Sunday, December 13, 2009

November 6, 2009

Eddie and I are sitting outside by the fire at noon on a Friday. We’re sipping pumpkin lattes and marveling at the smells, sounds and feel of fall in our new neighborhood. A neighbor is mowing a lawn, the wind is rustling the fallen yellow and brown leaves, and the clouds are keeping a steady clip as they cross overhead. We just finished crunching a bunch of numbers, the outcome of which allowed us some space to breathe. Our till isn’t full enough to finish the kitchen before Thanksgiving. A bit of a bummer, but mostly relief because now we’re able to take our pace down a notch. Our new *by-thanksgiving* plan is to refinish the kitchen floor, put up insulation and drywall and finish the half-wall we’ve started building to separate the kitchen from the living room. Fir-cabinets will have to wait, as will the purchase of a new enviro-friendly refrigerator and dishwasher. The beat goes on.


Since our last post we’ve been mighty busy, even for us. Eddie, Geoffrey, Steven and Joel-the-Rigger erected a high-quality-craftsmanship fence. Planting fence posts took an entire day. Eddie and gang were working from 8am to nearly 9pm. All the while I primed doors and windows in the study, our bedroom door and upstairs bathroom door. Over the course of the next week, Eddie put up every fence board and voila, we have a beautimous fence.

















The next weekend, with the help of Itzo EZ, we tore down the wall separating the kitchen from the dining room. We took turns screaming obscenities, well. . .I guess Eddie didn’t, but EZ and enjoyed the aggression outlet. Ironically enough, we weren’t rocking out to metal or buttrock, but the Boogie Nights Soundtrack. Who knew? Rich also helped with the final touches of the kitchen demolition, ripping up the linoleum floor while Eddie ripped out the ceiling. All the while this demolition was happening we had two electricians that Eddie knows from work installing a new panel and masthead. We now have a 200 amp service—let there be (lots of) light!












The next weekend Eddie began the uber-intense job of wiring our new kitchen, while I scraped every inch of glue off of the kitchen floor. Eddie let me know, post scrapping, that I kept grunting and yowling, as well as belting out lyrics to Wolfmother. I had little recollection, I was in the flow I guess. We also leveled out the side yard. Sounds easy? It wasn’t. We picked and hoed and raked and then did all three all over again. We also picked up countless buckets of rock. I’ll get a good pic of the rock pile for our next entry.






Eddie then took a week off from work to finish the electrical in the kitchen and begin the construction of the new half-wall/partition. Working tirelessly from sun-up to sundown (and beyond), Eddie crammed himself into corners, perched himself in small spaces in the roof structure above the kitchen, strung himself out over a ladder to push and pull electrical wire through far-reaching crevices and, just generally worked really hard and got really dirty. He also started wearing a ball cap with a pencil hanging down in front of one ear. Adorable. So, here we sit getting ready to start this weekend’s renovation. Today I’ll scrape the chimney in the kitchen. Scrape what you ask? You guessed it, wallpaper.



We decided that sanding and finishing the floors was the best way to get the most bang for our buck before we had guests for Thanksgiving. As I'm writing this it's hard to even remember the nasty linoleum residue that used to cover our kitchen floor. Thanks to Stephen for recommending sanding the real bad stuff at a 45 degree angle for the first pass. We'd probably still be sanding without that bit of knowledge.






Poor Jeff got suckered into hanging insulation and drywall on the ceiling in exchange for a haircut. Oddly enough, we haven't heard from Jeff in a while.







To be continued. . .


Saturday, October 10, 2009

Day 70: Life and projects in-progress

Life since our last blog: We moved in! Then we. . .



  • . . .visited with Aunt Boo (Eddie's Great-Aunt) and Chick & Chuck (Eddie's Ma and Pa)
  • sailed on a big Lake
  • ate a lot of ice cream
  • read bad best sellers until 4 in the morning
  • watched blockbuster hits until 2 in the morning. . .


Aunt Boo!



Sailing on a pirate ship with the Parkers.



See, lots of ice cream.

  • . . .ran and volunteered at Hood to Coast, Oregon's 197 mile relay race
  • went to Checkya's lovely wedding, celebrating our 1yr anniversary at the same site we got married
  • started last term of masters classes and internship (Erin)
  • witnessed, but not casualty of, downsizing at work (Eddie)
  • celebrated the birth of Eli Henry (Gina and Jeremy's lil one)
  • cooed and snuggled Lucy Mabel (Amber and Shaggy's lil one)
  • ran the Rock n' Relay with 22 week pregnant couple, Emily (pregnant one) and Charlie, + friend Jon (Erin)
  • celebrated the 3rd bday of the MOST adorable nephew ever, Arthur
  • gifted one shiny red wagon to the MOST adorable nephew ever


The BIG 3!



  • met new neighbor and discovered he might have rent-by-the-week plans for the house next door--gulp (Eddie)
  • assisted Wrench in her recovery from a broken tib and fib due to a bad pile up in roller derby
  • assisted EZ in her move to a super-duper-green new pad
  • visited Mullet in the hospital (surgerIES for ruptured tendon)
  • performed "invasive species" removal with Em and the Nature Conservancy (Erin)
  • threw frustrated fists in the air over Pat's (Erin's mama) mold & HOA battle
  • formally proposed a thesis in front of three esteemed professors (Erin)
  • saw Bob Dylan and his band and felt concert fatigue, leading us to wonder if we were "getting old"
  • went to a GNR benefit and got a skate massage (on back, with skate)
  • put on sweatshirts, thicker socks and flannel sheets because it is getting chilly here in Portland, OR.


Erin and Hood to Coast captain, Emily (then 17 weeks pregnant, BTW, she kicked a ton of you-know-what!).


House projects in-progress:
Eddie's been mighty busy with his second FT job: this ole house. Erin's been his trusty PT assistant laborer, brainstormer and accountant. Since our last post we've organized and hosted five work parties (moving in, rock collecting in yard, 12 ft shrub removal in side-yard, wallpaper removal in study, upstairs kitchen demolition) plus one more tomorrow (fence post [ing]). Eddie hauled away 5 loads of shrubs (go Eddie!) and we visited the dump with our kitchen demolition, that latter sparking a heated conversation about waste and environmental racism/classism. Eddie also drew up plans for, bought parts for, and installed gas lines so we could have gas appliances. D.I.Y. hero? I think so. Oh, and we had a little BBQ for Labor Day and built a makeshift fire-pit.

We've worked with some pretty skilled and generous helpers along the way: EZ, Charlie, Em, Ben & Stephanie, Jeff & Steve, Geoffrey, Justin, Emily S., Laura & Sam, and Mullet. Here are some images from the past 50 (give or take) days:



Hot August moving day with Emily, Stephanie, Ben, Ez (np), Jeff and Steve (np).



Eddie post-move.



EZ and Charlie going to town with crow-bars and animal print bandannas.



Eddie raising the roof. What. What.



Eddie's gas line blueprint.



Mullet scraping "the study." Four layers of WP, folks. Four layers.



Erin scraping with the super sweet razor tool.



Justin hauling brush.



Erin post-tree limb sawing. Feeling pretty sawzy.



If I had a nickel for every time Jeff was sittin' down on the job. . .I tell ya.



Eddie's sweaty glove.



Unwelcome squatters (wet wood termites). Don't worry, they're not the scary house-collapsing kind.

Whew!