Day 276 October 10, 2002

Well the meeting was very interesting. Long story short, my town has reassessed everyone this year and the general masses were, to say the least, furious. The new assessor was alleged to be incompetent, abusive, uncooperative in giving taxpayers the comps he used to set their values, degrading to women, etc. My taxes went up 300%. The meeting was run by the town supervisor who quickly was proven to be a moron by one well spoken seriously pissed off taxpayer who had done her homework. She proved to the supervisor how little he knew about the laws concerning assessors, conflicts of interest, required education, taxpayer's rights, trespassing laws and a few other issues. If there had been a tree handy, the mob might have strung some people up. There was a lot of hollering, cussing and general unhappiness. I doubt much will come of it.

I put the second coat of poly on the loft walls today. Only one more section to go. When that was finished I walked around the house a bundle of nerves. Why? I have my final inspection today at 2 PM. The inspection is for the C of O or certificate of occupancy. They basically check to make sure you followed the approved plans and that everything is up to code and safe. I failed. It isn't as bad as it sounds, the inspector just wanted me to add some sort of guard under the handrails on the stairs to stop anyone from falling out of them. Fair enough, and a good idea. Still smarts though. I had hoped to get the green light and finish everything up and head home Monday. Looks like it will be a few more days. I got right to work on the additional railings. It looks to be a challenge to make it esthetically pleasing and functional.

10 hours, rain all day around 60.