We still haven't managed to install the smoke detectors. Shame on us. Oh well! They came with batteries, but the batteries aren't pre-installed, so we don't have to worry about them going off in their packages. We both ended up working on freelance projects last night, so work on the Rat Hole wasn't going to be happening.
After much work on our floor plan, we decided that we're going to try to squeeze in a third bedroom where the deck is in the drawings in the previous post. We just have to find out if the city will let us. We might do it anyway and just pay a fine. *shrug*
We've also discovered that our home isn't the Rat Hole, its the Hornet Hole. Okay, so it's not really that bad. We've only encountered three hornets. Big hornets, actually. But still only three of them. And one was dead. Anyway, hornets aren't so bad, really, especially when it's still cold outside and they're slow and stupid, but we've found enough of them now that we're pretty sure there's a nest in our attic. That's no surprise- we saw the remains of one nest, and lots of folks have hornet nests in their attics. The problem is that we need to be up in the attic quite a bit over the next year. We have to get rid of all the crappy insulation because we need to replace the ceilings (and the insulation, so it works out), not to mention run the wiring and the plumbing through the attic space. Working up there with a swarm of hornets ranks highly in the "not very fun or intelligent" category. So, we need to try to find their nest and get them out of there while they're still cold and slow and stupid.
Wish us luck. ^_^
Tuesday, January 31, 2006
Wednesday, January 25, 2006
Slow Going
We fully intended to have our smoke detectors installed by now. It just hasn't happened. The sack of detectors has been lying on the floor since the weekend. We've talked about doing it the past several nights in a row, but we've either eaten dinner too late, become caught up in other chores, been too tired, or been distracted.
That's not to say that we haven't done anything at all. It's just that we haven't done anything to the house as it exists right now.
So what, exactly, have we been doing with our time? Why, planning for the future. The reality of the situation is that our floor plan is funky, and the house is small. I, personally, hate the bathrooms. We also know that we're not going to be here forever, so making improvements that will increase the value of the home is in our best interests. Luckily we have this nice little software package that lets us take our floor plan and move stuff around. Walls vanish or appear, windows get moved, and all manner of furniture and appliances are added. We've been using this software to figure out what we want our house to look like when we're done with it. This is what we're starting with:
There's a lot of room there, but it isn't used to the utmost. We think we can do better, which is how we came up with this plan.
The only problem is that we're not sure we'll be able to afford those changes. We're trying to come up with a plan, but who knows if it'll be feasible or not. We're also trying to figure out ways to add a third bedroom, or maximize what we have now without enclosing the car port. Turns out that it's tedious work, and yet we manage to spend a lot of time on it. The hours just drain away, hours that we could have spent hanging smoke detectors. Okay, so the detectors would probably only take a few minutes to hang, and we don't really have any excuses.
So I'm going to pretend that we're slaves to a dream and leave it at that.
That's not to say that we haven't done anything at all. It's just that we haven't done anything to the house as it exists right now.
So what, exactly, have we been doing with our time? Why, planning for the future. The reality of the situation is that our floor plan is funky, and the house is small. I, personally, hate the bathrooms. We also know that we're not going to be here forever, so making improvements that will increase the value of the home is in our best interests. Luckily we have this nice little software package that lets us take our floor plan and move stuff around. Walls vanish or appear, windows get moved, and all manner of furniture and appliances are added. We've been using this software to figure out what we want our house to look like when we're done with it. This is what we're starting with:
There's a lot of room there, but it isn't used to the utmost. We think we can do better, which is how we came up with this plan.
The only problem is that we're not sure we'll be able to afford those changes. We're trying to come up with a plan, but who knows if it'll be feasible or not. We're also trying to figure out ways to add a third bedroom, or maximize what we have now without enclosing the car port. Turns out that it's tedious work, and yet we manage to spend a lot of time on it. The hours just drain away, hours that we could have spent hanging smoke detectors. Okay, so the detectors would probably only take a few minutes to hang, and we don't really have any excuses.
So I'm going to pretend that we're slaves to a dream and leave it at that.
Sunday, January 22, 2006
Big fans
After a few days of rest and hectic work (the kind we're actually getting paid to do), we got back to dealing with fixing up the rat hole this weekend. We went to Target and got a little cabinet/shelf/towel bar thing to put over the toilet in the master bath so we actually have a place to put our toiletries. We had four boxes of bathroom-type stuff. One box was first aid, one box was stuff for the shower, but two boxes were just...stuff. Okay, it was mostly sunscreen and aloe gel. What can I say. I go through a lot of sunscreen in a summer. Anyway, the shelf looks sort of cute, and it holds plenty of stuff.
We also discovered that the master bathroom has an odd smell. And it's very cold in there. We close the door to conserve heat in the master bedroom, and then when we open it up to use it in the morning, it smells funny. Hello, scented candle. That seems to be doing the trick, for now.
The big event of the weekend, however, was getting the fan in the main (hallway) bathroom working. There is an existing fan (probably from the late 50's or early 60's) in the ceiling, and it works fine. The only problem is that there was a chunk of wood sitting on top of it up in the attic crawl space. Even if the wood wasn't there (it was cut to fit to the fan, by the way), the fan would just vent into the attic space. Today we ran ducting from the fan and drilled a hole into the outside attic wall, where we connected it to a louvered vent thingey. It seems to be working, too. We'll see how well it clears out the condensation after the shower tomorrow.
There were also a couple of wasps that we encountered during this procedure. One of the wasps was dead, caught in the vent at some point in time in the past, but the other was alive, flying around sluggishly until I caught it and put it outside. BIG wasp. I'm wondering if there's a nest or something up in the attic. That'd be great for when we have to clean up there this summer. Just great.
On the agenda for this week: installing the smoke and carbon monoxide detectors we purchased last week. ^_^
We also discovered that the master bathroom has an odd smell. And it's very cold in there. We close the door to conserve heat in the master bedroom, and then when we open it up to use it in the morning, it smells funny. Hello, scented candle. That seems to be doing the trick, for now.
The big event of the weekend, however, was getting the fan in the main (hallway) bathroom working. There is an existing fan (probably from the late 50's or early 60's) in the ceiling, and it works fine. The only problem is that there was a chunk of wood sitting on top of it up in the attic crawl space. Even if the wood wasn't there (it was cut to fit to the fan, by the way), the fan would just vent into the attic space. Today we ran ducting from the fan and drilled a hole into the outside attic wall, where we connected it to a louvered vent thingey. It seems to be working, too. We'll see how well it clears out the condensation after the shower tomorrow.
There were also a couple of wasps that we encountered during this procedure. One of the wasps was dead, caught in the vent at some point in time in the past, but the other was alive, flying around sluggishly until I caught it and put it outside. BIG wasp. I'm wondering if there's a nest or something up in the attic. That'd be great for when we have to clean up there this summer. Just great.
On the agenda for this week: installing the smoke and carbon monoxide detectors we purchased last week. ^_^
Wednesday, January 18, 2006
Moved in
We haven't been posting because (1) we've been crazy busy and (2) we don't have internet at home any more. We got temporary dial-up yesterday evening, and hopefully our cable will be installed on Friday. I like the internet.
Anyway, we had a successful move on Saturday. Three friends came over and helped out (bless your hearts!), and the rain stayed away until we were finished. They departed, and we picked up a few more things we needed from Home Depot, got dinner, made an appearance at our dojo, and decided to start redoing the hot water plumbing at about 9pm. That was a mistake, because we didn't get finished until a little after 4am. The pex was wonderful to work with, but there were some leaks where the pex was attaching to the valves for the faucets. Oy. We did find out why there was no hot water pressure, though- the pipes were corroded shut. They're fine now, though! We fixed the leaks on Monday, so the water pressure is fine and the water is clean and hot.
Back to Sunday morning. We went back to our apartment, showered, went back to the rat hole, and got to bed about 4:45am. We got up at 8:30 to take the moving van back to U-Haul. It was a beautiful and sunny morning, so although we hadn't slept much, we decided to run errands, and then we went back to take a nap for a few hours. I went to my back massage appointment while my spouse worked on getting the dryer plug to fit (the old stuff wasn't compatible with our new dryer plug), and he finally just had to drill holes in the old face plate after an unsuccessful trip to the hardware store. That evening we started up the washing machine only to encounter a horrible, horrible clanging noise. It took some doing to get the front panel off the washer, but when we finally did, we realized that the wash drum thingey was actually scraping against a dent in the bottom. The previous owners must have used a hand truck to move the thing and dented it. Several swings of a hammer later and it was fixed. Funny- we'd never used a hammer to FIX something before. Whatever works!
Monday was spent fixnig up the plumbing, as mentioned before, and getting some cleaning done. Okay, all the cleaning done. Twelve hours of cleaning yielded one clean apartment, and then we were out. It was really sad. We both cried, because we'd had some wonderful times in that apartment. It was also where we really started our life together. We'll take the memories with us, though, and it'll be okay. We're still settling in at the rat hole, trying to remember where we put stuff and trying to find new homes for things. It'll work itself out.
Now the real fun can begin. ^_^
Anyway, we had a successful move on Saturday. Three friends came over and helped out (bless your hearts!), and the rain stayed away until we were finished. They departed, and we picked up a few more things we needed from Home Depot, got dinner, made an appearance at our dojo, and decided to start redoing the hot water plumbing at about 9pm. That was a mistake, because we didn't get finished until a little after 4am. The pex was wonderful to work with, but there were some leaks where the pex was attaching to the valves for the faucets. Oy. We did find out why there was no hot water pressure, though- the pipes were corroded shut. They're fine now, though! We fixed the leaks on Monday, so the water pressure is fine and the water is clean and hot.
Back to Sunday morning. We went back to our apartment, showered, went back to the rat hole, and got to bed about 4:45am. We got up at 8:30 to take the moving van back to U-Haul. It was a beautiful and sunny morning, so although we hadn't slept much, we decided to run errands, and then we went back to take a nap for a few hours. I went to my back massage appointment while my spouse worked on getting the dryer plug to fit (the old stuff wasn't compatible with our new dryer plug), and he finally just had to drill holes in the old face plate after an unsuccessful trip to the hardware store. That evening we started up the washing machine only to encounter a horrible, horrible clanging noise. It took some doing to get the front panel off the washer, but when we finally did, we realized that the wash drum thingey was actually scraping against a dent in the bottom. The previous owners must have used a hand truck to move the thing and dented it. Several swings of a hammer later and it was fixed. Funny- we'd never used a hammer to FIX something before. Whatever works!
Monday was spent fixnig up the plumbing, as mentioned before, and getting some cleaning done. Okay, all the cleaning done. Twelve hours of cleaning yielded one clean apartment, and then we were out. It was really sad. We both cried, because we'd had some wonderful times in that apartment. It was also where we really started our life together. We'll take the memories with us, though, and it'll be okay. We're still settling in at the rat hole, trying to remember where we put stuff and trying to find new homes for things. It'll work itself out.
Now the real fun can begin. ^_^
Friday, January 13, 2006
Friday the 13th
I should have known not to schedule installs on a Friday the 13th. I never go in for the hub-bub, but I got screwed today. No cable install. Meaning no internet. The installer got cold feet and didn't want to run the temporary line across the vacant front lot. I got his manager to make it happen, just not today. Maybe next Friday.
Good news is that the phone was installed. I am considering DSL, but its 14 days out. I bought a modem so at least I'll have dial-up. The Verizon tech's name was Jacob and he was great! Very, very capable.
I bought Rehau Pex tubing today to replace the rusting, clogged hot water pipes to and in the bathrooms. I'll probably do that tomorrow and Sunday.
Sunday may be sunny. A good day to finish moving.
Good news is that the phone was installed. I am considering DSL, but its 14 days out. I bought a modem so at least I'll have dial-up. The Verizon tech's name was Jacob and he was great! Very, very capable.
I bought Rehau Pex tubing today to replace the rusting, clogged hot water pipes to and in the bathrooms. I'll probably do that tomorrow and Sunday.
Sunday may be sunny. A good day to finish moving.
Wednesday, January 11, 2006
Hot Water
Water, water, everywhere...
So, the Pacific Northwest has been deluged. It has been raining for days, sometimes very hard. We've been getting several inches a day, sometimes. It hasn't made for good moving weather. That's why everyone tries to avoid moving this time of year. Oh well.
Anyway, the electrician showed up today and redid the panel. It looks so much better with all that old junk out, and having that cabinet ripped out of that room gives us a bit more room, if only in terms of perception. It's no longer such a claustrophobic space, even if we can't necessarily use the walls that have been opened up. Now that the new panel is in, a lot more stuff works around the house, like light switches, baseboard heaters (turns out they all work), and, best of all, the hot water heater. Bless hot water. We'll actually be able to bathe. Well, sort of. The water pressure is only good in the kitchen sink and the master sink. Both the tub and the stall shower have craptacular pressure. The sink in the full bath is the worst of all. We'll have to see what we can do about that.
More importantly, the aforementioned rain has raised the water table. We experienced this firsthand as I dug the trench yesterday. What we learned today was that the crawl space flooded as well. That's bad enough- we don't want damp and mold growing under our house. What's really bad, though, is that the water seems to be contaminated from the leach field from the septic tank. Now there's a decidedly sewer-esque odor throughout the house. It's lovely. I guess the smell wasn't as bad this evening as it was this afternoon, and the water had receded a bit as well. We started the stove and some of the baseboards and are hoping that they'll burn away some of the smell and damp.
In the meantime, we're trying to buy a pump. So is the rest of Seattle, apparently. This summer we definitely have to come up with a drainage plan. We'd like to do it before that, but the ground won't dry out until then.
And more rain is in the forecast for the next several days. As long as the water level doesn't get to the floor joists, and the septic contamination stays at a minimum, we should be okay. We'll find out, won't we?
So, the Pacific Northwest has been deluged. It has been raining for days, sometimes very hard. We've been getting several inches a day, sometimes. It hasn't made for good moving weather. That's why everyone tries to avoid moving this time of year. Oh well.
Anyway, the electrician showed up today and redid the panel. It looks so much better with all that old junk out, and having that cabinet ripped out of that room gives us a bit more room, if only in terms of perception. It's no longer such a claustrophobic space, even if we can't necessarily use the walls that have been opened up. Now that the new panel is in, a lot more stuff works around the house, like light switches, baseboard heaters (turns out they all work), and, best of all, the hot water heater. Bless hot water. We'll actually be able to bathe. Well, sort of. The water pressure is only good in the kitchen sink and the master sink. Both the tub and the stall shower have craptacular pressure. The sink in the full bath is the worst of all. We'll have to see what we can do about that.
More importantly, the aforementioned rain has raised the water table. We experienced this firsthand as I dug the trench yesterday. What we learned today was that the crawl space flooded as well. That's bad enough- we don't want damp and mold growing under our house. What's really bad, though, is that the water seems to be contaminated from the leach field from the septic tank. Now there's a decidedly sewer-esque odor throughout the house. It's lovely. I guess the smell wasn't as bad this evening as it was this afternoon, and the water had receded a bit as well. We started the stove and some of the baseboards and are hoping that they'll burn away some of the smell and damp.
In the meantime, we're trying to buy a pump. So is the rest of Seattle, apparently. This summer we definitely have to come up with a drainage plan. We'd like to do it before that, but the ground won't dry out until then.
And more rain is in the forecast for the next several days. As long as the water level doesn't get to the floor joists, and the septic contamination stays at a minimum, we should be okay. We'll find out, won't we?
Prep for Electrician
The electrician comes this morning to install a new 200 amp service box (breaker panel). He will also be removing all of the old breaker boxes and consolidating the wiring into the new panel. I hope his day goes smoothly. We did a little prep yesterday for his visit. The old man who owned the house before had built a closet enclosure around the fuse box panels (which is a no-no) so we had to remove it so the electrician could work his magic. My brother-in-law and I did all of the demo with a sawzall, hammer, and pry-bar, although he used bare his hands a lot, too.
These are before and after pictures of the "electrical closet".
We also dug a trench. We will be moving the electrical connection from overhead to underground out of necessity because of the new house going up on the front lot. My spouse did most of the digging. Her brother and I removed the deck planks. The trench had to be 3' deep and 3' long. The first 2' were cake, but then we hit a layer of rock and clay and the hole filled up with water. I think the water is just naturally there because it can't soak through the clay. My spouse spent a lot of time bailing water out of the trench with a bucket so she could excavate more. She got really dirty.
Here's a picture of the deck with the boards being removed.
Here are a couple of pics of the trenching process. My spouse put on her rain coat both because it started to rain and because the trench was really muddy. Her boots sprung a leak early on. We all hope the electrician is happy with the trench.
These are before and after pictures of the "electrical closet".
We also dug a trench. We will be moving the electrical connection from overhead to underground out of necessity because of the new house going up on the front lot. My spouse did most of the digging. Her brother and I removed the deck planks. The trench had to be 3' deep and 3' long. The first 2' were cake, but then we hit a layer of rock and clay and the hole filled up with water. I think the water is just naturally there because it can't soak through the clay. My spouse spent a lot of time bailing water out of the trench with a bucket so she could excavate more. She got really dirty.
Here's a picture of the deck with the boards being removed.Here are a couple of pics of the trenching process. My spouse put on her rain coat both because it started to rain and because the trench was really muddy. Her boots sprung a leak early on. We all hope the electrician is happy with the trench.
Tree on front lot
Here's a picture of the big tree on the front lot (that we don't own). The pictures don't do it justice. It's huge! And beautiful! This tree is responsible for most of the debris on our roof, but I don't mind. The trunk splits into four branches about 18'-20' up. I think it's some kind of cedar, but I don't know for sure. I should try to look it up.Now for the sad news. I think that the builders on the front lot are going to cut it down. The new house footprint gets really close to the base of the tree. I checked with the planning office at city hall and they said that an owner can remove up to two trees a year with no questions asked. This makes us sad. While the absence of the tree will allow a lot more light into our lot, the tree is so wonderful.
Here is a picture of my spouse's brother "measuring" the tree. He's 6'-7" to give you a sense of scale. The diameter of tree might be about 6'. Again, the pictures don't do it justice. It's really pretty big!
Here is a shot up into the canopy. The bark has a wonderful reddish hue.
Saturday, January 07, 2006
Quick and easy
The appraiser showed up on Friday. Looked around, took 3 pictures, and said everything looked fine. He's going to write up his report and send it to the loan and escrow offices. Yeah!
My brother-in-law helped me move the first of the boxes and some furniture over on Friday because it wasn't raining.
By the way, I've posted a few new pics to the previous two posts so readers may want to review. The make-shift curtains look pretty good!
More moving this weekend since the rains will be light (actually the sun came out as I am writing this). We're also doing some used appliance shopping, too.
My brother-in-law helped me move the first of the boxes and some furniture over on Friday because it wasn't raining.
By the way, I've posted a few new pics to the previous two posts so readers may want to review. The make-shift curtains look pretty good!
More moving this weekend since the rains will be light (actually the sun came out as I am writing this). We're also doing some used appliance shopping, too.
Wednesday, January 04, 2006
Good news
Today was a day of good news. Firstly, the gutters were installed. I guess it only took them a couple of hours. It probably would have taken us all day, so I consider it money well-spent. Spouse went up on the roof and swept of a metric ton of pine needles as well. I had done my best a couple weeks before, but most of the debris was frozen to the roof, and we've had a couple good wind storms in the meantime. So that was also good.Secondly, the appraiser's coming out on Friday. He shouldn't take long, since he's seen the place before. Hopefully he'll give the okay and the money can come out of escrow. I guess it takes a week or so for the funds to get back to us. In the meantime, we're going to go shopping for appliances. It looks like we can get some nice used stuff for not a whole lot of money, so that's probably what we'll do. Sorry, brother mine, you're going to be moving appliances this weekend.
And finally, we got a renter for our place! A guy came and saw it last week, and I guess he liked it. So we have to be out on the 16th so we can clean the place for a couple of days, and then it will be someone else's home. We're off the hook for our lease, no harm done. We're very, very happy, even though we're very sad to be leaving our place. We've loved our little apartment. It's treated us well, and it was our first home together. We'll miss it very much, but hey, what can you do? Upwards and onwards. It's a new adventure.
Window treatment
Last night we put up the plastic film over the windows that's going to serve as pretend double-pane and hopefully insulate the place better. Unfortunately we only had enough for the windows in the bedrooms, but since they're the draftiest, that's all that matters, anyway. It was easy and went really well. The plastic's very clear, and so I don't think we'll notice that it's there at all until it's time to take it down.
We also had a good time with the fabric we purchased over the weekend. We don't want our main computer to be easily seen through the windows, since you can see into the house from the street. It won't be as much of an issue when the McMansion goes up in front of us, but until then, we're going to play it safe. Anyway, we put up just some regular, semi-opaque white cloth in the living room/dining room, some fancy stuff in the den, and some really great, somewhat sparkly stuff for the second bedroom that looks great with the carpet.
We have to get more fabric tonight, since we still need to cover one nook window, the remaining two windows in the living/dining room, and the windows in the master bedroom. We'll probably get some blinds for the utility room window. So many windows. Oh well- the fabric's cute enough that we could make real curtains out of it someday, if we were so inclined.
Monday, January 02, 2006
Getting ready
Well, it's a new year, and we're almost there. We've packed many boxes already, and by the middle of next week, we should be totally packed and mostly moved into the rat hole. My brother's coming on Thursday- he'll help us pack, move, and do stuff to the house.
Speaking of the house, today we put in a shower curtain rod and shower shelf thingey to hold our soaps and whatnot. Sort of personalizing it, I guess, or at least making it functional. The gutters get put on Wednesday, and the new breaker box get puts in next Wednesday, on the 11th. We get to dig a trench three feet deep and three feet long for that one. Hopefully the appraiser will make it out by the end of the week, and we can get our money out, but as of right now we don't have any idea when or if that'll happen. Oh well.
We also bought some fabric for makeshift curtains, a shovel, and a ladder (the latter two have nothing to do with the curtains). We'll be set for a little while.
Now, if someone would invent a way for everything to be magically, perfectly packed simply by thinking about it, everything would be perfect. I know that we're not the first people to wish for that, nor will we be the last. This packing job is interesting- we don't need to pack everything exceptionally well, since it's going 11 blocks and not across the country, but we have to be very careful about what we put in each box, since there's no telling when the boxes will get unpacked. We'll see how it goes!
Speaking of the house, today we put in a shower curtain rod and shower shelf thingey to hold our soaps and whatnot. Sort of personalizing it, I guess, or at least making it functional. The gutters get put on Wednesday, and the new breaker box get puts in next Wednesday, on the 11th. We get to dig a trench three feet deep and three feet long for that one. Hopefully the appraiser will make it out by the end of the week, and we can get our money out, but as of right now we don't have any idea when or if that'll happen. Oh well.
We also bought some fabric for makeshift curtains, a shovel, and a ladder (the latter two have nothing to do with the curtains). We'll be set for a little while.
Now, if someone would invent a way for everything to be magically, perfectly packed simply by thinking about it, everything would be perfect. I know that we're not the first people to wish for that, nor will we be the last. This packing job is interesting- we don't need to pack everything exceptionally well, since it's going 11 blocks and not across the country, but we have to be very careful about what we put in each box, since there's no telling when the boxes will get unpacked. We'll see how it goes!
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