(Click to expand.)

The two buildings will be at right angles to each other with a covered patio between.

We may have to rethink the chi issue….

This week has not been the best. This morning I was so frustrated that I actually pulled my own hair. (This was after my email program decided to eat half my inbox, as well as about 3 years worth of archived mail, and I found out that the phones that I thought were finally being installed today actually aren’t going to be installed before we print all our new letterhead and business cards. The phone company, who by the way was not the source of the problem, has assured me that we are “100% guaranteed” of getting the numbers they’ve issued us.)

Here are some other challenges from this week:

• After our insurance agent here told us a few months ago that he could handle our insurance change to AZ, he now suddenly said we were on our own. After calling Aetna, we found out that we have to start all over and reapply from the beginning. And it was *so* much fun the first time (especially for Brad).
• Our printer of 7+ years is no longer in the printing business.
• We thought we found a good solution to moving the books, but it doesn’t seem to be panning out. We’ve decided to just rent a truck and do it ourselves
• We’ve continued to look for an architect, only to be told that apparently no one in Portal has ever used an architect. Everyone just draws plans themselves. (This is usually followed by some insinuation that we must be either rich or stupid or most likely, both.)
• We found out that no used pickup trucks in LA have 4WD. (However, contrary to what you may have heard, everyone is VERY happy to finance any purchase we’d like to make, especially for a big new shiny truck.)
• Banks don’t finance owner-builder construction. (It took me about 3 weeks of unreturned phone calls to finally find this out.) Apparently, to get around this, everyone hires a contractor to say they’re the contractor (even though they’re not) so they can get financing. We’re probably going to just forego the whole thing.
• Verizon used to have a department who would verify that you are a business customer of theirs, but they don’t anymore, so you’re on your own. This took me almost 2 hours on the phone to find out. Verizon reminds me of Wells Fargo. It’s amazing that these companies can function at all.

On the other hand, here are a few good things that have happened:

• We got the final water test results, and we may have the purest water in America.
• I told our landlord and a couple of our LA customers (the only customers who could possibly care, since we’ll be closer to everyone else) that we are moving the business.
• We made arrangements to get a table at the local swap meet in a couple weeks to sell some stuff we don’t want to move.
• We have gotten moving boxes, put some stuff up for sale on eBay, and started getting rid of stuff we’ll never need.
• We heard from one of our neighbors about all the wildlife he’s seen this week….bobcats, owls, hawks, etc. Very nice. We can’t wait to get there.

Little steps. Next week will probably be better.

(Yes, this is it — the famed pumpkin from the LA home show!)

As difficult as some things are seeming with all this, others seem positively, wonderfully easy. Here are two examples.

I have talked to our new phone company a few times, and they are so great to deal with. Seriously, nothing is a problem to them. I just got off the phone with them to set up all the lines we need for home and business. They can do everything we want, including moving the lines when building is done. Then she said “Do you have email?” (so they could send me the app instead of doing it all over the phone). YES!! EMAIL…how wonderful. (I was beginning to think no one out that way used computers.)

Another example is the Cochise County Planning Dept. We met with them last week to talk about permits and the whole building process. They couldn’t have been nicer and more helpful.  If you can believe this (we don’t), they even said that all inspections are done within 2 (and usually 1) days of the request.

After attending the home building show in LA a couple weeks ago (from which the best part was getting a free pumpkin and stumbling into a Hispanic heritage parade downtown afterward), our expectations for this one were tempered.

The show in NM, which included an eco/green building exhibit, was better, but not great. There was a lot on solar, which we are now already pretty well versed in. We did discover a new roofing material that we think might be a good option. We learned about geo-thermal, which was interesting, but not a good fit for us.

We talked to a couple designers. Neither was a very good fit, but talking to more people has helped me better articulate what we need and be able to judge potential fit in just a couple minutes. We’ll keep looking.

Like the LA show, there were an assortment of seeming unrelated exhibits, like cookware, knives, beauty products, teeth cleaning, jewelry, and even a Kumon booth. Apparently, the “lifestyle” part of the show refers to this, along with a general idea that if you have the money to remodel or build a new home, you have plenty of disposable income for this stuff too.

We spent a couple hours at the show before heading off to hike in Petroglyph National Monument.