Snowed in

According to our builder, the slow down in financing came at a good time - working outside in the kind of weather we have been experiencing the past couple of weeks would have been next to impossible. Today, however, it is sunny and in the mid-thirties; hardly balmy but definitely workable. The thaw in the weather looks like it is coinciding with a thaw in the bank as well. Money should be rolling again as soon as early next week.

Meanwhile, we just received the final invoice from Early New England Restorations, which means the restoration, repair, adjustments, and cleaning of the frame is done! In the end, this work more than DOUBLED the cost of what we paid for the barn and went significantly over the initial estimate given us back in the fall. When you are working with antique structures such as these you just can't predict what you will discover once the frame is dismantled. The repairs it ended up needing were not drastic, but went well beyond what was originally estimated. Oh well. As our architects said months ago (I'm paraphrasing), I hope you weren't planning on *saving* money by going the barn route. Yeah, no kidding. Everyone else who has ever built a house or addition warned us that it *always* costs more than you think. We knew this going into the project, but I guess we never could have known HOW much more. Still, we are optimistic. With money guaranteed from the bank to complete the project (we've spent nearly all of our own!) it sort of feels out of my hands at this point (in a good way). I keep telling myself that no matter what, we will close out the year in a new home. And what a sense of accomplishment we will have. Can't wait.