Laurie J. Marks

We’ve had a record-setting amount of rain this July (13 inches in the first 18 days), and our roof leaks.  We postponed reroofing for two years because of covid, and now we have finally scheduled a new roof, plus a long-planned dormer addition–which will make it possible for us to add a much-needed second-floor bathroom.  (When our house was built in 1910, to put a bathroom on the same floor as the bedrooms was not a priority, and two bathrooms was unheard-of.) 

After the roofwork is finished, we’ll paint the house and smooth out and add new gravel to our alley.  Our contractor requested a permit from the city, and that’s how we learned that our neighborhood is now a historic district.  It’s a unique neighborhood that should be a historic district, but now getting a permit involves many unanticipated steps.  We’re not worried, as a dormer is so historically appropriate that ours is the only house in the neighborhood that doesn’t have one.  But we would have started the permitting process a lot earlier had we been fully informed.  I guess we should have read the nonexistent local newspaper.

The neighbors, who have to sign approval letters, have no objections, but two of the households are leaving in six days for month-long vacations, and the city hasn’t even begun the process.  And here we are, having spent several weeks frantically getting ready for construction, now possibly postponing everything for a month, which means postponing the painting until mid-September, and the alley might have to wait until next year.  (FYI for you people in more temperate climates: in Massachusetts we can only do exterior work between May and October.) 

Then our beloved corgi ate 8 ounces of bittersweet chocolate that I had inadvertently left at corgi level, and we had to rush her to the emergency vet.  A lot of money later, she’s home from the hospital (and hungry after all that induced vomiting).  Then the junk guy who was scheduled to vist today had a family emergency and is coming tomorrow.  Lordy.

Anyway, I missed last week’s blog post, and this week I’m sleep-deprived, sore and mosquito-bitten (all that rain makes lots of mosquitos).  It seems wise for me to take a blogging hiatus for a couple of weeks while I’m getting a roof over my head.  Look for a (hopefully less harried) new post on around August 13.

Laurie