders, since at this point there is no way to do anything temporary, since the hardwood floors are going in on Monday. All the wiring in the new part of the house isn't connected to power, so #3 also isn't a concern. When I went down to the city to get the gas release, I explained it all to the building official and he was okay with that. He's going to have our gas release ready for pickup in late morning on Monday, and then we'll take that to PG&E so they can bring back our gas meter. We should have gas some time next week if all goes well.

We had thought we would try to get all our stuff out of the condo yesterday, sleep at the house last night, and then come back today to clean. But really, the condo is so small, and we brought so little stuff, that two carfuls did it. Our landlady wanted to sleep there last night, so while she was getting a load of her belongings to bring to the condo, we madly cleaned the place. So we're completely out of there now! We're not completely back in our house yet, but we're getting there. Lots of unpacking/reorganizing yet to do (of just the stuff we have out).

I found out that there were a rash of burglaries at construction sites the night our place was hit. I don't know what was taken from the other places, but it looks like the work of the same person/people who burglarized our house.

Last night I got a great night's sleep -- the first time in a month! No one was coming home late from a bar or getting up early to clean the sidewalks with a portable sidewalk cleaner. I am not sure I could have ever gotten used to the noise. And it was nice to be able to just step out the door to take Coda out to pee. It's good to be back home!

More pictures today, I promise. They are making great progress on the house. They're coming today to build the deck, so we'll probably put it to good use, guardrails or no. Maybe we can put caution tape around the perimeter...that oughta do the trick!