And so it begins...

I drove up that Friday after the closing. I picked up Scott who was staying with his good friend Jeff who lives in nearby Norwalk. We camped out at the house that weekend. I brought two air mattresses I borrowed from my Hamptons broker, Lillian, and we slept on those. I brought some basic kitchen things, linens, towels, gardening tools, etc. I woke up on Saturday morning and Scott had been up since 6 working in the yard. He had already chopped down and/or pruned many bushes, shrubs, and tree limbs. It was a super humid day and he was drenched in sweat. I decided to jump right in and begin fixin some of the house issues that the inspection report detailed. I immediately got a pest control company to start the process of sealing up the house from 'critters'. The put poison and traps in the attic space and came back a week later to see what was caught (just one mouse as it turns out). Then they cam back a week later for the exclusion process. Two technicians came and stayed all day, sealing, caulking, covering any place where pests could get in.

That week I also had a water systems company come and replace the well pump. The old one was working but was on it's last legs. The installers took quite a while to get the new one in. I heard a LOT of grunting and yelling comeing from the basement, it couldn't have been easy to get that thing in the small pump room. They told me the well was 125 feet down, pretty average as it goes.

Next up was getting the washing machine and dryer up to speed. They were both in good condition but the gasket on the washer was filthy...mold and what looked like pet hair clogged around the edges. I wanted to start fresh and clean with a new gasket, plus have the dryer looked at, just in case there were any lint build-up issues. $400 later that was taken care of.

Last on this week's list was installing the internet modem. Scott really needed wifi for when he was at the house doing his work. He offered to pay for the installation until I sold the Sag Harbor house. At first the technician and I couldn't find the right wire...then we discovered it went up into the home office, so that's where the modem will sit. Scott is buying two extenders to push the signal more efficiently thru the house.

In addition, I'm getting a bid for all the 'mechanical' list of things on the house that need fixing/updating, things that don't require an architect's attention. I also have Steve the architect working on the kitchen design. I'm not pressuring him for that as I can't pay for it until Sag sells.