Gratz Industries: Gratz Industries HQ: Moving Day, sort of

We've been quiet here at Gratz Industries after a virtual flurry of post-holiday posts--sometimes even two or three a day!--for a few reasons.

First, we could not feel our fingers. The mobile home we're living in until the new house is habitable ran out of fuel oil--again. And just like the last two times--one on a weekend, the other on a holiday--this depletion proved to be horrible timing. We returned home Sunday night from spending a delightful day in the company of friends in Asheville to find the last of our oil gone and the mobile home already down to a chilly 50 degrees. Then the snow began. Lots of snow. And the temperature dropped, both inside and out. It was Wednesday before we could get down the mountain to buy more fuel oil. We had the fireplace in the mobile home, but overnight on the last day, after the fire died, the temperature dropped to 36 degrees. Inside.

But by day, we were toasty and warm. Why? Because our new house was entirely habitable BUT for two piddly, insignificant things: we hadn't drilled a hole for the drier exhaust (even though we haven't moved a drier in yet), AND because one of the switches in the breaker box needed to be an arc fault switch and not a regular breaker switch. (A code thing. It works just fine the way it is now.) That's it. Otherwise, it has working toilets, working faucets, and, most importantly, working heat.

Though our building inspector--regretfully, he admitted--could not give us our certificate of occupancy, he did give us permission to begin moving our things in, which we did with gusto. (Pictures follow.) We also spent every moment we could in the new house, save the shivering evenings before the fire where we ate from our still-functioning mobile home kitchen and slept under piles of blankets. Had we been snowbound one more night, we would no doubt have moved our futon over and slept in the new house, certificate of occupancy be damned. But we managed to remain legal--perhaps more out of perversity than anything--and so we will be able to celebrate even more heartily when the building inspector gives us the final-final go-ahead.

Now the drier hole has been drilled and the vent attached, and the electrician has promised to be out today, around noon, to fix the one problem that remains in the breaker box. After I finish this post, I am calling the building inspector to see if he can come out this afternoon, and perhaps--PERHAPS--we may officially be in tonight. I remain cautiously optimistic. (As I often tell Wendi, with my best Austin Powers voice, "'Caution' is my middle name, baby.")

And so, to the promised pictures!