Power is back. The hopefully last big check is paid.

I paid the deposit on the house yesterday (a nice fat almost $14k check), so I think that is all wrapped up from FineLine's perspective.  I am a little curious how normal people would make this work; the bank won't pay the deposit because they need the contract to go to closing.  That makes sense.  The housing company won't write up a contract and build a $120k home until they have a deposit.  That also makes sense.  But they are also directly at odds with each other.  Fortunately I have plenty of cash to pay it, but normal people would have to use their cash for down payment; they don't have the built in equity I do to use as the down payment.

The bank is still making me do some running around.  They require something for final grade (the finishing work and landscaping after the crews are gone); they wouldn't accept that I have a tractor and will just take care of it.  So I am thinking of writing up my own quote with a couple loads of dirt, a few bags of grass seed, and so on just to shut them up, even if I don't end up using any of it.  They also required a propane quote, so I have a site visit scheduled Friday to take care of that.  They didn't like my electric and plumbing being on the same quote (since it is the same guy) so I have to get a separated quote for those, which I wish they had told me three weeks ago when I uploaded the original quote.  The hope is that this is the end of the bank stuff.  I understand now why GCs make so much money, this is a manufactured home, so there is only a couple of people to deal with, and it has been a giant headache. Normally the GC would take care of all this stuff and the seemingly endless paperwork.

It was mid 40s and sunny all day again, so the snow settled quite a bit yesterday.  The carport is almost able to shed its snow.  It is supposed rain today (I really hope it is rain and not snow), which should finish taking care of it.  

I noticed something last night when I was scooping up snow to melt for water; my hose spicket got damaged.  That is clearly bent over, likely from the massive amount of snow falling off the house.  At one point towards the end of the storm, when I was letting the snowblower cool off so I could put more oil in it, there was a thunderous snow slide-off event that literally shook the whole house.  I bet it was that one.  I am a bit surprised the spicket bent instead of just getting ripped off, it is only plastic strapping and the skirting that is holding it in place.

Melting snow for the toilet.

I think maybe the propane heater just needed run some to burn off some crud.  It has been continually running longer, and completely ran out a propane cylinder last night.  

It started working properly though just in time for my power to come back on.  I was putting my coat on to go to work when it came back.  I did take some time to make sure all my plumbing worked, I ran enough water to kick on the well pump to make sure the line from the well wasn't frozen since the heat tapes haven't been running.  Everything seemed okay, though I didn't look under the house for leaks since I can't get to it.  One thing that struck me when it came on is just how much noise there is in my house.  The last couple days have been completely silent.

I have missed a ton of time this week, so I will probably work tomorrow or maybe Sunday.  Tomorrow is supposed to be nice, so maybe I will do that and have good proximity to all the trails in town.  I can't get to the cap to work on it anyways, that part of the slab hasn't been cleared.

Looking at my checklist, I modified the generator one to fix it instead.  With the house contract and deposit done, I think it is safe to mark that one off.  At this point all that is left on the new house stuff is appeasing the bank's pencil pushers.

Winter projects:

• Fix the generator.  Again.

• Get the plan/schedule in place. 
• Build prototype cap.
  
• Shed windows.
• Fix generator box.
  
• Clear/mark walking trails.