1 Week To Go

This has been a fairly anticlimactic start to the rehab project, in that the house is mine but I haven't really sunk my teeth into any actual project work just yet. The reason for that is because while I do own the house, I don't yet have an occupancy permit and the project only works financially if I can live in the house while rehabbing it. 

So...all my time there so far has been put towards occupancy list items like fixing small spots of bad plaster and peeling paint, dealing with the jungle of a yard, and installing smoke alarms, etc. Small stuff. Boring stuff. But, unfortunately, necessary stuff.

1 week from today, that's the occupancy inspection date, which means I'll know in 1 week if I can start moving in or if I can't, what I need to address before I'm allowed to.

The inside of the house is, I think, is in good enough shape (or will be by this time next week) to get occupancy. With the city inspectors one never knows for sure as the goalposts tend to get moved pretty frequently, but the plumbing works, the electric works, the gas works, there's no mold on anything, there aren't any holes in the walls or roof, and, aside from the dog funk, everything is pretty solid. Dated, very dated, but solid. 

The yard, on the other hand, is a nightmare, but yard stuff typically isn't the occupancy inspector's primary target; their focus is usually centered on interior life safety issues.​ Besides, I've spent a lot of time out there already and it's starting to look a lot less like the unmitigated disaster it's been for the past 20 years (per the neighbors).  

However, the house has (2) attached accessory structures - a deck and a porch - that are both rotten. The deck is in bad shape, but I think a case could be made that she's got another couple years in 'er. The porch, on the other hand, her bones date - I'm 99% sure - to at least 1903, and a lot of random lumber has been scabbed on over the years to keep 'er upright. I'm a little nervous that if the inspector sees that, he's going to tell me the porch needs to come down. 

He'd be correct, of course, but I don't want to deal with replacing the porch just yet.

That said, if that's how things shake out, I want to be ready.  

It wouldn't be the worst thing ever to have to rebuild this thing this summer. I'd keep the same footprint as the existing structure, and to keep things halfway simple, eliminate the stairs and just make the thing a covered deck/balcony. I put a tape on it, and I think I could get away with using 16' posts, which is a whole lot more manageable than the 20-footers I thought I'd have to use originally, but it's close. 

​If the inspector points anything out, I think it'd be this porch. And whether I replace it when the inspector tells me to or when I want to, I'll be ready to go either way.