Finished with the storage unit

I moved out of the storage unit Thanksgiving weekend, and let me tell you, does it ever feel good! I was pleasantly surprised that I am not overrun with boxes. Excess furniture is in the back room until I decide whether or not it has a permanent home here, and 95% of the boxes went into the garagey shed with just enough room for bikes, chipper-shredder and gardening equipment.

The other 5% of boxes are in the back bedroom and contain clothing that I have obviously lived without for well over a year. I will be reviewing the contents of those boxes and hopefully making a huge Goodwill run later this week.

I've completely emptied several kitchen boxes that had previously been partially emptied as I looked for the most basic kitchen essentials. I also had a number of empty boxes in the garagey-shed that I'd hung onto because I figured I'd move out for construction "any day now." Getting rid of those cleared up a lot of shelf space in the garage and I was able to do quite a bit of rearranging in there.

That's good news since all my Christmas decor bins are stacked in the back room. They are OK in there for now and I plan to have cleared more room in the garagey-shed by the time I'm taking down the tree.

I'm also contemplating removing some of the cabinets in my kitchen and replacing them with some IKEA cabinets to improve the storage situation (and also because some of the existing cabinets are falling apart) so that I can unpack more kitchen boxes. I've designed the kitchen with the IKEA kitchen design software and it's quite exciting to see the space more efficiently used. I'll post photos for sure if I tackle that project during my time off this month.

With care, any paint challenge can be overcome

So, last weekend I thought I had met my match when it comes to painting and that all the challenges I faced while priming would resurface when actually painting. It was looking especially grim after my pep talk with the fellow in the paint department at OSH.

I think allowing a good drying interval after priming may have helped. I moved very slowly with the paint and kept a super light pressure and had nary a peeling paint issue. I saw a couple areas bubble up after the first coat, so I turned a fan on in front of them and let them dry for a good long while before starting the second coat.

I was using paint leftover from the condo and it was dated prior to my purchase of the house, but they had never been opened, so other than a really extensive stirring, it worked out fine (and free).

Strangely enough, what was a really blah non-color in the condo (with it's soaring ceilings and bright southern exposure), is a lovely warm, creamy beige in this room. I rolled out the oriental rug on the hardwood floors and it looks quite nice...as long as you don't look closely at the windows where there are cracked panes of glass and some others that are popping out of the sashes. Oh well.

I'm still wrangling with finding some suitable insulated window coverings to try to trap some heat in the room, but I've already moved half of my storage unit into it (hence, no photos). I'm on track to be out of storage by the end of this month, and let me tell you, that's $202 I'll be glad to have back every month, even if it does mean a mountain of boxes in the guest bedroom/office/craft room.

Roasty toasty

My fireplace insert was installed yesterday. I love it already.


I played with programming it last night, and sure enough, it went on at 6am today. I opened my bedroom door to a balmy 68° and did not have to race to the bathroom to turn on that heater and the hot water to take the chill off the air. Ahhh.... the simple pleasures of life.

I should have a similar experience when I get home tonight and can't wait to sit on the couch in front of it.

I need to get a little doorway fan to push the warm air through the kitchen to the rest of the house, but that's a minor issue at this stage.

A paint job is only as good as the paint beneath it

Such was the sage wisdom I received from the kind fellow in the paint department at OSH this afternoon. This weekend's project was painting the back bedroom in preparation for moving the rest of my stuff out of storage this month. It will be the guest bedroom via an air mattress whenever the need arises.

In any event, I had not tackled this room for a very good reason--it was the dumpiest aspect of The Dump. Peeling paint, cracked glass in the windows, popped up floor boards, etc. It was also the first interior item on the list when it came to big remodel plans, so I just kept the door closed all the time.

Anyway, after a ton of paint scraping, spackling and sanding, I deemed it as good as it gets for a fresh coat of paint. I could tell the last paint job painted over chipped/peeling paint, so this is not a new problem for this tragic room, but I was determined to make the best of it and move along at a good clip.

Wrong.

Apparently when paint that doesn't want to stick to the layer beneath it gets wet with a fresh coat (primer in this case), it bubbles away from the wall and peels off on the wet paint roller. Yuk!

After scraping away of some wet bubbles of peeling paint and rollering very slowly and carefully, I decided it was finished and was hopeful that the primer would form some sort of flexible "glue" that would hold it all together when the real paint does on. I had to run to OSH for a few other items, so I decided to have a chat with Mr. Paint. I told him the situation and he grimaced and actually said, "Yuk," before dropping his bomb of a pearl of wisdom. No matter how well I prime that mess, it's still going to peel off.

I decided I will wait until next weekend to deal with the real paint. I'll keep an eye on it during the week and will remove any other bubbles or cracks/peels that develop. Ceiling and trim are all painted and ready to go. The wall color is leftover from the condo (two gallons never even opened), and is ultra-boring cream. Whatever--I'm using it up instead of sending it to hazardous waste, and I didn't have to buy paint (the mis-mix bin was not going to help in this case since the room is big enough to require more than one gallon).

In a more successful turn of events, Arturo came out to run the gas line to the fireplace and also removed the nasty old wall heater in the living room. He patched the wall, so I primed and painted it and am amazed at how much space I just reclaimed in my living room:

I can actually use that corner now! There is a little gap in the floor and baseboard, but I'm not going to bother fixing it at this juncture since that is where I plan to put my wine cabinet. I'm thrilled since that is one less piece of furniture being stashed in the "guest bedroom."

Looking back, I don't seem to have posted a good photo that includes the heater, so here you go:

Oh, you can also see the major improvement in the soot-covered bricks. Simple Green, a scrub brush and a bucket of warm water were highly effective in removing the soot buildup in preparation for the fireplace insert coming next week. After that is installed, I'll finally get around to painting the mantle.

Super Cute - Version 2.0

Almost exactly a year ago, I posted the first major transformation of The Dump--my super cute pink bedroom, which was the cheery retreat when the rest of the dumpiness got to be too much. I eventually had to give the twin bed back to the Blancos and hauled my queen sized mattress out of storage, and boy, was it ever nice to have it back.

This weekend I hauled the rest of the bed out of storage and set up my bed with it's true vintage-inspired bedding.

So, here I give you my super cute bedroom version 2.0:



The bed is much too big for the room , but it will have to do until I get the back bedroom painted and the windows repaired (found a great how-to article in This Old House that has fully empowered me to tackle that project).

the other major improvement of the weekend is that I scrubbed the heck out of the brick facade of the fireplace to prepare for the gas insert I ordered on Saturday. It's an amazing change. If I had known that Simple Green and some elbow grease would remove the soot so easily, I would have tacked it a long time ago!

Anyway, back to that insert...The wall heater in the wall between the kitchen and living room does not work, and a ton of heat escapes through my damper-less chimney. I was planning to cover the opening to seal in the warm air, but then decided I would take the plunge and get the fireplace insert now, which will act as the primary heat source for the living room and kitchen for as long as I live in the is house (eliminating the need for a forced air furnace). It comes with a programmable thermostat no less!

I need to book a chimney sweep ASAP and a plumber to run the gas line through the masonry and expect to be sitting in front of my fireplace all toasty warm by Thanksgiving. Now, THAT is what I call progress.

Semi-after photo

Well, I was not as productive last night as I had hoped I would be. I needed to run a few errands after work, and as such, only got the front curtain hung. So, I'm calling this the "semi-after" photo. Or maybe it's the "mostly-after" photo.

As I mentioned in my last post, I still need to work on the mantle this weekend. I used the power sander, but it has many layers of peeling paint that are resisting removal/smoothing.

I will swap out the switches and outlets, but that will require waiting until there is some daylight since I plan to turn off every switch at my electric panel. They are not labeled, and outlets seem to be linked in the darnedst fashion (as evidenced by what goes off when I trip one).

I'm also planning on painting the front door and closet door white, but will wait until a dry day to do that. Possibly this weekend.

Miss Kitty seems to be out of sorts since I removed her favorite chair (it was in front of the window thinking she might like to look outside like a normal cat). She'd stopped sitting on it several weeks ago and had resumed her bad habit of sitting on the back of the couch (it took me MONTHS to convince her that the chair is a better place for her). Soooo, I decided to reconfigure the TV placement to make it feel less cramped and didn't move the second white chair back into the living room. Anyway, when I left for work this morning, she was curled up on the floor even though there is a kitty pi (that she has similarly ignored, adored and eventually rejected) on the couch and another cat bed on the white chair. She's weird.

Painting is the new quad workout

I am sore. I am so sore that I groan every time I have to stand up. Apparently going up and down a ladder a gazillion times to spackle, sand, paint the ceiling (2 coats), cut in wall color at the ceiling line and then also roller on the upper portions of the wall (two coats for that too) is a mean workout for the quads to take for two days straight. I also have a sore right shoulder from the Painting Workout.

I know you were really hoping for some "after" photos today, but it's not 100% ready for the reveal. I need to get new curtain rods so I can hang them outside the window casing instead of on the window casing, and I'm also going to swap out the nasty, grimy light switches, outlets and related covers with some freshy-fresh white ones. Furthermore, the mantle was a bigger mess than I expected and needs a lot more sanding before it will be ready for paint. I will post a photo sometime this week, but you'll have to close your eyes to the incomplete mantle since I won't get to that until next weekend.

However, as a reminder, here is the "before" and the "way before." And for grins and giggles, here is what it has looked like for the past year (minus the holiday cheer--I'm just talking about the condition, furnishings and etc).

Oh yeah, I made cookies this weekend too. They offset the paint smell and also provided a good snack along the way. yum!

Ambitious this weekend

After being away the past 4 weekends, I'm REALLY excited about the opportunity to be home this weekend to tackle some projects!

Here's what's at the top of my list:
1) Fall gardening--I bought some bulbs while in Amsterdam and I want to get them into the ground. Also, all my summer bedding plants in the front are looking weedy, so it's time to pull them out. The same goes for the tomato patch in the back yard.

2) Paint the living room--I found a delicious golden beige in the the mis-mix bin at OSH earlier this week (more info about that fantastic resource in an earlier post). I painted some test squares all around the room and it's really quite wonderful--warm, tinted enough to look more than benign cream, picks up the golden tones in my curtains, throw pillows and persian rug, and only $4 for the gallon, which will be enough for my little living room. With white trim and the dark hardwood floors, I think it will look GREAT.

3) Repair some windows--After reading a how-to article in This Old House Magazine, I'm thinking I can replace some cracked panes, and reset some loose ones, which would make the back bedroom a bit more draft-free.

The big HOWEVER to all of the above is that it's supposed to rain this weekend and all of these projects rely on dry weather to a certain extent. Boooo! Knowing that, I'm leaning toward painting. The damp will make it slower to dry, but that's not as bad as gardening in the rain, or removing windows in the rain.

Or I may bake some cookies and sit on the couch knitting all weekend to have some chill time. Whatever I choose, I'll have some sort of progress pics on Monday, even if it is a plate of cookies and a sweater. :)

Still waiting

The Soils Analysis took 8 weeks instead of the quoted 4, and now Structural Engineering bumping up on it's quoted 4-week mark with nary a peep about progress. I had a long conversation with Architect Pete while at SFO waiting to board my flight to Amsterdam and he doesn't think the foundation work will be able to start until until the spring.

*sigh*

That means I have two options:
1) Spend another winter managing crawl space flooding with my submersible pump.
2) Invest in some drainage resolution ASAP even though it may get in the way of future foundation work.

Either way, I need to get some gutters up on the north side and definitely need to order my rain barrels pronto.

weekend project decision time

Well, it's Friday afternoon, and that means it's time to decide which project I'm going to tackle this weekend.

Given the economic downturn of the past few weeks and the continued downward trend of home prices, I'm going to be doing lots of minor improvement projects to The Dump so I can postpone the full remodel until a more fiscally prudent time. I'm still going to take care of the foundation and drainage stuff ASAP, but the big, extensive, expensive work is going to have to wait.

Since I don't know exactly when the remodel is going to happen now, I'm motivated to get my stuff out of storage since I'd like to put that $202/month to better use. Obviously, it's easier to work on the house when there is nothing around, so I'm queuing up tasks like crazy.

Here's the short list of what needs to happen so I can move out of storage and into the house:
Overall
1) Tent for termites

Back bedroom:
1) paint
2) repair popped floor planks
3) figure out some sort of insulating covers for both windows before winter since they leak like crazy
4) possibly refinish floor

Kitchen
1) Sand and repair cabinets
2) paint (walls and cabinets)
3) pull up linoleum floor tiles
4) refinish wood floor (if possible) or install new vinyl peel-and-stick-floor tiles
5) figure out some sort of back splash solution (to replace the crappy vinyl tiles used last time the kitchen was "upgraded")

Living Room:
1) paint
2) install drywall over fireplace opening since it has no damper inside
3) possibly refinish floor

Given that I am away 12 out of the first 17 days of the month and EVERY weekend in October (Boston, Amsterdam, SF-Nike marathon, and Seattle), I'm guessing I'll move out of storage over Christmas break. I hope the foundation work will be done by then. I'm going to go ahead and paint when I can and will repair cracks, touch up paint etc rather than wait to start all the superficial work.

That brings me back to what project to tackle this weekend. It needs to be something I can complete in one weekend otherwise it will likely sit unfinished for approx 1 month. I'm leaning toward starting kitchen paint prep. If I'm lucky, I'll get it all primed by the end of the weekend. Those cabinets are going to take quite a bit of work...

High tech TV and further oven experimentation

I'm resigned to the fact that I'll be spending at least another 6 months (possibly more) with The Dump as is, so I decided it's time to commit to some infrastructure. Late last week I called AT&T and signed up for home phone, DSL and wait for it... DISH TV! All bundled together gives me a pretty good discount.

Now, for those of you who know me quite well, you know that I don't watch TV. The only reason I own one is because it gets connected to the DVD player. However, there are some show that I've come to enjoy, and I'm setting up the house for winter hibernation, so I went ahead and ordered TV for the first time in 10+ years.

The friendly (and chatty!) Dish technician came out on Saturday and installed my dish and DVR. I now have 200 channels, which is somewhat overwhelming, but considering that I can record it to watch later and then fastforward through commercials, I think I can handle it. :o)

Since I had to commit to being at the house for the Dish installation sometime between 1 and 5 on Saturday, I decided to bake a cake in my newly accepted oven. Armed with an oven thermometer, the cake came out decidedly better than the cookies (the oven temp is off by about 125°). However, this experiment told me that I have a cold spot on the left side of the oven as evidenced by that half of the cake collapsing into squishy under-doneness after I pulled it out. Hopefully that is easily resolved by setting a timer to rotate all baked goods halfway through baking time.

Another step in the right direction

After several months of inactivity, things are picking up again. However, it's a lot of "spend money, then wait several weeks for reports, then move on" sort of action.

In July, I authorized Architect Pete to get some soil engineers out to The Dump (Redwood City soil is problematic) to drill some holes in the property at each end of my house. Their initial findings: "you have very dense, spongy, clay soil." Duh. I could have told everyone that after spending a season trying to get my garden moving in the right direction. Next step: wait four weeks for the official report before moving on.

The official soils report has now been sent to a structural engineer who will analyze it and determine what sort of reinforcement needs to be done to the foundation. I signed his proposal and sent him a check yesterday. Next step: wait four more weeks for his official report/foundation designs (Pete is going to try to prod that to completion a bit faster).

I've already booked some house jackers/foundation specialists to come out to estimate the job, but to do so, they need Pete's site survey, the soils report and the completed structural report/design. I tentatively booked them for 10/8, hoping I will have all the necessary components in my hands at that time.

I'm guessing it's going to take them four weeks to complete their estimate. That seems to be the going timeframe. :)

Whatever the case, I'm now feeling the pressure to complete the foundation and drainage work before the rainy season starts to avoid the flooding issues of last winter.

An experiment

Lately I've been feeling the lack of an oven quite acutely. I have an intense craving to get my bake on and can do nothing about it. The toaster oven just will not cut it this time as I cannot fit a cake pan in there.

On Sunday I made pancakes and used the central griddle of my 1953 O'Keefe & Merritt. I quite like the retro-funk it offers but I have two fundamental problems with it:
1) The oven is teensy-tiny, and there is no insulating seal around the door, so I'm sure it cooks horribly.
2) The oven is "match light" which scares the crap out of me.

The very nice PG&E man who inspected my pilot lights last fall says it works just fine and I need to make sure others who may use the oven know not to set the dial to 350 and walk away or else it will blow up and possibly torch the whole house. Mmmm, yeah. that definitely makes me want to try to use the oven...

So, Sunday's pancakes did not resolve my baking craving, but it did prompt another very thorough cleaning of the range. Boy, is it cute when it's all shiny clean! There is still some persistent baked on grime that just won't budge, but I keep working on it.

Last night I stopped at TJ's on my way home from work to grocery shop. I got a box of their frozen oatmeal-cranberry cookie dough. It's pre-formed balls, so I've been able to do one or two at a time in the toaster oven whenever the mood for a cookie strikes. Quite yummy. I decided last night that I was going to attempt to turn on the oven and cook a whole tray of cookies to test the oven.

Four matches later, the oven was lit and preheating! Heating up my house too, I might add, so I'm glad our 90+ degree weather had passed. I spread the dough balls on the sheet, popped it in the oven, set the timer and sat down to wait. and wait. and wait.

I knew it was likely to be somewhat off and heat inffeciently, but I was not expecting the cookies to take twice as long and require cranking up the heat 50 degrees midway into it. But there you have it...I was baking in my teensy tiny 1953 oven! I'm sure the fact that my cookie sheet was covering the rack wall to wall and front to back was not helping the airflow issues, but it's what I had on hand.

I go back and forth on whether I should try to restore the range and see if they can improve the oven function while there at it, and really wanting the double wall ovens I've been planning for my kitchen since day one. Fashion vs function. Those double wall ovens are what has kept me form buying a replacement range until now. I do love the vintage charm of the O'Keefe & Merritt, but I think I love baking performance more. Anyway, this prompted me to do some more research on restoration. I had a horrible experience with a vendor last time I researched it, but there has to be some alternatives out there. Considering I'm in no real hurry, I think I'll look into it a bit more.

In the meanwhile, I will get an oven thermometer to more accurately gauge the calibration of the oven. I may go so far as to bake a cake this weekend.

Roses

While I may not be making rapid progress on the construction front, I'm experiencing great success with my roses. If you recall, back in January, I attended a rose pruning & care seminar hosted by my local garden center. I pruned the two out front and pretty much ignored the one on the chimney since I don't have a ladder.

The trailing white floribunda at the end of the driveway will need some more serious pruning next season, but here it is when it was covered with the first round of buds (click on image to get the full effect). Craziness:

It has very densely petaled blooms that are very fragrant. They don't last more than a day or two, but it's certainly prolific enough that you hardly notice.


And the "mystery rose" that had finished blooming by the time I first met The Dump turned out to be quite a pleasant surprise. Again, it will need more serious pruning next winter to coax it into a nicer shape, but it's been very rewarding this season. The blooms start as hot pink with orangey-peach centers and fade to pink and cream. I've been pinching off the side buds to force bigger, bolder blooms, and they are really nice for cutting.

Lastly, it seems that ignoring the climber on the chimney didn't deter it much. Here's what it looked like at the peak of the first wave of blooms (mid-April):

Since I haven't gotten up there to deadhhead at all, it's slowed down as the season has progressed, but it still has a few blooms a week. I'm really glad Pete (the architect) thinks it won't be too difficult to repair and preserve the chimney. I quite like the charm it and the rose add to The Dump.

Killing time

Not much to report. I'm still waiting for the Soils Engineers to do their thing. At the rate I'm moving, I'll be lucky if I have foundation and drainage work complete before the rains start. I'm not too concerned since I can overwinter again with no trouble. As long as my crawlspace does not fill with water every time it rains, it will be an improvement over last winter.

My latest improvements to the place are as follows:
1) Big ugly shed is gone! My backyard looks HUGE now! That corner will be the site of next year's veggie garden, so I'm going to keep adding compost to the soil to move it in the right direction.
2) Hmmm.... Well, that's about it as far as improvements goes.

Other excitement:
1) Bought a chipper-shredder to tackle all the leaves my magnolia drops. I was filling my yard waste bin in a weekend and since yard waste is collected only every other Friday, I had a problem on my hands. The leaves don't break down quickly enough in the compost bin, and the volume of leaves was overwhelming (it's a big tree), so I decided shredding them was in order. I haven't used the thing yet, but it's on my agenda for this weekend. It will be great organic matter to add to the future veggie bed.
2) My tomatoes are ready for eating, which has been quite enjoyable.
3) The Blancos needed the twin bed back now that the au pair has arrived, so I got the Tempurpedic out of storage. This is exciting for two reasons--a) it's nice to stretch out again and b) I SERIOUSLY love my bed.
4) I started knitting Christmas gifts last night. I'm ambitious this year--there are sweaters involved. Small child-sized sweaters, but sweaters nonetheless.
5) A few weeks ago Kat and I ventured into the world of jam making with awesome results. I'm eyeing my apple tree and all the apples I scoop up every weekend with a new respect. I should have thinned the fruit to yield a better crop, but the thing is COVERED with apples. I'll pick in a few more weeks and see what we get. Apple butter is calling our name.

I'll do some photo documentation this weekend since the yard is shaping up quite nicely.

delays breed good ideas

Last weekend I was working on my computer in the back bedroom which is basically storage with a laundry drying rack and a mini-office when an idea hit me like a freight train.

A few weeks ago, Pete (architect) informed me about some disappointing regulations San Mateo County recently passed that limit the amount of remodeling you can do to 50% of the home's value (calculated at $300/sq ft). If you exceed that, County requires you strip it down to bare studs inside and out and bring the building 100% up to code. That would effectively triple or quadruple the cost of the project. This means I definitely need to phase the project. I don't know the time limitations of how closely the phases can be spaced, so I'll need to sort that out.

My freight train idea is as follows:

Considerations:
1) Foundation corrective work needs to occur first. French drain should be installed at the same time, thereby resolving drainage and damp issues before the rainy season hits.
2) The eventual plan is to insert a door in the back bedroom where there is currently a window.
3) We're going to assess the possibility of preserving the existing bathroom with a few modifications. Pete thinks it's worth a shot since the tile is in exceptional shape given it's original form 1953 and you know how I love the retro-funk.
4) The garage/Kitchen/Living phase is more complicated than the work required in the bedrooms and will take the longest.

With those considerations, I was thinking that once the foundation work is complete, I would next remodel the back bedroom (replace 1 window with door and relocate second window) and then block off the doorway from kitchen to hallway to isolate a small living zone where I would stay while the garage and front half of the house is built/remodeled.

I'd have an entry door from the back yard, bedroom, bathroom and the back room would become a living area. I'm essentially operating without a functioning kitchen right now, so nothing really changes if I move my fridge, microwave, toaster oven and coffee maker to the new mini living area. This would make it a secure area so I wouldn't have to re-home Miss Feline, which has actually been a big concern of mine.

Whether or not I can keep the bathroom, the minor mods I'd make in there (or full remodel) could be done later, and updating the small bedroom can also be done later as it is also more limited in scope (basically just new window, upgrade electrical, new drywall and molding).

This approach would enable me to live there and be on hand to monitor progress instead of moving out for phase 1, back in for a while, back out for phase 2 and then back in.

I ran it by Pete yesterday and he thinks it's a realistic and intelligent approach to the project.

Who knew procrastination could lead to such a good result?

Apologies

Holy cats! It's been a long time since I posted anything. Don't worry... you're not missing out on progress at The Dump--nothing has happened. Work got, well, to put it lightly, hellish. I gave myself the mental allowance of doing nothing until May 1 and am stunned to realize it's already May 19 and I haven't fired it back up yet.

The worst happening since my last post is that my car got broken into a few weeks ago and my bag with my computer (and phones) was stolen. That means all my remodel files and ideas that were on that computer are gone. So sad. Also lost are the photos I had recently taken of the yard that I had every intention of posting to pass off as "progress" (hey, growing ginormous roses takes work!).

After last week's heat wave, the item "attic fan" is definitely getting upgraded to high priority for the remodel. I don't plan to install central AC (the code regulations on required ductwork are supposedly ridiculous), so a super-premium attic fan will be in order--The Dump gets quite toasty and even with all windows and doors open, it catches NO breeze. Good to know.

Plan B

Most of you already know this, but in case you don't, I terminated my contract with Remy's QC last week. There were a lot of factors that led to this, but the bottom line is that I did not feel I was getting what I paid for.

Remy's QC is billed as a "design-build" organization. Since my job seemed pretty straightforward, I though that would be fine. In reality, there was not much "design" going on, and the level of detail of the drawings they were presenting to me was pretty poor. After a few conversations with Remy where he mentioned being able to change stuff while in construction, I seriously feared that he was counting on hitting me up with a ton of change-orders.

All in all, confidence and trust eroded and if I'm going to drop some serious coin on a remodel, I expect to have a high degree of confidence in my design-construction partner. It simply wasn't there and he was hemorrhaging time. I had expected to be in construction by this point. Instead, we were still going back and forth on drawings that were never quite right (probably because they were being done by his dad who had NO experience--I could navigate the software better than he could that night he came to my house), and he went all passive-aggressive on me when I called him on the fact that my house is his dad's guinea pig.

In any event, I've decided to work with an architect (Pete) to produce drawings that I will be able to bid out to other contractors. I want drawings that are the Bible of my remodel. When, if in doubt, the drawing will dictate how something is supposed to be, or where it is to be placed. None of this loosey-goosey "we can change it while in construction" stuff.

Pete was out at the house last Friday to do a site survey and is working on preliminary concepts. I expect to meet with him next week to review them.

Tree trimming extravaganza

Both brothers were in town this past weekend for the sad occasion of a memorial service for our aunt, but we managed to enjoy hanging out at home and maximized the rare event that we're all in the same town at the same time.

John listened to my dilemma about the magnolia tree and promptly went to work. I'm so glad I got such conflicting info from two different tree companies and took the "I cannot be bothered to sort this thing out right now" approach. That meant that my tree was an untouched canvas on which John could work some tree trimming magic.

As a reminder, here is what it looked like before:

And now, you can actually SEE the house:
I know that's not the very best comparison since the lighting is totally different (morning vs mid afternoon), but you get the idea. I've also been working on pulling the grass from the driveway. it really annoys me that the grass sprouting in the driveway is way more lush than the grass in the lawn area. I've finally gotten 98% of it and my house looks somewhat respectable once again.

John also advised against trying to keep the apple tree. It seems to be too far gone to rehabilitate into a handsome addition to the yard. I'll call around in a few more weeks to have that removed. I'd like to at least enjoy the apple blossom season after being forced to deal with picking up all those apples last fall.

The roses are putting out buds and I'm excited to see what the one closer to the house produces (it had stopped blooming by the time I moved in while the other one was going strong all the way into January when I pruned it). It is definitely another floribunda. Both have beautiful, lush growth and I sprayed with soap yesterday after spotting some aphids. I hope they bloom soon!

All in all, it was a productive weekend at The Dump and some quality time with the fam.

Gnoming around

In a fit of "I have a yard and it needs some character," I bought a garden gnome. Actually, according to the website where I found him, I "adopted" him (they were having a 50% off "adoption event"). His name is Buckston.
I put him in the back yard to hopefully decrease the chances of him getting bitten by the travel bug.

Side note

I'm interrupting the regularly scheduled blogging to show you the terminal cuteness I created WITH MY OWN HANDS:
This was a baby shower gift for Amanda's baby Nolan (who arrived on 2/26). I made him over a weekend in January for the shower and just now uploaded pics to my computer. One ear is larger than the other. Unsurprising, given my knitting skills, but it adds to his charm.

Impatiens = Cheap and Cheerful Color

This weekend brought some amazingly beautiful weather with it. Saturday was busy with lots of stuff, but Sunday offered several hours to putter in the garden. My pre-emergent weed killer I spread a month or so ago has done a pretty good job of keeping the weeds in the rose bed to a minimum and most of the pansies are thriving.

The bed in front of the porch has been weeded and enriched with compost and pre-emergent weed killer several times, but still grows some amazing clover. I weeded it again and decided that it needs some plants to improve the curb appeal a bit. It's a mostly shady bed, due to the magnolia tree, so I was struggling about what to put there--I didn't want to invest in some nice perennials that are going to get trampled once construction starts, but most bedding plants are sun lovers. In the end, I opted for a flat of impatiens for $20 in the "mystic" mix of hot pink, light pink and super-light pink. I plugged in all 48 plants, and I'm sure they are far too close together, but I so don't care at this point. I want an explosion of color and foliage that won't break my heart when they get thrashed by construction workers with big boots.

I watered them this morning and told them they better not die today--I need them to last at least a week. :)

Wrapping Up Design

Herman and I have been exchanging e-mails over the past two weeks to tweak and fine tune the drawing that will be used for permit application. He is coming out to The Dump tonight so that we can bang out the last few details and wrap it up.

In preparation, I took blue masking tape and taped out where some new windows will be going. What seemed fine and dandy in a 2D birds-eye view is not so ideal in application. I discovered that I had estimated too large for the windows that will flank the fireplace, so, with the help of the tape, I have re-scaled my expectations there.

I also taped out where I'd like the architectural feature of the fireplace to go (trying to add more vertical interest instead of the short and squatty fireplace I presently have. I also taped out where a 40" flat panel TV will go. Y'know, I have to make sure it will fit and look good.... :) It's a bit high at the moment given how close the couch is (hey, the room is small), so I'll adjust it downward and can easily go smaller based on the tiny viewing distance.

Forgot to take pics of my tape masterpiece, so I'll try to do that tonight.

First House Guest and Inspiration

Big brother Tom is in the midst of a kitchen remodel himself, and we've been chatting regularly about it. A Southwest fare sale popped up in early January, so I booked a ticket for him to come visit and help me plan my kitchen.

We got down to business on Saturday--went to Quesco to drop off the drawing for kitchen planning, picked up the list of stoneyards from the Countertop store and trekked on up to a stoneyard in Brisbane. After about two hours of browsing, I found it--the kitchen inspiration I had been seeking. It goes by the name of "Kashmir White":

It's an overall light effect, with the ability to tie in darker elements. I love the white, gray, green, red, black potential of it. I was on the fence about the direction I wanted to take the kitchen, and I think this Kashmir White will lend itself to straddling the contemporary/modern that I'm embracing elsewhere in the house with the more classic look that I can quite let go of completely.

We went to a few other places looking at stone, tile, flooring and appliances and all in all, I feel really good about the information I have gathered.

To top it all off, Tom pried up some linoleum in the kitchen and found oak under it! Yeeee-ha! I'm really hoping it's not totally thrashed so that I can keep all the existing oak in The Dump. That will save me another round of indecision...

Christmas all over again

So, here are the goods. Signs of real progress. I'm so excited, I can barely stop looking at it to type this post.

This is the drawing of The Dump in its current configuration that I received two weeks ago:

They also sent one that had a lot of walls removed so I could go wild and crazy if necessary, but I really didn't want to go down the avenue of a wild and crazy reconfiguration. For the most part, I like the layout of The Dump--it needs to be optimized, not overhauled.

And here is the current plan (click on picture to view it full size):

I have a few tweaks to do before I'll consider it final, but it's really, really awesome to see it coming together.

Moving forward

Howdy all! It's been a month since my last posting and quite a bit has happened. I'll quickly recap before moving onto to the exciting news.

Between Thanksgiving and Christmas I furnished my living room because I was tired of sitting on my bed with my laptop perched on my knees to freeload WiFi, watch DVDs, read, knit etc. I wanted a proper place to sit since it was going to be at least 3 more months before construction begins. I knew I'd have space for this stuff in my storage unit when the time came. Here's the living room full of holiday cheer:
Here's the best pic I have of the outside all decked for the holidays:

The first weekend after the new year will forever live in my memory as The Great Flood of '08. The bay area had a whopper of a storm (actually, 3 storms back-to-back-to-back) that flooded lots of places, knocked down redwoods in Marin, killed power to hundreds of thousands of people, and generally wreaked havoc. That Friday was my first day train commuting (my new year's resolution). As I drove home through Atherton, it was quite dark. I passed a street closed down by PG&E--my neighborhood was without power. In fact, most of RWC was without power, including the shopping center across the street where I was going to venture to acquire some candles and a flashlight. Instead, I decided to go to my storage unit since I knew there was a box labeled "candles" readily accessible. Thankfully they had power, but they also had water. I opened my unit (3rd floor with 2 exterior walls) to find my TV and several boxes sitting in a large puddle of water.

I immediately called Mrs. Blanco since she also has a unit on the 3rd floor. She informed me that her yard (in my neighborhood) was under 12" of water because their sump pump can't do it's job without power. At that point I knew I was in trouble at home, but first I had to resolve this minor flood.

I called Kat to see if I could pull a major favor from them and have them come help me move into a new unit. She in turn called Axt and he and his lady Susan rolled over to pitch in too. I have GREAT peeps in my life!!! Blancos, Inneses, Axt and Susan, mom and I set about moving everything into a new unit, which is happily on the first floor, but unhappily, is smaller than my current unit. Putting off facing what was waiting at home, I took everyone out to dinner as a small gesture of my great appreciation for what they did for me.

After that, I went home and found Great Lake RWC in my crawlspace. I had a sneaking suspicion that the submersible pump I found in the shed at the close of escrow meant this would happen, so I was not totally surprised. However, I WAS surprised at how much water I proceeded to pump out of the crawlspace over the next 2 days (the three storms didn't give the ground enough time to drain). I'm fully aware that this issue will be resolved during construction--adequate gutters, french drain, sump pump etc will all prevent this from being a long term problem.

However, all that water must have triggered a massive growth of mold because I've been plagued by a hideous amount of snot for the past two weeks.

Last Saturday I was vacuuming and got totally frustrated by my vacuum's poor performance on hard floors that I went out and bought a new one:

Notice how full the canister is after one pass of my whole house. I have a very hairy feline. Hopefully the new Dyson will help reduce her impact on my allergies since the mold is definitely doing a fine job on it's own (again, I am NOT freaking out about this since the house is going to be gutted in approx 2 months!).

Last Sunday I attended a rose pruning seminar hosted by my local garden center. I immediately came home and pruned my roses that definitely have not been properly pruned in many years. Here's how they look after I was finished with them:
The adorably crusty old man who taught the seminar said that I will likely lose the really thick woody part of the climbing floribunda, but to leave it for this season and let new canes sprout from the base (oops! Mom thought those were suckers and pruned them the first weekend here!). The tea rose has also been poorly pruned, so I'm hoping some new canes sprout up this year and I'll be able to bring it back into a normal shape at pruning time next year.

I fertilized and spread a preemergent weedkiller today and will spray them with copper and horticultural oil next weekend (rain in the forecast for Monday) to see if I can help prevent rust and mildew issues.

Alright, this brings me up to the current week. I figured out how to use my work phone as an internet connection, so I can use the computer anyplace in my house. yay!

Also, I got the drawings from Remy's QC on Friday. SOOO EXCITED! They sent over one version of the floorplan exactly as it is now, and one with a lot of walls knocked out so that I may doodle all over it. We're meeting Tuesday evening to go over it and move forward. It's pretty exciting to finally be doing something that feels like progress. I'll see if I can figure out how to get the drawings up here so y'all can give me some suggestions.