Update on the Big Home Inspections

Thursday, February 4, 2010

Finally, the Week of Inspections!

Monday we had the Texas Department of Insurance State Fire Marshal's Office do the "Foster Family Home Fire Safety Evaluation Checklist."

The Fire Marshal made a few suggestions that we intend to implement, was impressed with the evacuation floor plan that Melinda and I spent so much time on and then remarked, "you didn't need to make a map of the house, you just needed to write the directions on what you were going to do to get out of the house." THAT, we had NOT done. Of course, in our Covenant Kids paperwork it said we had to do the whole map, but, like CK reminded us, there is no "locked-down standard" for the fire or health inspections. So... Melinda quickly wrote up a description and faxed to the fire department before the end of the day. One inspection down!

The City of Richardson Health Department did their "Foster Home Checklist" on Wednesday. We did great on it, but Melinda had to run down and register Scarlett with the City of Richardson (we had done this when we lived in Dallas, but, of course, now that we are in Richardson, we needed to register her here). We also have to replace a cracked window. It is in child's bedroom and we noted that it was cracked when we moved in last September, but had forgotten about it since it was behind sheers that we never open. Since then it has cracked across the whole window. We are getting if fixed by a professional on Monday (these are unusual windows). The only true mark against us was the outside fence. It is very old, run down and needs to be replaced. Technically, it needed to be replaced because of the "splinters." We knew that we needed to replace it when we got the house and have always had that scheduled for demolition and rebuild this Spring. We wanted to wait until we did the landscaping done (which we just did) before dealing with the fence.

In a weird turn of coincidence, at the very end of the inspection when Melinda and the ladies were making small talk after the approval was done, Melinda discovered that the inspector was from Nacogdoches (our "hometown"), a friend of Christi's (Melinda's sister) and had graduated with Christi in 1988! As Melinda said, "Small world!"

Another inspection down!

Other things that have happened:

I got my TB test results back - of course Negative and I got my physicians signature saying I am reasonably healthy and have no communicable diseases. Melinda got her test done yesterday and will get her results checked today. She also had to have blood work done (I have had so much blood work done recently, I was already cleared). She should be able to get the official TB test clearance, blood work clearance and physicians signature today. YEA!

We are waiting on some proof of insurance paperwork to come in and that should be ALL of the outside paperwork we are waiting on. The ONLY thing we think we have to do before the "Home Study" is that Melinda needs to finish off her two books (I am almost done with the second of mine) and she needs to finish up her "Adoption Packet" paperwork (see examples from a few days ago of my adoption packet). As a reminder, most of the paperwork is done individually -- NOT as a family. The idea is that they want to make sure both parents are on-board with foster care and adoption.

We did get the landscaping done and I have a picture on my phone, but have not figured out how to get it to the computer. We will try to take a photo soon with our real camera, but it is due to rain the next few days. They worked hard on both Monday and Tuesday. The floors and bathroom looked great from the cleaning, as well. The health inspection ladies (one was in-training) remarked on how neat and clean the house was and that it "looked like a museum."

I replaced the door knobs on the laundry room to ones with key locks. This allows us to store medicines or "keep out of reach from children under the age of..." bottles in a secure area. It is on a different key than the rest of the house.

Finally, Alex (our oldest son who graduated from Rice and now working for Princeton Review as a teacher for the LSAT) arrived at 4:00AM today as a pit stop (and sleep station) for his move to St. Louis, MO. There he will get to be with his girlfriend of over four years (we consider them a married couple) as she works toward becoming a physician. He will continue to do the same thing up there, but just out of their St. Louis office.

This weekend we need to finish off all the cabinets and drawers -- some with simple "child-proof" devices and others with full-fledge locking mechanisms that keep out the bigger kids or teens. It should take a half a day. Saturday I am doing robotics practice for my teams from 9:00 - 3:00, so it will have to be after that or on Sunday.

Tomorrow Melinda takes in the mound of paperwork to CK (although she has been scanning most of it and e-mailing it, so it can get processed).

Next stop (hopefully) the Home Study!