Rolling, Rolling, Rolling

Today I walked down to the Department of Health and walked my APPROVED plans back to the Department of Planning and Development. Turns out walking your plans from place to place really speeds things along. Another thing that works with the city is not to talk too much, and if you do talk, definitely throw some names, saying things like "John Doe wanted me to do it this way". And you have to say it with conviction like if you don't do it John Doe's way, you're going to get in trouble, not the other way where you sound all defensive.

Anyway, my brother came up last weekend and we started building cabinets and getting the space all prepped for paint. Luckily, those are two things you CAN do without a permit, so we jumped at the chance. However, our string of lights is probably not up to code. Shhh! He has been doing a phenomenal job, and the space is looking really really great. He's back with a friend this weekend and they're going to finish the work. Monday, plumbing resumes. Finally, I will have a bathroom again!

Moving Mountains

Funny thing after going through such a major ordeal like cancer is after your body recovers, your mind takes a while to catch up. Sure I didn't actually go through chemo myself, but being so close to my husband while he was only able to lie on the couch barely able to make it to the toilet was sort of like feeling that nausea myself. Thankfully, that chapter is over and we're supposed to be healing, starting over, cherishing every moment and such but what's happening instead is we have this strange desire to ask for special treatment every time something doesn't go our way. I guess you call that being a victim. I can tell you that after doing it for almost the last year it doesn't really pay off. Of course other people care about you to some extent, but they aren't going to waive late charges just because we're too disorganized to pay our bills on time, and they certainly aren't going to give us special treatment at the city to push our permits through faster. I know, I know the city is slow and they do have their own issues that are fair game to rail on. But nobody is going to have pity on us, because it's not THEIR life, it's our life.

It's been about a year since my husband went in for emergency surgery starting the whole cascade of events leading to the discovery that his cancer had spread. It's been a very long year, but now it's a new year, time to change. Time to move mountains.

I made a list of everything I can do WITHOUT my permit from the city and we got to work. We finished our demo of the space and cleared out most of the rubble. We got some crazies from Craig's list lined up to take the scrap metal and I'm thinking about paint colors. My brother's flying up from non other than Cool, California (yes, it's an actual place!) to help build our case. I'm still working on the new banker, but I think I have only a few details to send her way, and we'll finally have funding to be able to finance this puppy.

I feel much more comfortable breaking up such a big undertaking into small manageable jobs. It took me, my husband, his dad and stepmom a grand total of 27 minutes to move a huge pile of concrete rubble in small buckets. I think that's a sign of things to come.