September Already?

Our Prineville remodel is at a standstill right now because Danny Dark, the contractor we were planning to hire, told us he might have to decline the job because his crew supervisor may be leaving. We're waiting for an update from him before anything moves forward. I will probably wait for another week or two and then hire someone else if I don't hear back from him.

I have received some tile and Marmoleum samples but we still haven't finalized any colors so I don't know which we'll be using. I'll post photos once we figure out more details.

We have plenty of projects on our Portland house to work on, but Jeff has been so busy with election volunteering that we haven't worked on any of them. I predict little will happen in Portland until December. So, I've focused on downsizing projects I can do myself.

I finished shredding several boxes of old financial records, then Jeff dropped off the final two boxes and we paid to have them shredded. I've also been working on scanning old family photos. I had five boxes total of photos to scan, and I think I've mostly finished four of them. The last one is really difficult because it is tons of miscellaneous small photos in no particular order and all different sizes. It's really time-consuming when everything is a different size.

We've been trying to organize belongings to start moving over to Prineville when we visit. Having overlap between the houses is a bit problematic because we don't want to move our furniture to the new house until after we've sold the big house in Portland. We really need the nice furniture for staging. But we do need at least some furniture in Prineville so we can stay there for visits during the remodel.

So, I am currently cruising around on craigslist trying to find some good chairs to keep permanently and perhaps a cheap dining room set and some bedroom furniture we can use temporarily and resell once we move over. I 💜craigslist. I've never found better deals on good furniture any other way.

This morning we found a couple of Stressless Recliners that don't feel used at all for about a third the price of new ones. Now that I've sat in them and realized how comfortable they are, I don't want to move them over yet. LOL

More Kitchen Planning

I have been scanning like a woman obsessed. I actually scanned photos for more than eight hours both today and yesterday. It's been fun to post some of the best family photos on facebook for family members to share the memories. But after about 8 hours, my back has had enough and I go crash in my comfy recliner in front of the TV and goof off with my remodel plan.

I thought I had a contractor lined up to start the work this winter, but he just wrote me that his head guy might be leaving and then he wouldn't be able to take the job. So, I have spent several hours shopping around for another contractor so we'll be prepared no matter his answer.

I've also been poking around to see if we can find the wonderful green soapstone again. I do love it. But just in case we can't, I made plans for both contingencies. Then, once we find a contractor, we'll be super prepared to get started.

Here is the tentative plan if we have to use the black soapstone:

Yeah, I clearly have way too much time. But this was fun to work on in front of the TV. Obviously the counter is all wonky and nothing is particularly to scale. I was just trying to see how the colors looked together.

Keeping Busy

I've now finished sifting all the old file boxes. I still have a bunch of shredding left to do, but I now have a stack of 14 empty plastic file tubs. Woo hoo! I figure I'll shred stuff until my shredder dies, and then I'll bring the rest into a commercial shredder and pay to have the project finished.

I've already spent three days scanning old photographs. I had about five tubs of old family photos I wanted to digitize. I've mostly finished scanning the photos in two of them. I'm also planning to disassemble the majority of my old photo albums and scan those photos too then discard the albums. It's not like we ever look at them. Most of them never even got unpacked in our current house. I'll probably keep our wedding album, but most of the rest of them will be discarded. I have to admit, I'm rather enjoying this project. It's fun to remember so many old memories.

Our first pet as a married couple: a rabbit named Chacko.

Jeff cuddled up with our beloved dog named Lady. She was our
first border collie mix and she was adored by everyone who met her.

I've also started listing stuff for sale. It feels like I've been selling books for forever and we've probably downsized our book collection by more than 50%, but now I'm also looking around and doing the easy stuff. I realized I could list most of my cross stitch pattern books on Amazon, so I worked on that over the weekend. I had 57 cross stitch patterns; 25 of them were designed by Teresa Wentzler. Even if I spent the rest of my life doing cross stitch, I doubt I would have finished all those projects, so I've decided to keep three or four of them and get rid of the rest.

I wish I'd been more motivated to work on the Teresa Wentzler designs during my life because they really are beautiful projects, but they're just so damn time-consuming.  My current cross stitch project I started way back in the 90s and I pull it out occasionally and work on it almost full-time for a week or two until I get distracted and it's still only maybe halfway done. It looks like the last time I blogged about working on it was in July 2016. Here it is in its current state. I think I'll take it to Prineville for our next visit because we haven't yet turned on the internet so there's actually a slim chance I'll work on it there.

"The Storyteller" by Teresa Wentzler. Work in progress.

Our apple tree in the front yard is covered in apples. They've started falling on the ground and we really need to start using them. It would be a shame for them to go to waste because they really are quite good. So we're also trying to squeeze in time this week to make apple butter. It sounds like it's faster to make it in the Instant Pot, so we're going to try that.

I've been really impressed with how many apples this small Liberty apple tree has made.
If we can, we're going to buy the same variety for the new house.

Kitchen Dreaming

The kitchen is my highest priority in the Prineville house because it must be done before we move in. I am debating whether to stick with the current cabinetry and just replace the counter and appliances, whether to reface the cabinets and add a couple more, or whether to replace it all.

Jeff loves his Blue Star Range in Portland, so we want to buy another for the new house which means we'd no longer need the wall oven and we would have to rearrange the base cabinets. Also, the current vent over the stove doesn't vent outside of the house; that will have to be changed.

I'm thinking about refacing the current cabinets or replacing with ready-to-assemble (RTA) cabinets, depending on the cost. I love cherry, but I'll also consider other woods without a dark grain, i.e. maple, fir, etc. I don't know why, but I've just never really been a fan of the heavy grain in oak. I've had plenty of oak wood furnishings in my life, but given a choice, I'll take cherry any day.

While I'm binging on Netflix I've been cruising around window shopping for some possible materials to use for the kitchen. Here are some of my current top choices. (I mostly make these posts so I can record the information.)

Backsplash: Philadelphia Scabos Travertine 1x2 Basketweave Honed with Black Dot Mosaic Tile
Cabinetry: Shaker-style Cabinetry Shown in cherry, but I may get maple or birch or fir, depending on cost.
Counter: Blackish Soapstone (I assume I can't find the amazing green soapstone again, so I'll simply make the black soapstone work)
Flooring: Bottom: Four color choices of Mannington ColorFields Smooth surface rubber flooring: L to R: Battleship, Oak, Mesa or Scroll (I'll use whichever matches the backsplash best.)

Backsplash: Georgia 3" x 6" Travertine Subway Tile in Mediterranean Ivory
Border: Crema Marfil Border 3 1/8"x 12"
Floor: Mannington ColorFields Smooth surface rubber flooring: Trumpet (or whichever matches best)

Appliances: Stainless steel, or a matched color.
Range: BlueStar 30" RNB-series Range
Dishwasher: I still love my Miele dishwasher so I'm planning to get another.
Refrigerator: Another 36" built-in. We have Sub Zero now, but we may try a BlueStar in case we want to get a color and we'll be able to have it match. :)
Hood: I could get a matching BlueStar Hood

Huge Record Purge

After finishing three file boxes of SCA records, I undertook to also sift through all our personal records. We had tons of them in the basement storage. I didn't take a specific picture of them before I started sifting, but I did find this one. You can see all the black and blue file boxes plus a few banker's boxes.

I've spent all week sifting and discarding nearly all the records from before 2010. It was appalling how many records we had from the 1990s. I cannot believe how many times we moved all this paper.

Anyway, I spent at least 20 hours this week and I've finally finished this project.

Sorted and Labelled and Ready to Move

Empties!!

Prineville Escrow Closed

We drove to Prineville on Monday to sign the papers and get the keys.

The house is pretty small, actually. Only about 1600 square feet. It has two and a half bedrooms (one is really tiny) and two bathrooms.

Entry looking into Living Room

Other side of Living Room. I think this used to be a bedroom but they removed the wall and
merged it into the living room to make it an L-shape.

Craigslist Purging

In addition to shredding records, I am trying to get started on purging furniture that will not be moving to the new house, especially the stuff that is not in current use. In case any of my Portland followers are interested, I'll show some photos here.

 Antique push button recliner. The fabric is worn out on this one. I'd be pretty happy with $150 for this one.

Antique oak chairs. I picked these up at a garage sale several years ago and we never really used them. They've been sitting in our basement for ages. Somebody cut the legs off, so the seat is only 16.5" off the floor. I'm only asking $10 each to get them gone.

Long term, we're also looking to sell the living room furniture, pictured here.

And the parlor furniture.

And the guest bedroom furniture. 

Ideally, I'd like to use the furniture to stage the house for sale but I'm not sure we'll have enough time to sell it all at the last minute.