Building a House: The saga continues

I've been silent about the house building project for a while because it's going so. damn. slowly. There's not been much to report besides my intense frustration with the whole process.

When last I left you, I was waiting for the final bid to come in so I could decide on a builder. The final bid came in 3 weeks after the others, and it was $60,000 higher than the next closest bid.

I was SO pissed off that I wasted 3 weeks waiting for a bid that we clearly couldn't work with. I had expected the guy to be higher, but $60,000? Fucking robber barron.

So. It took us an additional couple of weeks to get all our ducks in a row and choose between the remaining contenders. We finally did make a decision. And here we are, 4 weeks later, still dicking around without a builder's contract. Breaking ground isn't even on the distant horizon.

Sigh.

I'm hoping to have the last change the builder is requiring to the house plan done tomorrow. Then, when the mood strikes him, he might actually draw up a contract that we can haggle over for a week or so before we sign. Then it's off to play with the bank, title company and (God forbid) the county for another few weeks. If we're lucky, by the time the ground freezes we'll have a backhoe in place to sit and wait like everything else.

Fucking delays.

The only glimmer of progress is that we got flags put in the ground marking the corners of the house. It's weird - it looks really small, like it barely takes up any ground at all. At the same time it looks enormous.

I got to stand in the place where my screened porch will be. I daydreamed a little about sitting and sipping a daiquiri on it, watching the sun set. It was SWEET.