Indie Designs Online

The paperwork for the mortgage/loan just came in the mail.

But we now know that any changes to it will take 3 to 6 months. But something about them having offered the loan last February (even tho, as of today, we’ve not seen a penny of it) means that we start paying back that loan one year later (2/14) if we accept the loan, w/o regard to when we accepted the loan.

I can’t make it make sense. That means, that we’d be paying back the loan/mortgage before we have the house. Why won’t this make sense to me???

So anyway, the immediate issue is: can the demolition and foundation be done before the cold sets it? If so, do we stay in the trailer for now? Because we CAN’T stay here when it gets cold outside – I mean, first of all the trailer is electric. Secondly, I can see daylight between the doorframes. Oh, and the moldy smell in the bedroom closet (that Bear, of course, can’t smell) is getting a bit overwhelming.

And I’ve never gotten over the feeling of being exposed.

The drama continues ….

I think, if you asked each of the Worthington siblings their life’s story, you’d get four different tales in return. But one thing I feel fairly confident in declaring as a shared experience, and one that was recently most helpful to me personally, were the wonderful results of having camped every summer my entire life. I know that basic survival skills helped me survive the first bit after the flood.

I also realize that, as camping can go sometimes, we’ve lived in relative luxury from Day 1. I mean, we DID have flush toilets all along!

But, really, enough is enough!

It’s time to end this camping trip. We thought we had when we first got heat back in the house. But we’d been fooled. It just keeps on going! It’s the gift that won’t stop giving! The visitor that won’t leave! The headache that won’t go away!

It’s actually like life after 40 – nothing but patch, patch, patch!

Looks like we’ll be in the trailer thru September, while we have electric restored in the house. Then we’ll move back into the house for the winter. After that, who knows. Maybe by then all the paperwork will be done and we’ll finally implement Plan A, ya think?!

If you insure something (oh, let’s say a house) for a certain amount, and you pay for that insurance, but then that thing you’ve insured gets destroyed, how is it that those insurance companies only have to pay 50% (to be generous) of the amount for which you paid to insure it? How is that legal? And who is it that re-defines things so they fit thru those loopholes?! (I wonder if insurance companies hire linguists or something.)

We don’t get cicadas out here – just evening West Nile mosquitoes, daytime West Nile mosquitoes, deer ticks with diseases (like Lyme, babesiosis – which I had, and some unpronounceable 3rd kind) … and slugs. I’d pitch a tent in the lower 40 if I didn’t know about the slugs!

But I do. And they’re disgusting. And I have deep moral issues about killing them and the ways that have been devised to kill them. (I’ll only let Bear use a repellent.)

So I know they’re there and they come out at night. I don’t go outside at night very often. That, and light pollution, makes star-gazing impossible. (I run up to Lake Michigan every couple of years to get my star fix.)

The outside is rather nice here, when it’s not too humid. We get a nice ocean breeze most of the time. But we’re not water people, and I should no longer expose myself to sun because I have lupus, oh, and did I mention that it’s hurricane season and we’re living in a trailer??!

We could just raise the house, as they’re doing a few doors down…

I hear “Rebuild” New York ads. But they just make me mad. They’ve made it a hard process! The pile of paperwork is 3 feet high and counting.

And nothing’s been signed yet.

Rebuild.

Yeah, we’re trying!

(Guess what? It’s already hurricane season again!)

We could possibly still fix the electric and move back to the house, at least for the winter, if things don’t start soon – but what a waste!

I say we just drop it all, see what’s left, cash it all in for a camper, and hit the road for a few months!

Can anyone cat-sit for a bit?

A friend of mine named her cat Alley. I thought it was clever! So I named the little, black, crooked cat with the golden eyes (that seemed to come with the trailer) that lives under things in my driveway, Alley.

Alley is obviously someone’s pet – she’s nothing like Moma, the feral cat I trapped-neutered-released and currently feed (out of continued guilt because I made her have a kitty abortion when she showed up a few years ago, very pregnant, and looking to nest under my porch. Hey, I didn’t want feral kittens living on my property!!) Moma won’t let me near her, let alone pet her. Alley, however, let’s me brush her.

She seemed to show up one day, soon after the trailer was delivered but before we had electric and moved in, about 10 days later. I heard her crying, but thought it was the cat next door. I won’t swear to it, But I believe she came with the trailer – she was up under the trailer bed, I think, pinned in by the material she wrapped under the chasis. Then she broke out! She appeared, bedraggled and starving. What could I do? Ignore her??!

Anyone want a cat?

I know, I know, crazy cat lady! Bear is the only thing between me and that destiny!

We’re living in a trailer – a single-wide – parked in our driveway. We’re electrified directly, but the sewer and water go thru the house. It’s weird, to walk thru the house now. Everything has been moved into the trailer and the garage, so the house is empty. But we just discussed it the other day: if we still don’t have things signed (thus started) in a month from now, we’ll start to think about where else to build our winter’s den. But until then, as far as we’re concerned, the demo WILL take place!

But it’s like living in a playhouse. It’s spacious, just for us, yes, and I don’t want to appear ungrateful… It’s just that everything is just a little bit, well, little. And fiberglass. Or fake wood. It’s surreal. (But then again, this entire experience has been surreal!) And electric. Everything is electric! (I can’t wait to see the bill!)

And I have yet to get over the feeling that I’m showering in full view of the neighborhood, in the middle of the driveway!

What was I saying? Oh yes, our plans, I should state, are to have our 100-year-old house demolished and a new foundation built, with a partially pre-fabbed modular house dropped on top. The idea being that time and money are saved when the house is pre-framed in a factory somewhere at the same time that the demo and foundation work is being done onsite.

Plans, however, as those of us who have lived for a bit know, have a way of changing.

Despite my having made it thus far, I confess, flexibility is not my strong suit.

So this will be an interesting adventure.

How do you tell a story that is still happening?

Somehow, you just have to start where you start because, really, think about it, there IS no real start, as far as stories go usually.

Sometimes you have to risk it all and just jump right in. Risk … what? It doesn’t matter, really. (THAT is anxiety – the constant companion of the neurotic!) But sometimes, just sometimes, you just have to be brave and try something new.

But sometimes it takes a while.

I know I’m late to this, but frankly it never occurred to me. Starting a blog seemed far too obvious, too narcissistic. Well, it is. But dammit! This is an interesting adventure Bear and I are on, someone may actually wonder what we’re up to. And besides, the arthritis in my fingers has gotten real bad and, now that my art studio washed away in the storm, I need something else to keep them limber – typing!

So let’s just start with today. August 1st, 2013. Super Storm Sandy (as it is called up here) happened last October, right before Halloween. It’s still then in a way…