The Saga of our House

I thought at one point, that I would document our Remodel progress. I guess I thought I'd start when the builders started actually doing something. What I realized, is that "something" is actually happening, it's just slooooww.
Here's what's happening as of right now.

We have a plan.
Our architect has drawn up a beautiful plan for our house. We will be building an addition for Kathy (Brian's mom) to live in, create a new front to the house -- which eliminates the solar room -- and bring natural light into the kitchen. We'll be sacrificing part of the garage, but we haven't been able to park in there up to this point, so actually being able to use it at all is a step in the right direction.

The Furnace
We were living without a furnace for half our house since we moved in last May. This wasn't that big of a deal until it got cold. Really cold. Below zero cold. We had 4 space heaters running all at the same time and it really wasn't all that bad, but we took a hit with the electric company. Ouch.
Two days after the cold snap, we got our new furnace installed. It's glorious! It's nice not having to avoid power cables on the floor or to have the extra white noise from the fans. The HVAC guys have been here all week installing duct work.

And guess what else they found?

There's been a small gas leak under the house. I guess it's been there for years. Fantastic.

That expedites the second stage of the HVAC project. We have installed one furnace to service three very different areas of our house: the front of the house, where the bedrooms are; the back of the house, a bi-level living space; and Kathy's space. All of these areas are independently controlled, but let me tell you, that's a lot of ducting!! So now we have a call into the Concrete Cutters to cut through part of the foundation to run the ducting to the back of the house so that we can get rid of our 25 year old furnace that is oversized, not ducted correctly and short-cycling. At least the heat exchanger isn't cracked, like the one we that was in the front of the house.

The Problem with Trees
Isaac took a bath the other day and when we drained the tub, the kitchen sink went "gurgle, blub, blub." That's when we learned that we had a block in the line. Brian removed the toilet (that wasn't properly set in the first place) and tried to snake out the clog, to no avail. We called a plumber and he came over at 10:30 at night and told us that we have tree roots in our septic line.
Excellent.
Yesterday, we removed one of the juniper bushes that was planted on top of where the septic line runs from the house to the septic tank. And this morning, when Brian was in the shower, he heard "gurgle, blub, blub" coming from the bathroom sink. Again, we are without flushing power.
At least when the plumber comes today, it's not at 10:30 at night.

And that's the latest.