Nerves are creeping in

Tomorrow the building inspector is coming to the house for a what else . . . inspection! Yes that is what they do, inspect things. The history of the visit is that upon my most recent attempts to refinance my mortgage, I was informed by the appraiser that the house is an illegal two-family and the bank would not offer a mortgage to me.

Now this comes as a shock to me since I was under the impression that it was always a two-family. Since illegal two-families are not the type of property I care to own; I set out to get this all straightened out. After multiple phone calls & visits to town hall

(actual town hall)

the issue has been brought to light. Tax and insurance wise, everything looks good and the way it is supposed to. A trip to the building permit office tells another story. Since there is no permits pulled for any work done on the other kitchen, they say one-family. And they mean it since there are permits on the house dating back to 1935!

After hearing my sob story of the mean bankers shutting me out; the inspector advised me to apply for a two family verification certificate of occupany. If the building meets the requirements, we are in the clear and free to refi! If not . . . who knows? Might be bad, might be a slap on the wrist. Details to come tomorrow.

There is a New King of Real Estate

Yup that is right folks; In the eyes of the Commonwealth I am certified. No swine flu or rain storm was stopping me from passing that bad boy. That testing facility was locked down like the pentagon. Nothing allowed in your pockets, NOTHING! The warden makes you pull up your sleeves and then you are off to your monitored cubicle for 4 hours of multiple choice fun.

But that is all behind me now. Time to decide where I would like to select as HQ for my empire of operation.

As Buddy Kane always says "In order to be successful, one must project an image of success at all times."

Of course he was strutting around in black on black suits:




And I am pretty sure his license picture didn't look like a screenshot from a documentary about lifers in prison:



Woof! Hopefully my credentials don't scare off any potential clients!

Fighting for the TV en la casa

The mustard engrossed in an episode of Breed All About It - for cats only. We had to stop watching bird shows because he would attack the screen.

The Good and the Bad

The Good:

So this past week was the bathroom faucet replacement. Fixed up the shelf back faucet from FW Webb and got some tips from the guy at the counter. First thing, take the sink off the wall or you'll kill yourself trying to operate in that tiny space. Best advice ever. I could barely fit two fingers in there to thread tape the new fitting. I could not imagine trying to do the rest of the work.

The install was a piece of cake. The removal of the old one . . . not so much. Removing the old drain flange (the circle that surrounds the pop up part) took hours of my energy and brain power. Nothing would get that thing to budge. Finally I resorted to sawing it into strips and chiseling it out in pieces. Crude but effective.

I was amazed by how easy the sink came off the wall. There is NOTHING holding that guy down. The pic below shows the metal strip that has a lip on it that the sink hangs on. That is it.



here is the pic of the nice and shiny finished product. Should have taken about 1-2 hours, ended up taking 6-8 hours (includes multiple hardware store runs). behold the good!





The Bad:

So back to the dining room. I thought I had a good diagnosis as to the section of plaster that was severely cracking. My original plan was to slap up strapping right over the plaster. I was sticking my head up in the hole in the ceiling and noticed a sizeable crack in the joist above. Pretty sure its the floor joist to the second floor but who knows. All I know is that is the reason the ceiling was F'd up. In reading how to repair the joist, it seems that I will have to tear out much more plaster than anticipated. Here is a pic of the joist where is meets the wall thingie (yeah that's right, I know my lingo)



Since the ceiling is already opened, might as well fix it now. The only thing that worries me is the living room as a very similar crack in the plaster. I have my fingers crossed.

Gotta love Weymouth!

Alert


Say what you want about Weymouth but they are always looking out for the cokeheads and crackheads. This link is right from the MAIN page on the town's web site. I am not sure who they are trying to target here but I hightly doubt the crackheads of Weymouth are scouring the web looking for info on whether or not the rock they just bought is bad. We know this cat certainly cannot use a computer.

Weekend Update

The sink did not get done as originally planned but the weekend was not totally unproductive. I spent the weekend taking an accelerated Real Estate License for my salespersons license. 24 class hours in 3 days and all I gotta do is take the test and I am certified!






I have decided to not rip out the sink and replace with the pedestal. I found a replacement for the oddly shaped faucet in the earlier post. For those interested it is called a "shelf back" faucet. It was a bit more than expected (about $108) but I decided on the easier job and to keep the uniqueness of the sink. So win win in my book.

Unfortunately the sink takes a back seat to TB and the boys tonight. Go Pats!

Calling Mr. Casey!

So due to yet another leaking sink in the upstairs bathroom, I am putting on my plumbers hat once again. Of course the sink up there oddly shaped with the faucets coming out of the front of it (note the water pouring out is AFTER the sink is "off").

So outside of spending hundreds of dollars for a special order job, a brand new sink is the answer. I pick up a brand new pedestal sink and faucet for less than $70. Only I have no clue how to put the sucker in. But I have faith my overuse of the internet will lend me the knowledge I need to finish the job.

One last thing, only four people voted on the last poll?? Wow I think a "pretty pathetic Ty" is in order for me. No more polls until further notice. The last thing I want to be reminded of is how few people actually read this weak attempt at a blog.