thanks, I am in heaven.
we closed tuesday, we waited longer in the waiting room than we were in the closing office. literally 3 pages to sign one was the title insurance, the second was the deed and the last was a quitclaim I signed to add my wife to the deed. 4 minutes tops. no keys provided.
drove to the house and there was a brand new hasp and padlock on the front door with a phone number saying "call this number for access to the house". Obviously it was a ploy for money, the new hasp and padlock were installed while we were at the closing office, I knew that it was either a cash grab, or it could be someone trying to gain access by invitation and start squatting. the padlocked door is the one with the jamb kicked in, so I was able to use a skewdriver and pull all the hasp screws. then I fixed the doorjamb, installed new deadbolts, and changed every lock including in the shop. the back door had some damage to the deadbolt jamb too but I was able to use a sleeve and pounded it flush. all the windows were unlocked, someone had been there while we were gone for sure. since we had access to the house replacing the locks was no big dealio, but the shop was locked tighter than a drum. my wife said "how do we get in" and before she finished, I pulled out my battery grinder with the slicer wheel and cut the door handle and deadbolt in quarters from the face, right through the key slots, then pounded the middling remainder through with a claw hammer . elapsed time: 45 seconds, damage to door: zilch.
we had electrical inspection for power the next day and my list of honey do's is long. then he dropped the bomb and told me since it was not my primary residence I was unable to do any of the repair work, and also that the line to the shop was undersized for the 100A breaker (its 2ga aluminum, so just barely undersized) and didnt have a ground run, so
it needed replaced entirely oof. talk about a double whammy, copper 2ga is about $2.60 ft, and I would need 420 feet of it, plus another 140 ft of 4 ga ground. my buddy rescued me though, he gets cost at his work and got the whole setup for $490. I am hooked up with a good electrician now so I will hire him and get the main panel replaced (not on the list of required repairs but its an old FED PAC box so just good conscious work since we have to almost do everything else). I should have that done monday, ready for reinspection.
but what I really needed right now was some storage space for the backyard full of spares, couple cabs, couple beds, couple sets of fenders and hoods, and at least a couple of everythig else. I loaded up all the two by twos like noahs freaking ark and made a couple trips so far. this is the second load, I have the truck backed in completely and you can still see there is 10 feet behind the trailer. should be big enough I guess. no electricity either, thats just those opaque panels in the roof!
anyone want to guess what this is? its in the adjacent yard, and I have looked at it a few times. my friend thought it was a railyard car, but it has a steering wheel, not much use for one on the tracks.
more truck work this weekend, I am getting behind with all the extra work but its ok.