Things are getting a bit frenetic on the home building front. Now that we are legally able to live in the house (with our Certificate of Occupancy), we need to get it properly finished so that we can move in to reasonable comfort rather than camping inside a shell of a building! We are totally committed to our move dates:
Wednesday September 10th – we will have all the still-wrapped furniture and rugs, packing boxes and other “not been used in the rental house” items moved to the new home. It has been a busy few days packing up things that we have had out but don’t need for the next few weeks, to get them across to the new home ASAP.
We then have a week of sorting out some of the moved items (and empty some boxes for the next move) and pack up the rental house. I expect we will move some of the fragile/perishable/cherished stuff ourselves. And we will take delivery of a new bed and other bits and pieces.
Wednesday September 17th – is moving day for humans and all the remaining stuff in the rental house. So that evening will see our first night in our new home. Albeit without a few modern conveniences like proper broadband and TV – they are scheduled to be wired up the next day – but I am sure that they will be something we can survive without as we will probably be totally wiped out after a day of hard moving.
On the health front, Lisa finally managed to have an MRI done (fighting with the health insurance company who are not very cooperative about authorising things). Subsequently, the doctor was able to tell her that the tendon, whilst damaged, was not ruptured, and there is no immediate need for an operation similar to the one she had 4 years ago. But tendons are very slow to heal. She has been prescribed a special orthopaedic brace for her leg (here called an Arizona brace – maybe cowboys need them after years in the saddle?). So, once again back to health insurance company who are supposed to pay the bulk of the not insignificant cost.
Their first gambit was to tell her that all the authorised brace fitters are 200 miles away. A bit more pressure (and research by Lisa) we found a brace fitting specialist only 25 miles away who were on the insurance company website approved list. We made an appointment and went there on Thursday. Only to be told that, oh no, we are not approved by your scheme, so we would have to charge you the full price (and you can whistle for any chance of reimbursement). More lengthy conversations with the insurance “help” line. They then provided a list of approved suppliers within 50 miles, so Lisa rang round – these were all wholesale suppliers of medical devices who do no custom fitting.
Back round the loop again, and this time she was told that there was another place a reasonable distance away who might be able to help. So, late on Friday Lisa managed to speak with them, and it appears that this clinic does do the sort of custom fitting required and are approved by the insurance company. All she needs now is a prescription from her doctor specifically naming that clinic – a job for next Monday.
Far be it from me to suggest any sort of conspiracy or misconduct, but I hear similar stories of folk been given the runaround by insurance companies here. Obamacare closed down a lot of loopholes on immoral practice in health insurance (like cancelling policies should you get seriously ill and denying any further responsibility). The response to the new regime appears to me to have been twofold – shutting up shop altogether, or looking for new loopholes not specifically banned. And having misguided information to grind down the less strongwilled appears one of them.
On the Build Site
Two major jobs have been accomplished this week.
The second round of painting (to fix nicks and errors from the first run) has been completed.
For two days the house was off limits as the floors were sanded and buffed and oiled. The house was kept closed to visitors (even us) over the whole of the weekend for this special Danish oil to soak in and dry. We had a peek on Saturday – they look great.
Outside , the slopes at the back are still looking good with their covering of burlap netting and pinestraw, though recent heavy rain (three quarters of an inch in 30 minutes one day) had led to some erosion. TJ has been doing a bit of fine tuning of the grading. And we spent several hours out in the humidity of Saturday afternoon sowing seeds of love grass over an acre or so of ground. Love grass is a native grass which is very good at binding the soil – even in the winter it remains in situ with long bunches of fine grass like a horse’s tail.
And the weather vane (incorporating wine bottle, glasses and grapes in the design) has been mounted on top of the house. We had this made in England before our departure, and so this is like a topping-out