Connections

I did a Hail Mary call very late Friday hoping to piggyback on our pool guy's call for his final inspection -- so the house could get its final approval -- and earlier in the day had called Southern Bell (no, BellSouth; no, AT&T) to have them string a line to the house so they could plug it in on our existing number. . . .

And there was Gary early Monday, not exactly bright on a showery day but happy to get wet from either sweat or rain to get us on the network. He had us dial-toned within an hour.

As he left, a city truck pulled up, and an inspector came up our walkway. It was JC, who had last seen our project a full year ago, when the pool was freshly dug. He was here for our final inspection, but after several calls back to the Building Department -- talking with the head of the department, the clerk who handles inspections, and Diane from the Historic Commission -- he told me we lacked a contractor's call for the final pool inspection, on top of the bond with HARC for our windows, which he thunked his knuckles against to prove their substance.

I trotted to City Hall to provide the bond. Diane was there. Turns out she's a licenced inspector, besides being the city's architecture czarina, and she said she'd come by to get us cleared for everything except her windows.

True to her word, she was there within another hour. We passed everything, and she called in a report so we could have our Certificate of Occupancy by sometime Tuesday.

After she left, our having discussed the house, Ref, old timbers, new switches and the history of Key West, I stood in the living room and sang the Doxology.

And after "Praise God, from whom all blessings flow," I sat down and started to thank:

-- Ref, Shawn, Arnold, Dollie, Mr. B, Nathaniel, Gregory, Deco, Dave, Frank, Kurt, Li'l Shawn, Rhino, Charles and about two dozen other carpenters who have given what they have to our home.

-- Matt, Dennis, Steve and Charles, who made the electricity happen.

-- Ida, Carol, DeWitt (I still have to find out if he was born in our house, as he suspects) and Jorge, for the water.

-- Kenny, the sumbitch, for his conch-timed HVAC work.

-- Chris and his wizard crew (with Chip fired and rehired during the year of our project) for our pool.

-- Dan Ace, and Javier, for our beautiful roof.

-- Roy, an amazing painter and a truly honest man, and Darren and Joe, for our colors and textures.

-- Hank and Ray, who gave us bathrooms beyond belief.

-- Vendors like Dennis, Mark, Laurie, Thomas and all those clerks at Strunk and Home Depot, who never lacked a smile.

-- Too many neighbors, friends, passers-by, blog-readers, guest-house visitors and others who always provided a word of encouragement.

-- And always -- ever, always -- Robert, who coaxed every nickel out of every account we have to get the checks written that have made magic happen.

Praise him all creatures here below. Praise him among the heavenly host. Praise Father, Son and Holy Ghost. Amen.

And we move in Tuesday.