Category Archives: House

It’s a war zone

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It starts.  We broke ground on the garage.  They dug a nice trench and set up an area for drainage.  Found some big landscaping boulders down there too (not like we don’t have about 4,216 boulders already, but I’ll take a few more).

It’s going to be a while before we even think about landscaping.  But when we do, I like to have a bunch of rocks to work with.  I remember in Denver we paid like $900 for a landscaping boulder.  Out here, I got more than I know what to do with.

The excavation went really well, and quick.  Didn’t encounter anything they couldn’t dig up with the backhoe.  Next comes the forms for the concrete.  Once the forms are constructed, the concrete is poured.  Once that’s dry, the framing is put up.  And the roof.  And the sheathing.  Electrical.  Roof.  Before you know it we’ll have a garage.

With a garage comes my tools, and a shop.  And inside the house we’ll have the floors installed and we’ll get some furniture here.  We’ll have furniture, shop, real floors, a garage.  It’ll start to feel a little less like camping.

Tile installed

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Got the last piece of tile set tonight.  I think it looks completely awesome.  Very happy with it.  And the pieces haven’t popped off the walls just yet so it’s possible they might stay on a while.

The install went as well as it could have.  Most older homes don’t really have any 90 degree corners, and when you put down square tiles the gaps and uneven surfaces just become more noticeable.  The floor here cups a bit and the walls aren’t exactly straight but with enough shims and mortar I got it to work out.

Still need to do the grout, but that’s the easy part.

The tile layout went through a few iterations from the initial plan.  The idea was to create a hearth for the wood burning stove (which goes right in the corner) and a place to take your boots off after coming in the back doors.  The one thing we had to consider was furniture placement, as it’s going to limit our options of where to put things when we have some tiled areas and some hardwood floor.

Speaking of hardwood floor, it’s in and it’s on the mainland and it’s just waiting for me to run out there and pick it up.  Maybe this week I’ll get a chance to do that.

As usual, throughout this project, cats were no help.

 

This is really the before picture

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Found this old pic of the house, long before we ever saw it.  That orange thing on the porch might be a pumpkin, but the pic is dated December 1992 so your guess is as good as mine.  I’m glad someone had the sense to take out those junipers out front.  Saved me the trouble.

 

Busy Weekend

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We were awoken at 8 am Saturday to a sharp tapping, as if some madman un-gently rapping, rapping at our front door.  ‘Tis some madman, we believed, and nothing more.

Thinking perhaps it was the sheriff, or some neighbor’s morning mischief, rapping at our dilapidated front door.  ‘Twas some neighbor and nothing more.

But our locale is so rural that we though it was inconceivable that a person would rap so for no reason at all.  Whoever came out here to knock on our front door, came with a purpose.

So we answered with bathrobes flowing and discovered it was no madman but instead a deliveryman who possessed our prized clothes dryer, the undamaged version to replace the damaged one that was delivered to us not six weeks ago.

Joy of joys, we unexpectedly received our undamaged dryer which now sits side by side with its matching washer.  Laundry ahoy!  The photograph beautifully captures the golden hue of the linoleum tile upon which it rests.  And if you look really close, you can see me in the reflection of the knob taking a picture of it all.

Beside that, it was a weekend of setting cement backerboard and measuring tile and stepping on carpenter ants.  Fun stuff.  We did get the tile set by the front door, at least.

The View

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We didn’t move here because of this lovely claptrap house that sits on the hill.  We didn’t buy this place because we want to spend the next two years skinning our knuckles while repairing the splintery deck.  Nor do we particularly enjoy stepping on carpenter ants in the bathroom.  Or the crappy wood paneling that covers every surface like wallpaper.

No.  We moved here to look out our window and see the ocean.  To go outside and smell it in the wind.  To not have to get up at the crack of butt cheese just so we can miss heavy traffic on the way to work in the morning.  There are no traffic lights on Orcas Island, because there really is no traffic.  Once I went to the grocery store and there were two cars in front of me and one behind.  That’s about as heavy as it gets.

This is what we see when we look out the window.  The water has distinct textures and color that doesn’t always come out in a photograph.  Sometimes it’s glassy, sometimes it’s choppy, sometimes you can follow the currents and waves as they roll across.  Sunrises are pure gold.  Sunsets are a tapestry of gemstones.  Every night, you can hear the waves crash on the shore.

 

Tile has arrived!

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The long wait is over and we have our tile, just in time for a nice weekend project.  129 square feet of fired porcelain squares, in 24 x 24s and 12 x 12s, just waiting to jump out of the box and get set into our floor.

Tile is going by the front entryway and by the wood stove. I like the color – in the pics it looks like the same thing as the subfloor but it’s really a lot nicer than that.  This shouldn’t take more than a weekend to knock out so hopefully I’ll have it done by September.  Never can tell around here, being on island time.

 

Island Time

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When we were looking at houses here on the island, our realtor kept asking us “so, does this house say Island Living to you?”  Predominantly, the answer was no.  Whether it was the Deliverance House or the Pot House or the  Fire House, we really didn’t see a lot of houses that really even hinted at island living to us.  Until we saw this money pit house, with the beautiful view and the little cottage feeling to it.  It took us a few days to think about it, and we very nearly passed it up. As a house, it does not meet our needs.  But the location is something we just couldn’t beat.

We wrote an offer on the house about four days after we saw it.  From that point on, we were on Island Time.  Now realize, we’re both big city slickers who work in the commercial real estate industry where everything is a tight deadline and every comma has to be in place.  Well, that’s not the case here.  On Orcas, people are on their own time.  They may call you back right away, and they may not.  If they need to get a document to you by a certain time, maybe they will and maybe they won’t.  Waiting for the inspection report or the appraisal?  Ha!  A watched email server never dings, especially not on ISLAND TIME ha ha ha.

At first it frustrated us, but now, it’s just the way it is.  Contractors that should have finished a job weeks ago are just now finishing up.  The washer and dryer set I ordered in April (yes, April) is still not wholly resolved.  I should have had the floors done in June, but the place we bought the flooring from doesn’t even have it in stock yet.  And once they have it, we have to haul our wheels to the mainland to go pick it up.  Let me assure you, a trip to the mainland is about as pleasant as being beaten, buried alive and left for dead in Hoboken.

It’s called Island Time.  Things happen when they happen.  This house is getting renovated about 1/3 as fast as I’d like it to, but that’s Island Time for you.

This weekend I made a trip to the mainland.  I spent about an hour and a half (and a small stack of Benjamins) at Home Depot like a kid in a candy shop.  Went to our storage unit and excavated some more of our stuff, including outdoor furniture so we can now sit outside for the remaining five weeks it may actually be warm enough to do so.  But now, I have some materials to work with, excluding flooring.  Now I can install an electrical outlet outside the house, that’ll come in handy.  And repair some subfloor and set down cement backerboard in preparation of the tile that’s sure to come in soon.  Get to repairing that wood burning stove we have, gathering dust (and bats) in the corner of our living room.

But not all at once.  Sorry, I’m on Island Time now.  And now that I’m here, I’m not going to kill myself fixing this place up.  We moved up here so we can enjoy life a little more.  So it’ll happen when it happens.

The Before and After Pics I’ve been Dying to Post

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What a sad lamp.  We can’t tell if that’s graffiti on the side or just what got scribbled on it at the last yard sale. At this stage of its life it’s more dust, cigarette residue and grease than it is lamp.  Brittle electrical cords dangle off the side.  Dead bugs carpet the interior.  The feeble light inside flickers on when asked, most of the time.

I thought about painting each of those little divots a different color, just to spruce it up a bit.  Maybe even paint it fire engine red or something.  Put spikes on the chain for that gothic look.  But I don’t know.  The thing dates back to the Nixon administration, when the wonders of electricity were probably new to this part of the island.

Well, the new lamp came in today.  It’s … adequate.  I mean, it’s nice.  I love the color.  Any color.  Please get some color in this house!  Lamps on chains aren’t my thing, but it gets the job done without me having to move the ceiling receptacle, so I’ll take it.  I’ve been looking forward to replacing that old crappy light fixture for weeks now.  And the new one’s neat looking, sort of.

The old one is being donated to The Exchange next time I go down there.  Either that or use it for Hammer Throw practice.  Pretty sure I could get it into the ocean if I throw it off my front deck.  If there’s enough interest I’ll start the annual Old Chain Lamp Hammer Throw Competition.  Judge for distance and accuracy.

Well, hopefully you can tell which one is the ‘before’ pic and which one is the ‘after’ pic.

Avast, ye mateys.

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I never really cared to have a flagpole on my front porch, but at least I know what to do with it when I have one.  Arr!

Prediction:  This flag will encourage Jamie to buy me a new Sawzall reciprocating saw sooner rather than later.