Shelves

We really need to get the shed built. We also really need to button up the breakfast nook so we can let the baby go hog wild when eating. In order to facilitate the nook work, we got some wire shelving at IKEA so that we can unclutter the area. We need to throw up some drywall to cover the insulation. Once that's done, we'll feel better using the room. The baby was a big help during the assembly process. He's going to be a real asset as he gets older.

What's that scratching noise inside the walls?

My spouse thought she heard a rat in the attic space last week. Well, it's happened twice before so I went up to investigate. I didn't find anything. I did however spray some polyurethane foam in any cracks and holes that I thought a rat could get through from the walls below. Then I went under the house to do the same. Again, I didn't find any rat sign. I did see some fresh opossum poop. I brought a garbage bag with me to collect the remains of the cat and small dog skeletons this time. I've been meaning to do this since we bought the house. Since I had the bag, I threw the poop in too.

Back to the main task. Plugging holes. There's a big hole where the drain for the bathtub comes through the floor. My spouse and I have suspected that opossum have crawled up through this hole in the past and hung out in the space between the tub and the wall. Since the hole is too big to just spray polyurethane foam into, I stapled Tyvek over the hole. With the job done, the family settled in for a night of rest.

Didn't get any. At about 11PM we heard a bunch of movement. I knew immediately what was happening. I'd inadvertently trapped an opossum in the wall! Crap! The poor animal moved around ever twenty minutes or so. After about 2 hours it started trying to scratch its way out through the drywall (that's what it sounded like at least). I was seriously afraid of having to deal with a rogue opossum in the house.

So at 2AM I put on my "under-the-house" clothes from the previous afternoon and all the necessary gear and went under the house to free the damned rodent. I also took some grapes to lead it to freedom. While I was under the house I did not see or even hear the opossum. Thank god. I left the crawlspace hatch open as I left.

The next morning I noticed that a vent screen was pushed aside. This was the escape route that the opossum used ( I guess it didn't trust the freedom trail of grapes). I suspected that the opossum had vacated the area, but I still rented a live trap and set it just in case.

It's been a couple of days now and I haven't caught anything in the trap. I went under the house tonight and resealed the hole under the tub. I really don't want to have to go under the house again to free the damned opossum. If it's still in the wall I'm likely to just cut a hole in the wall, reach through and grab it. I'm not sure what I'll do once I grab it though. Maybe I'll devour it since I'll be so drunk with sleep-deprived rage.

UPDATE: No scratching noises last night. No opossum. No late night snack for me.

Blueberries for Baby (and us)

We've been wanting to plant blueberries since we bought the rat-hole. And now that we have a baby, we're more motivated. We bought six bushes a month ago (they were on sale), and they've been sitting in the yard every since then. The weather was really nice last week so we took the opportunity to get them in the ground. The location isn't our first choice and the spacing is a little tight. We'll transplant them to their final location next year (or the year after that).

Here's a photo of where the blueberries are planted.
We've learned a lot about blueberries during this process. One thing we learned is that there are A LOT of varieties. How to choose?

There are highbush and half-high varieties. Highbush can grow over six feet high and wide. The half-high ones are more in the range of one to four feet high and some of those spread out. Most of the bigger and better tasting blueberries seem to be of the highbush varieties so that were we focused. Plus, we want lots of blueberries!

Another thing we learned was that there are three bloom seasons for blueberries: early, mid, and late. It's best to have at least two varieties where bloom times overlap. For example, one early to mid and one mid to late. We got two of each season: two earlies, two mids, and two lates. This way we will hopefully have blueberries all summer long!

Blueberries like lots of sun and lots of water, especially during the fruiting season. They also really like peat moss for compost.

Here are some photos of our new blueberry bushes and some descriptions.

Bluejay
Early-mid
Mild fruit


Spartan
Early
Large flavorful fruit


Hardiblue
Mid
Heavy bearing


Chandler
Mid
World's largest blueberries


Elliot
Late
Large and tangy berries


Sunshine Blue
Mid to late
Tangy sweet berries

We're looking forward to seeing how they produce next summer!

Digging Deep

We bought a 22 foot trailer for my spouse's mother to live in while she's here in Washington dealing with some medical issues. The trailer seemed to be a better buy than two months or more in a motel. We don't really have room in the house because of the work we're doing on it. (We've missed a few posts, but we're working on pulling out mildewy carpet, regrouting the bathroom, and a few other things.)

Here's a photo of the trailer in its new home.

A "Y" was installed for future use when the sewer was installed. Well, I guess this is future use. The digging was pretty easy since the location had just been back filled a month ago.

I had to dig a hole next to the main hole so I could stand in the hole while digging the other hole. I had to dig five feet down.

I used the trusty reciprocating saw to cut off the cap. Here's a shot of the elbow I installed.

Then I installed a five foot length of pipe up to the surface and did the hook up.

Now to fill the hole. (Wait, I just dug that hole yesterday!)

Here's the final set up. I laid a board down so that the hose from the trailer sloped nicely to the sewer pipe. No clogging of this system! *fingers crossed*

More Rock Raking

The baby likes to play outside in his sandbox. Sometimes he doesn't care if we're right next to him or not so sometimes we sneak off and rake rocks. It's amazing how much better the area looks without the big rocks.

We've also starting thinking about doing the additions and have started getting quotes for the foundation work. The foundations should be significantly less expensive than the sewer. We'll probably have to rake rocks after the foundations are excavated, too.

Rock Farming

We've been raking the rocks out of the soil that the sewer contractors graded their work area with. There are a lot of rocks! We're mostly trying to get rid of the ones that are the size of a quarter or bigger. Especially the rocks in the lawn area. The work is going well enough. We try do do it whenever time permits. The only thing we're up against is the weeds and grass that are starting to grow back. Getting the rocks out of the way before the plants come back would definitely be nice.

Sewer Connection

We're connected to the sewer! The work took place at the end of August but we're just now getting around to posting about it.

The weekend before the sewer connection required us to do a little preparation work. We had to reroute the kitchen sink into the washer drain line. This required being under the house which we all know is wonderful. We also had to cut out a section of the deck to expose the old washer drain pipe and to dig part of the trench.

The last thing that we had to do was limb up the cedars so that the construction equipment had room to maneuver.

We've posted the photos to a Picasa album.

2010-08 Sewer Connection

Everything works and we've paid the contractor and the city. This was not a cheap project. If we had been more savvy, we'd have had the side sewer connection run under the front lot when the front house was being build. It probably would have cost less. But it would have meant dealing with the horrible developer.

The contractor (Bolles Construction) was fabulous. They were very professional and left the site in very good condition. They even dumped the left over crushed gravel at the end of the driveway thus filling in the muddy holes that have been there since we bought our house. We are very appreciative!

Hearth

We've finally gotten around to the hearth. There are a couple of stone shops that are close to us and one of them has remnants. We've been by a couple of times but never saw a piece of stone we loved (we've been hoping to fine a piece of soapstone).

Well, we dropped by again and they had a remnant that was the perfect size in Dark Julia (some variety of soapstone). The shop next door that sells entire slabs had a sample so we were able to borrow it and bring it home to see how it looked. It looked good in front of the fireplace (with with and without the baby on it).

We emailed the shop drawings of what we wanted and also gave them a deposit. The hearth was ready a week later. It barely fit in the back of the Subaru. The shop had recommended that it travel on end (like glass) so as to reduce the chance of fracture. It weighed about 100 pounds.

Soapstone needs to be oiled with mineral oil (a lot) for it to get dark. Here's a look at the first coat. We'll be putting on many more coats (even after it's installed).

We prepped the area and placed the hearth. We used silicone as the adhesive on advice from the stone shop. We'd cut a bunch of shims to support the hearth, but it didn't lay flat (the floor's not really flat enough). We ended up only using a few.

We love the look of the hearth. So does the baby. He'll love the cool stone on those hot summer days next year.

Sandbox (No Cats Allowed)

We think the little boy might enjoy some time in a sandbox so we built one for him. After doing a little research we found that Dunn Lumber was having a sale on cedar 5 1/4 x 4's (true dimensions are 1" x 3 1/2").

Here are a couple of sketch concepts of what the sand box might look like.

We used screws to assemble the sandbox and nailed some weed barrier fabric on the bottom.

After clearing a space, we placed the sandbox and leveled it.

Now for the hard part (450 pounds of play sand). We wheeled the sand from the truck to the box location and filled up the box. Nine bags in total.

The last thing to do was to put a lid on it so the neighborhood cats don't find it. Luckily, we had a remnant of plywood that was 48"x48" (the perfect size).

Sewer Work Starts Tomorrow!

This last weekend was dedicated to getting ready for the sewer contractor. We rerouted the kitchen drain, dug a trench to expose the washer drain line, and limbed up the cedars.

The side sewer stub will be installed tomorrow. The pipe from the stub to our house will be installed on Wednesday. We are SO excited! We have to admit that having work done by a contractor is a really nice luxury.

Leaf Blower

My father will disown me when he reads this post. I am now an owner of a leaf blower. He hates leaf blowers because of the noise they make. I bought mine used and it's electric. It's not as loud as the gas powered models, but it's still pretty loud.

The reason I bought it was because our roof had a leak. The roof company employee said it was because of pine needle build up on the shallow slope of the roof. He recommended that I use a leaf blower to clean off the roof once or twice a year. He also recommended that I use moss killer on the roof to keep moss from growing.

It takes longer than using a broom, but you can tell that it's not so hard on the shingles. It's good practice to keep one's roof free of debris as it helps keep the down spouts unclogged.

Later that week the roof company owner had the employee come back out a make some adjustments where the leak occurred. He didn't think the leak was solely due to pine needle build up. Okay by me.

Berries!

It's berry season at the rat hole. The raspberries in the southwest corner of the yard are producing lots of berries and there are, of course, lots of strawberries along the driveway.

Here are some photos of the raspberries.

And here's a photo of the harvest.

The raspberries will get frozen because we just can't eat that many! The strawberries in this photo are the second quart of strawberries this season. Plus, another quart or two have gone bad just waiting to be picked! We just don't have time with the baby and all. Oh, well.

We're thinking of making jam.

Laundry/Linen Closet

We've completed a little more of the Rat-Hole. The laundry/linen closet is essentially done. Well... the inside at least. We'll put the doors on a little later.

To finish the closet off, we had to move the washer/dryer stack to the right side of the closet. This move allows for better use of space and for easier opening of the washer and dryer doors. To accomplish the move we had to move the 220V dryer outlet from one side of the closet to the other. We also had to move the light switch from inside the closet to the outside (otherwise it wouldn't be accessible). Since we were playing with the electrical, we also added a 110V outlet below the light switch (outside the closet).

A new dryer vent had to be installed as well. By now you're thinking to yourself, "Guys, measure twice, cut once." Yes, that's all well and good, but you live and you learn. We'd originally looked at the closet and decided one thing and now we've realized that we want things to be different. Fortunately, we don't have to pay the contractor to come back.

Here's a photo of me mothballing the old vent. We considered removing the vent and patching the hole, but now we have a house with TWO dryer vents. Now THAT'S a feature.

Here's a full view photo of the washer/dryer stack moved over.

And here are some photos of the completed closet.

We got the shelving at IKEA. We're going to store all of our sheets, towels, and extra blankets on it. We could have built it ourselves, but it would have cost just as much (if not more) plus the hassle of time/labor. The unit was so big that we almost couldn't fit it into the closet. The 3D model had indicated that it would be tight, but it all worked out.

Appraisal

We're in the process of refinancing the mortgage. We'd originally gotten an ARM so that we had as much money as possible to put into the house as possible (the house really needed it as our readers already know). We've put additional money into paying the principal as well, but the flexibility has been really nice. Well, the ARM resets in November and while it wouldn't affect our payments in the short term (in fact, they'd probably go down), the interest rate would likely go up and that would hurt us in the end.

Part of the refi process means getting a new appraisal. The appraiser came on Monday. We were kind of nervous. They did a walk-through of the house, took some pictures and were generally quite nice. We were a little embarrassed since we hadn't really had time to clean up.

We'd gotten a King county property tax assessment recently that had valued our house at about $25K below what we'd paid. We weren't too surprised since the real estate market sucks for everyone. Well, we got our copy of the new appraisal today and it came in about $35K over what we paid. Yay! This is great for our egos and hopefully our pocketbook. The higher appraisal means that we qualify for a lower interest rate. We're really happy! Now we just have to get all the other I's dotted and T's crossed.

Improvements for Baby

Now that the baby is crawling and getting into stuff, we've had to make a few improvements to our living situation. First things first... a baby gate to keep the baby away from the mess and tools in the entryway.

I also had to notch the door catch in the jam so the door would actually latch (it never has).

The next thing to do was put down some adhesive times where the baby crawls and plays. The kitchen has some disgusting areas. The two main problem areas are the floor in the doorway and the floor under the microwave.