Appeal scheduled

We submitted our appeal almost a month ago, and they were supposed to set a hearing date within 30 days. Well, we hadn't heard anything so Dawn called this morning, and found out the appeal was scheduled for July 14th (two days from now) AND THEY FORGOT TO NOTIFY US.

In their defense, this is the first appeal they've handled. Ever. They were quite apologetic and offered to continue it. Dawn called the architect and the local township and the only date that would work was July 28, which means we have to wait another two weeks.

I reminded Dawn that it's not just the sprinklers but all the other variance requests that have to get approved -- if they spare us the sprinklers but want us to replace the grand staircase instead, we haven't accomplished anything. Dawn reminded me that she's not an idiot, and if I wanted to make myself useful I should get my butt on a plane. We left it at that.

On the bright side, the phone company came by today and they were quite accomodating -- they will let us run the phone lines where we want, and they will even get rid of the old telephone pole, all at no charge to us. Contrast that with the electric company, who is extorting $1,100 from us not to erect a new pole in our yard. Amazing.

Oh, and This Old House will be here on Friday. As we were told pointedly, they are interviewing our contractor, not us. Nevertheless, I told Dawn to walk around with a sandwich-board that had our name and web site, and some catchy phrase like "The end is near" or "Two night minimum on weekends."

If anybody knows why there would be a brick-filled pit in front of a chimney base in the basement, please call me. (Heck, if anyone knows the proper term for a chimney base, please call me.)