I’ve promised frequent updates on the renovation of our Victorian era cottage in Chautauqua, New York, and judging from the response to my last newsletter, you’re interested.

Unfortunately there hasn’t been much to tell. Our contractor has been hard at work on another house, but there’s been a much more interesting delay.

Chautauqua County has a rule that we must have permission from our neighbors if  the crew needs to step into their yard.

No, I’m not kidding.

Since houses at Chautauqua Institution are close together, it’s essential to get that permission.  The problem, though, was that we have never met this particular neighbor, who uses his house as a rental property.  So tracking him down wasn’t easy, but worse than that, there was a huge misunderstanding.

It seems the owner believed he had met us, that he had made an important suggestion and he was being ignored.  Turns out the suggestion was made to another couple who made an offer on the property before we did.  Our neighbor never learned someone else had bought it (us) and was unhappy we hadn’t followed through on his offer.  Once that was cleared up, he kindly gave our workers permission to stick their little tootsies on his land to do the work on ours.  Problem solved.

However, that negotiation took months.  Yep.  Months.

Welcome to the world of home renovation.

So while there’s not much to show, here’s a little.  Hopefully there will be lots to come.  Someday.

 

 

Stay tuned for the next exciting installment.  Whenever one appears.  Just don’t hold your breath.