Those who have been following along since the early days will recall the long stretches of inactivity last summer. (I still get irritated just thinking about all those delays). Things got more real in the Fall as structure finally started taking shape and we had more than a hole in the ground. We then poured a lot of our holiday break into house project work leading into the New Year. Now, since about mid-January, I’ve blocked off two days per week out of the office to just work on the house. I can’t hold that every week, but when you add in holidays and such its still averaging about 4 days on the job site and only 3 days in the office. That increased project time has pushed through a considerable amount of progress as you can see in the January update and the soon-to-be-published February update.

From here on out the timeline only gets more intense. Our lease on the house we’re renting is up July 31. They won’t do a month-to-month lease, which in fairness they told us up-front when we signed. That means if we want to renew we’re on the hook for over $18K in additional expense. If we move out mid-year then its our responsibility to find a sublet, which is a hassle neither of us wants to deal with. So by July 31 the house needs to be “livable”.

What does “livable” mean, you might ask? Everyone probably has a different definition. What I would consider liveable might differ from Amy’s definition. We might both be more lax about it than many of our readers, having spent much of our 15+ years together living in some state of construction zone. But the city has a more precise definition of what they consider to be “livable” and its their definition that will likely rule the day.

If July 31 marks a key deadline in this project, so too in a sense does March 15. That’s the day by when we have to decide if we’re going to renew the lease. If we don’t re-sign by that date then the rental company will start showing the place to potential future tenants. Thus Amy made it a priority to contact the building inspector last week and inquire as to his definition of “done” for purposes of us moving in.

Their key concern is what they simply call “life safety issues”. So we’ll have to complete inspections for key systems like plumbing and electrical, as well as framing inspections to ensure its structurally sound. We’ll also need all safety-related code compliance like smoke detectors, hand rails on the stairs, and so-forth. If you don’t have trim or siding up, well, you wouldn’t need a permit to do those changes anyway, so carry on.

We have a few specific questions to follow-up on, such as can we leave the master bathroom unfinished and then do that project after move-in, knowing we have two full working bathrooms? Do we have to have insulation up on the basement walls (an energy code requirement) or can we finish that after move-in since its not a safety issue? The answers to questions like these will determine what’s on the punch list between now and that magical July 31 date on the calendar.