SOLD!

On April 22nd it was official ... we sold our first house. All that work will now be enjoyed by another couple. We have already started on our new project. More on that soon. For now, let's celebrate the successful closing of a home sale dispite the slowed market.

Merry Christmas

Laundry Room

One of the things that sold us on our house was the large utility room. The house lacked storage overall, but the utility room was the largest room in the house. And the one in need of the most serious facelift.

We converted the once utility room into 3 separate spaces; 2nd bathroom, pantry/storage, and laundry room. While we have been using the bathroom for months, and have the pantry stocked with food, we had not completed the laundry room.

Part of the hold up was the horrible plumbing job by American Plumbing Services. They came highly recommended and had great reviews on Angie's List. No matter ... they messed up our project. Lesson learned: Although a company may have overall good reviews, find out about the individual assigned to your job, and their personal performance history.


C, an Electrician Apprentice NOT Plumbing Apprentice, set off to redo much of the work we paid good money for. The problems stemmed from the fact the water supply was not recessed into the wall, the shut off valves stuck out from the wall 8 inches, the drain pipe was secured only by the fitting at it's base, and the exhaust pipe was 2 inches off the wall. All of this prevented us for being able to push the washer and dryer to the wall. Rather, we had to float them into the room about 10 inches; precious real estate to say the least. Another issue was the mounting of cabinets with the exhaust pipe running the height of the room.


Another problem we had with the plumbers was the drilling of holes in the top of our new utility sink. We had assembled a temporary stand, and in an effort to "help" us they drilled four screws, one in each corner, right through the top surface. The owner of American Plumbing Services promised to reimburse us for new sink. We have yet to see the results of that promise.

C cut into the wall, re-plumbed everything to include placing the water supply and drain in a tidy little laundry hook-up box. He then patched the wall and installed cabinets.

We shopped around for the cabinets and decided upon the self-assembly required Ikea cabinets. With a kitchen remodel in our future, we considered this an experiment to help us determine if we wanted to use a similar product for the kitchen. The assembly was simple enough for one person, and the initial install was also completed solo. The final tweaking did required two sets of hands. One thing we learned about the Ikea product was that while most items are in stock, cabinet doors are custom order. We were able to take the cabinets home on the day of purchase, and the doors were delivered a couple of weeks later. The hinges for the doors are pretty amazing, and we were able to snap the doors into place without take the cabinets off the wall.

My dream laundry room includes a shiny red, front-loading washer and dryer. My budget does not include those items. In order to achieve a colorful element in the room, we painted the wall beneath the cabinets and above the washer/dryer red. While the pictures don't show off the color, I feel like I have my red and didn't blow the budget to get it. Win-win!

Follow Up - New Windows

It has been a month, and we still love the new windows. Although we live on a dead end, we still experienced a fair amount of street noise from the gravel road. That has been greatly dimminished. But, most exciting is the cost savings on our heating bill.

Last week I recieved the gas bill and set out to do a comparison. If you look at the same period in the prior year, we saved $80 with the new windows. When I average the last 3 years bills for the same period, there is an average savings of $50. Of course, there was an investment in the new windows, but it is nice to see a cost savings in addition to the aethstic improvement.

Our windows were custom order insulated glass, installed by Classic Sash and Door.

The windows are in!

Back in August, we ordered windows to replace the last remaining single pane glass in the house. Today they were installed!

The before picture shows the storm windows circa 1970 with their unsightly aluminum frame. The center window was busted and missing when we bought the house. We never dared remove the others for fear of breaking them too. We may not have liked the look, but it was better than the draft created without them.

The after picture shows the new double pane, insulated/gas filled glass. To keep as much of the original look as possible, each window was custom made to fit the opening (12 in whole, the window wraps around to the left with 3 more panes). The installers cute small strips of wood which the primed and set into the frame to hold the glass in place. You can still see some spots of former paint, but with a fresh coat on the trim these babies are going to look awesome!

In other news, we have made good progress on the laundry room. We made a trip to Ikea last night to buy the wall cabinets. We only needed 3, thought it would be a piece of cake. Well, we were wrong! Turns out most of their doors are customer ordered. We came home with the cabinets but won't have the doors for about 3-4 weeks.

C did assemble and install the cabinets today, and was happy with the process. We have long considered using Ikea cabinets when we get around to doing out kitchen. This was a test run of sorts, to see if assembling the cabinets was worth the cost savings. So far so good. Check with me again when I've been eating out of a microwave for months and I may have something different to say.

Tying up loose projects... Take II

Back in January, I wrote an entry about all the loose ends we needed to tie up around the house. The projects that were 90% complete, but that last 10% seemed so out of reach. Well folks, it may have taken me a couple of years, but I FINALLY got the office ceiling painted. You may recall, we (read: C) moved the closet back in Nov. '06.

This weekend also saw touch-up paint in the new bathroom, re-hanging of curtains I took down to wash a year ago, hanging of new curtains purchased a year and a half ago, adjustments to surround sound installation, installing of the register covers in the new bath/utility rooms, and prep for the hanging of cabinets in the utility room.

Remaining untouched is the trim from the floor install. We have a call in to someone more talented than us to hire out the job. That doesn't seem to be moving too fast though. (Leave it to me to wait 2 years to work on something, then not want to wait a week for a quote). Anyone know a finish carpenter or flooring guy/gal who is both available and good??

We've taken a little break from working on the house, which has been amazing! We've been rediscovering how we spent our time prior to being home owners. So, since my last post ...

C turned 35. We celebrated with a round of golf at Edgefield, followed by a BBQ back at the house. It was a great time, which finally wrapped around the fire pit in the wee hours of the morning.


We traveled to Las Vegas to see our friends Katie & Eric get hitched. While I've been to Vegas many a time, this was my first time staying in a hotel. We were at the lovely Mandalay Bay, and were upgraded to a 60th floor suite upon check-in. While C will tell you this was because "they know class when they see it" I will tell you the truth, which is that they gave our room to someone else. Oh well! Worked fine for me!
















Once we arrived home from Vegas, we met up with my Aunt Ann & Cousin Melissa who flew in from the East Coast for a week in Portland. We set off for a few days at Cannon Beach, where we really, truly wore Rocko out for the first time ever. It only took one run on the beach, followed by two walks, followed by a hike, and the little guy was done.














Back in Portland, we had a birthday party for my Aunt at Plainfield's Mayur. Our friend David B. joined us. We originally met David through my mom, and they did a cross-country bike trip together back in 1982. It was great to have him join us, and to re-introduce him to Plainfield's. It was a perfect night: the weather, the food, the company.




















Melissa headed back to NYC, while Ann stayed for a few more days. We got to be tourist in our own town, taking time to go to a different coffe shop each day. Dine in a favorite resturant each night. Visit Cupcake Jones, and First Thursday, wonder Powell's and leave with a pile of books.

We wrapped all this adventure up with a few days at home, enjoying the yard, and not touching a thing. It was so great that we did it again last weekend. Actually, last weekend was so hot we spent the day trying not to melt.

All of this brings me to the point, that there is very little new to report on the house. BUT, we are moving forward with the window replacement. The contractor was back today to give us another option, which we are happier with that the one first proposed. Now it is just a matter of getting the windows made, delivered, and installed. Can't wait to have new pictures for you!