Yeah well, the best laid plans of mice and gardeners often get hung up by Laclede Gas inspectors. David and Mira both took a few days off work so they could help us tame our new garden. That plan was based on us closing today. That plan was based on passing all inspections. The sellers offered to handle city and gas inspections for us – how nice – and then the scheduled them as close to close as humanly possible. The city inspection was last week, and we passed. The Gas inspection was Friday and four items failed.

We want him to fix all problems and we want them fixed within seven days or he is paying for our movers – we are now under a time crunch. Good luck hiring contractors over the Fourth of July. If he can get them he’ll pay through the teeth on the rush. We’ve punted closing to either Friday or Monday if he is able to get the work done and have it re-inspected. We are having some trust issues as regards both his word and his workmanship. If he can get the work done and if he can get it re-inspected, we will bring our pen to the table.

None of the issues are major; they are all simple things that a competent rehabber would know to do. Example: gas stoves are no longer as heavy as they once were. The building code requires that you anchor the stove to the wall so that it doesn’t tip over when you place an eighteen pound turkey on a pulled out oven rack. We found the wall anchors that come with the stove in the drawer with the owners manual – ah guys, you missed a piece.

The delay is mostly frustrating because of the time off that David and Mira took. It’s too late to do anything about that now. We can only hope that we can close before the weekend, but I think that is a long shot.