labor and delivery

The sewer guy and roofer are supposed to start their work tomorrow.  The sewer guy is replacing 400 ft of our sewer line via trenchless line replacement. Hopefully he won't have to destroy too much of the front yard. As for the roof, the wonderful wanna be DIYers who lived there before us managed to install a completely new roof the wrong way. Fortunately the inspectors think we'll be able to keep the roof and get some mileage out of it. However, it will need some repairs. The DIYers did some things wrong.. what I mean by some things is ... major things... oh like ALL OF THE FLASHING AROUND THE CHIMNEY.

(notice the gaping hole the screwdriver is resting in)

We are also having a raccoon specialist come check out the property. Not to get "rid" of them or anything, but just to help us figure out where they're living, etc. At the very least maybe he can tip us off on where to purchase "mountain lion urine", which is according to the internet the most humane way to get them to leave. (though secretly I think it might be fun to purchase the "scarecrow"- an automated sprinkler that shoots water at anything within 35 ft of it- pictured below)

Also, I convinced my parents to come into town this weekend to go to the blue grass festival... which is awesome because they're gonna love it. My mom is a HUGE Joan Baez fan and my dad (being the lesbo he is) LOVES Indigo Girls. GS is already coming into town though so our apartment is at max capacity. My parents are going to camp out at the new house, it will actually probably be not too far from camping. This means that we need to kick it into high gear tomorrow and make sure that before we inflate the air mattress the floor is free of staples and or tacks...

In other news the bathroom is being delivered tomorrow! We decided after looking both online and in stores that the best deal for a shower and sink was to purchase them online. What we didn't know at the time was that it was going to be a total pain in the ass to get them delivered. If we hadn't planned to take the day off tomorrow we would be up the stream without a paddle. Even with the day off it's turned into a bit of a puzzle as we thought that it was smartest to have big items delivered to the house and smaller items delivered to our apartment. At the time it never crossed our minds they would show up at the same time. So tomorrow the shower is showing up at the house at the same time the sink is arriving at our apartment. I will have to find someone to bribe to sign for the sink so we can be spared the $100 re-delivery fee. Lame. Exciting though that we now have the tile, shower, sink, and vanity. (I will take pictures tomorrow). Only the tub, hardware and flooring are left.

Which brings me to the fact that after going back and forth between a salvaged claw foot or a new modern freestanding tub, we have decided to go with a claw foot. We found awesome ones at a really great local salvage yard. We will end up with a deeper tub that doesn't go over the 5ft length restriction we have since we are going to maintain the current bathroom layout. We also think we might paint the sides of the tub to give our bathroom a punch of color. Thoughts?

Btw if you ever get bored at work, just google "painted claw foot tub" and be amazed at the results.

(claw foot fairies)

(Tuscan claw foot)

(claw foot underwater)

(patriotic claw foot)

bye bye ugly brown paint

The house has started to get primed!

(this is the view from the backyard... the little white cube is the kitchen)

In a few weeks Sunkist will be getting a facelift!

This is our inspiration photo for the colors we would like to do on the outside:

from Urban Farmhouse to Urban Farm..

Upon pulling into the carport today--which from now on I will refer to as "the barn" as it sounds a lot cooler, and we are considering painting it red-- we were happy to see the former deck in the form of a pile of debris. Unfortunately the former gate that sealed off the walkway to the deck was also in the pile. This left a 3 foot gap between the side fence and the house which wouldn't be a big deal except for the fact that without the deck, the walkway leads you to a 12 ft drop. Not good. Luckily, Catman and his partner were nice enough to bring over a piece of board and some caution tape to seal it up temporarily.

(former deck)

(lemonade anyone?)

                 
Speaking of the cat situation, we finally saw some of the cats today. One is an older male who looks pretty annoyed that we have taken over his house, and then two younger ones.  The two little ones are all black with glowing green eyes. They're really cute, and I took the liberty of naming them. My first thought was to name them Jafar and Scar because of their cartoon villain eyes. I don't know why that was my first thought, but I suppose that just means Disney is doing its job. Later on, I was pondering the cats once more when I remembered David Sedaris' story of naming the rabbits that frequented his garden. I've decided that as a tribute to him, I shall call the cats Tuile and Mouiller.

So back to the dirty work. After dealing with everything outside we decided to hit the ground running and get the last of the carpet out. Then we encountered another block. I was ripping up the carpet on the staircase when all of the sudden I felt like my arm was on fire. I ran out back into the sunlight and looked down at my arm to find hives. No good. Luckily we had some Zyrtec on hand which took care of the problem (and once again made me totally out of it for two hours), but KCA and I decided it would be wisest if I didn't come into any more contact with carpet, as the stair carpet managed to be more disgusting than anything we had previously encountered. KCA removed the rest of it as I spent my time meticulously removing staples from the floor.

(looking downstairs)

After a few hours of staple removal we were joined by SML and KM. We are lucky to be surrounded by wonderful people who do things like show up with burritos and beer, two things that could be argued as more essential to home renovation than maybe even hammers or pliers. While we were giving KM the grand tour of the place, we discovered yet another surprise... SML heard footsteps outside-- and opened the back door to investigate. There was a posse of raccoons hanging out. SML told them to go on, but of course in true raccoon fashion they did not retreat and decided to stare at us creepily until they all ran for the tree only to jump on it and form a sort of stalkerish raccoon totem pole.

Maybe we spoke too soon when we said we wanted an urban 'farm'-house?

Eureka!

Much to our delight, this is what we found under our carpet... and it runs throughout the house!

JUST KIDDING!

We would've totally freaked out if that were the case! This, luckily, is only what we found underneath the beige carpet in the den. Looks like the future office and dining rom (separate rooms.. we're not quite that into multi-tasking) are going to have to be tiled.

As for what was under the carpet in the living room, bedrooms, hallway, etc. *drum roll*

 

beautiful hardwood floors in great condition.... all that is left to do is seal them... truly awesome

In the beginning.. there was carpet...

Today was our first official day of home renovation.  We started off the day by making the first of which I'm sure will be several stops at Home Depot. Home Depot is one of those places, much like Target, where you go in for a few items, end up getting a few more than you anticipated, and end up spending three times what you intended on spending in the first place. So, after a few cheap pairs of leather gloves, some masks, a respirator (for future possible asbestos filled projects), and a broom, we were on our way.

When we were driving up we looked out the car window and admired the beautiful view when all of the sudden *swoop*... we saw two large hawks. Hawks are amazing animals and my initial response was to be elated at the realization that we were finally going to live somewhere with more nature than the Trader Joes' Orchids we continuously nurse to death; then it dawned on me. Hawks are not so good when you have- oh let's say- a tiny black dog that more closely resembles a rabbit? KCA and I decided that Dude would not be hanging out front without supervision. We did talk about the idea that Annie would serve as a deterrent to hawks trying to prey on Dude, but then also realized that Annie would probably allow him to turn into hawk food if she was preoccupied with so much as an itch. So for now Dude stays inside.

We pulled into the car port, and soon thereafter Catman appeared. He has a mysterious way of showing up immediately after we arrive every time. Catman is a neighbor who has designated "feeding spots" for cats all over our neighborhood. He is an older gentleman, who is pretty flamboyant, small in stature, and has an affinity for short shorts. Let's not forget to mention he has an excessive amount of hair everywhere... except for his head. He knows everyone and everything that happens in our neighborhood; we still haven't figured out if that's good or bad. Today he filled us in on the "kitty situation" as he calls it. Apparently we have 5 cats currently living on our property; he informed us that he was able to trap one once, in hopes of giving it a good home, but decided to surrender it when it wouldn't settle down in the trap.  So in hopes to neither displace the cats nor get on Catman's bad side we have continued to let our house function as a "feeding spot". We did make one small request that the 3 cats beds relocate to further away from the front door, where they would be less likely to result in an asthma attack.

A few minutes after we showed up so did our contractor AT, SML and Sey. AT came to do another walk through since he hadn't seen it since he first came out, which we all know was SEVERAL months before. We actually greeted him with profuse apologies. We are lucky that throughout all of this although we did at times THINK our contractors were going to walk away, that they didn't. He even joked that most contractors he knew would've been out.

KCA did the walk through and SML and I got started on the carpet. We got it down to a system and had it out in no time. In the mean time Dude was locked up in the kitchen (he's adjusting to life in a bubble well I'd say...) and Annie and Sey hung out out front where they proceeded to take turns sitting on top of the rapidly growing carpet pile.
 

By the end of the day we were totally exhausted but pretty much carpet free, much to SMLs hard core carpet ripping out skills. Thanks SML! And the only major road block we encountered was when Annie tried to jump out of the second-story living room window... mmhmm. (we'll be looking into screens)

Here are some pictures of the dirty lime green carpet that was EVERYWHERE!

(living room)

(living room- leading to kitchen)

(a little beige carpet action in the den)

(and did we mention the super hot paneling?)

(is that grass in the master bedroom?... no just more carpet!)

(Dude we said it's NOT GRASS! don't even think about it)

(master bedroom and shot of linen closet)

"well you weren't whistling dixie when you said it needed work..."

(the front... yes we have two front doors)

(view from the backyard)

The Sunkist Trail

Don't worry, no one died of dysentery.

Today we received an email from our loan officer, congratulating us on our success.

"You were a pioneer on this loan.....this is not a common loan yet.  So if you felt that you were crossing the prairie and then you hit up against the mighty sierra mountains, and then there was an early snow fall....well, that's exactly what happened.  Probably less than 1% of loans are currently 203K.  So you are among the trail blazers!!"

It's A... Fixer-Upper

Yep, that's right. As of this afternoon KCA and I are proud new owners of a 1949 fixer-upper. After a long and arduous battle, victory is ours; it feels great!

(first official mug shot)

 I decided that I would start this blog to serve multiple purposes:

1. to keep all of our friends and family, both near and far, updated (although if you're near you will probably get bribed with pizza and beer to participate in many of the projects to come)
2. to have a sort of virtual scrap-book
3. to use as proof to our future children that they have "the coolest and most hard-working parents ever" (kind of joking)

I will do my best throughout this process to update this blog as often as I can.

I want to also take a moment to thank each and every one of you for your support and love. We wouldn't be who we are today without all of you. We look forward to spending many happy days filled with laughter and your smiling faces, after all that is what makes a house a home.

Please feel free to comment and participate.