Storage Emptied

We made it! We actually finished clearing out storage last Sunday, but I've been too distracted to post photos.

As an aside, I thought it was interesting all three walls of this locker were patched. I wonder if someone who rented this space before us broke into all three of the adjoining lockers. It never occurred to me to be worried about folks breaking in this way. Consider yourself warned.

We still haven't figured out where to store the extra black wire racks that no longer fit. But we did finally decide to let the white cubes go. I'm trying to overcome my tendency to hang onto things just in case we might need them later.

We've started setting up the workout area.

We are currently searching for a used recumbent bike for me. I don't really want to buy new, but if I haven't found something by Black Friday, then I'll probably break down and buy new.

Jeff already chose the set up he wants (the Inspire FTX) but we'll probably wait until Black Friday to buy it as well. That will give us a good deadline to get everything cleared out and have the spot ready for it.

Storage Almost Empty

We've been steadily chipping away at our storage unit, visiting every weekend to bring home a load. It looks like just one more trip and we’ll be completely moved out—right on track for our end-of-June goal!

Letting go of things we probably won't need again is still a challenge for me. It's tough parting with items that 'might' come in handy someday, but I'm working on it.

Back at home, we've set up all the racks, including one for our canning supplies. Back when we lived in a rural area, canning was a big part of our routine thanks to the abundance of free or inexpensive produce. However, since moving to Portland, those opportunities have become scarce. It just doesn't make sense to spend a lot on fruit for a few jars of jam, so I’ve been downsizing our jar collection. Just this past week, I managed to clear out three large boxes!

Our next puzzle to solve is finding a new home for several boxes of fairly valuable books. Since the county library system stopped accepting donations at the beginning of the pandemic and hasn’t resumed, and I’m reluctant to simply drop them off at Goodwill, I’m considering selling them. It does mean more work, but I'm thinking of starting with a few of the most valuable ones to see how it goes. Who knows? It might turn out to be a worthwhile endeavor!

Small Victories

It's probably been at least six months since this table was last cleared. I'm finally getting my act together and cleaning again.

Back in February, I ordered four side chairs that match these arm chairs. Joinery already sent me photos of the wood pieces a couple weeks ago, so I'm hoping any day now.

We finished assembling three more racks. Three more to go.

Moving Out of Storage

Despite my best intentions to get out before we got the inevitable rent increase, we procrastinated. Oh well, we'll pay one month of the higher rent.

I had planned to rent a trailer and move the racks whole and possibly rent some help to move them back into the basement, but we finally decided to just take them apart and throw them in the back of our Ford F-150. It was possibly more time consuming, but much cheaper that way.

This past weekend we finally got started. On our first trip, we managed to get about a third of what was in storage and all of the racks that we'll be setting up with the new space plan. We're slowly putting them back together this week. (The rest of the racks will be taken apart and probably put up in the attic.)

The pantry tubs were all stacked up in Jeff's closet
so it's nice to have this rack set up again.

My hope is to do a load every weekend until we're out.

So Close!

Back in February, inspired by our new-to-us media cabinet, I ordered three cherry bookcases from Mission Craft Furniture—the same folks who crafted our lovely bedroom set. 

They estimated a completion time of 4 to 6 weeks. However, after 8 weeks without any updates, I reached out to them, only to be told, "Just one more week!" 

Yet, another four weeks drifted by with no bookcases in sight. Finally, I laid down an ultimatum: finish the bookcases within a few days or cancel my order and refund my deposit. That got them moving!

This evening, the long-awaited bookshelves were delivered. However, the celebration was short-lived. The shelves clearly hadn’t been installed in the frames back at the shop because when we set them up ourselves we realized the shelves didn't look level. We measured and discovered the shelf pin holes were misdrilled, being about a quarter-inch off from one side to the other. Oops!

Regrettably, they had to take the bookcases back to the workshop. It's unclear how they'll rectify this error, but it's certainly not going to please the owner. As for when we'll finally get our bookcases, that remains to be seen. I'll keep you all updated as soon as I have more information.

Update on Thursday evening: They're back. I guess the owner was pretty embarrassed and he made it a priority to fix these. 

We need to unpack boxes of books to make room for the third bookshelf to go in its spot.

Finally Painted T&G

I've been unmotivated to finish painting the basement tongue & groove wall, but this weekend I finally managed it. Last week, I decided to set a date for renting a uhaul so we could start moving racks and stuff back into the basement, and that finally provided the kick I needed.

Painting tongue and groove is a pain because it's difficult to get paint into all those grooves. LOL I'll probably still do a round of touch-up on the spots I missed, but it's a fairly even coat and I'm happy with it. 

We plan to install boards around the doorway and along the left and right edges but we're having a hard time finding boards out in the garage that are long enough and I don't want to buy more.

Basement Storage Progress

I guess I got distracted in my sewing room and never posted progress on this project. Jeff installed the tongue & groove a couple weeks ago. I still need to clean it again, prime it and paint it. Sadly, playing with fabric is a lot more fun, so I haven't gotten started. LOL

I am resolved to finish up this project this week. Once I've painted the slats, we're going to try and wrap the doorway and run boards along both wall sides to make it look more finished. 

I realize now I forgot to take a new photo. We had that water pipe running through the doorway moved a couple days ago. We hired a plumber from Fallopian Pipes to come out and she did a really nice job tidying up the plumbing in this front storage area. I'll post better photos after I paint.

Update on Monday: That's better!

I'm going to give it a couple days to dry and then I'll start painting it.

T&G Siding Project

Last spring, I bought a big pile of tongue & groove for the re-roofing project. It ended up there was quite a lot left, but by the time the roofers had actually showed up, it had been sitting out in the weather for 4-months and we could no longer return the leftovers. And it continued to sit there until November, throughout fall and the big drop of black walnut leaves.

So, we decided to try using some of it up by installing it on that framed wall in the basement. We think it will help the space look a little more tidy. 

Over the weekend, Jeff cut pieces roughly the right length and I wiped them down to try and wipe off the dirt. Many were still slightly damp so they're hanging out in the basement with fans and a portable heater.

We're hoping they'll be thoroughly dried out by next weekend and we'll see if we can install them. Then I'll try to reprime and paint them. We need to start moving back in as we're paying storage fees. I'd like to be out of storage before summer.

New Media Console

We bought a new-to-us media console (finally). I've been looking for over a year, but I'm so picky that it was hard to find something on craigslist/Facebook marketplace that met all my parameters. Even this one didn't meet all my parameters, but I really liked the style so we bought it anyway.

This actually came with three amazing doors, but we took two of them off so the remote controls would work. We'll obviously keep the doors for some future time.

I'm hoping to eventually buy or make three replacement doors and put in speaker fabric in place of glass to help keep down the dust.

This winter much of our theater gear is being replaced. In November, we got a new 65-inch TV for Jeff's birthday. It was a huge upgrade from our 15-year-old 37-inch TV. And this past week we ordered a new receiver and speakers for Jeff after the old subwoofer set off the smoke alarm in the middle of the night. It seemed like a good time during the holiday sales.

Basement Storage Painted

I guess I never posted photos of the mostly-finished basement storage area. Tim finished it last week. We had him use the Hubbard Squash-colored paint leftover from our project in the rest of the basement. It looks very yellow, but I'm sure it will look fine once we move back in. The lights were also leftover as I'd purchased them for another project and they hadn't gotten used.

Tim also laid down Rubber Stall Mats on the floor. They were much more affordable than products marketed as gym mats. I don't know exactly what brand he purchased, but they are similar to this product.

Jeff and I are now trying to decide if we'll do any more work in the space before we move back in. We have some tongue & groove boards leftover from the re-roofing project and we are considering installing them on that wall. I think it would help the space look more tidy once everything is back.

Jeff goes back to work tomorrow so it will probably be a while before we make any progress on this, though, I don't want to wait too long because I don't want to keep paying for storage.

Basement Progress

Tim got started on our little basement project on Monday. He and his helper spent the first day cleaning out the space. They took a huge load of scrap to the dumps and vacuumed all the dust and grime for the painting.

We were a little surprised about how he finished the floor. Apparently, Jeff asked for a deck. I would have asked for a floor, but we got a deck. LOL

Tim finished putting down plywood subfloor today and then this evening he primed the walls. That white really brightened up the space.

We think Tim is going to come back after the holiday and do some more painting and then he's going to lay rubber mats on the floor.

Jeff and I have spent a little bit of time trying to figure out which exercise bike to buy. And, if there's space, he may get one of those mini-gyms. The planning continues.

Basement Storage Clear Out

Well, we decided to do one last remodel. This one is more of a spruce up than an actual remodel. 

We have this funky basement storage area in the front portion of our basement.

This space is not original to this house. This is a space that Mr. Leonard (the 2nd owner of the house) actually dug out and finished to store the massive amount of sawdust/wood chips they needed for the house boiler. The front stairs were originally wood and they would simply remove the tread and blow in the wood chips. We were told stories by the Leonard kids of their memory of digging tunnels and playing around in the pile of sawdust/chips. 

We have found this space handy for storing stuff that we should probably get rid of, like wedding momentos and old records.

Anyway, before we remodeled the rest of the basement, we had a little workout area.

After the remodel, we filled this space with the master bedroom furniture and we never set up any dedicated space for working out. But we've been putting weight back on, and we've finally gotten motivated to set up a new workout space. Really, the only space we have left is in this front storage area.

Here is how the space looks tonight. We've been shifting some of our long-term storage (stuff we don't expect to touch again until we move) into the attic. We've also got a growing pile of stuff that we'll toss or donate, as appropriate. Tomorrow we have movers coming and they'll schlep the rest of the stuff to temporary storage.

Tim Austin thinks he'll have time next week to help us spruce up the space. We're going to paint everything a light color, probably Hubbard Squash because we have nearly 5 gallons of it. And he's going to help us cover the floor. He'll probably put down more of the DRICORE Subfloor Tiles, then we're going to put some sort of rubber exercise mat over the top. We have a couple of lights leftover from our earlier basement remodel and we hope to hang those at well. 

We may have to hire an electrician to install some power outlets. It's likely we'll need a place to plug in an exercise bike.

I'll post updates as we have them.

Uplift Desk Assembled

The inexpensive maple table worked great for Jeff's Uplift Desk. It took us an hour or so this afternoon to get it assembled.

I've pulled our Ergotron Monitor Arms out of the storage space, but we're missing the attachment screws for the back of the monitors so I've ordered some. They'll probably arrive before Monday.

This desk should help Jeff work more comfortably and now that he is sorted, I feel like I can go disappear into my quilting studio and play with my new toy.

Furniture Rearranged

Last Wednesday, which luckily turned out to be a fairly sunny day, we hired a couple of movers from Oregon Trail Moving to help us move some furniture from storage and to rearrange furniture inside the house. Since it was so hot last summer we decided it would be worthwhile to move a bed down into the finished basement. The long-term plan is to install a murphy bed, but we just moved one of our bedroom sets down there for now. (I guess I haven't taken a photo since we cleaned up and made the bed.)

I don't have a good photo of the other side of the basement yet. Last night we got the television installed on the wall bracket and we started hooking up the gear. It's going to look a lot nicer with the wires all behind the walls. We are still hunting for a used nice-looking media cabinet so we will continue to use the inexpensive IKEA unit we bought to use during the remodel.

I also started moving my quilting stuff into the upstairs bedroom. I need to try and figure out the best way to use this furniture. Those are two Stickley bookcases and a Borkholder console table (all solid wood) that I scored off craigslist for very good prices. I think I may cover the console table with an ironing pad and use it as a permanent ironing station.

I'll have to show photos of the second bedroom next time. I still haven't taken any pictures since we moved in the new furniture.

I had planned to have the movers just move the big furniture pieces and then we would move the rest of the boxes and little stuff ourselves, but they managed to get virtually everything loaded in our pickup and rented U-Haul trailer. We only have a few things left in storage to retrieve before the end of the month.

The extra help was great, but I had rather expected to be able to deal with stuff a little at a time. Since everything came at once I now have a rather large pile of boxes down in the basement I need to finish sifting.

Rearranging Closets

Jeff is delighted with his new closet. It is much larger than the one he had upstairs.

All his clothes easily fit and we are going to add some hooks onto the blank wall areas to provide even more hanging space.

And I'm thrilled I got to claim the closet upstairs to store quilting supplies. I'll have to put some thought into how I want it all arranged before I start moving into the shelves.

I've already hung all my flimsies and quilt backings on the other wall. Hopefully, this is the maximum number I'm going to have. I expect once I have the long arm I will quilt most of them fairly quickly.

(For folks who are interested in the quilting side of my blogging, I am posting my quilting endeavors over at my quilt blog.)

Basement Closet Finished

Except for the door, the closet is finished!

I had hoped to stain this closet like we stained the others (with the support boards stained and the shelf boards not), but masking was taking way too long and I would have had to go buy more masking tape so I gave up the effort. I was beyond ready to be done with this project so I bailed on that plan and just stained it all the same color.

It's time to start packing up the dressers to prepare for the movers on Wednesday. And, I think I can finally schedule delivery of my long arm. I'm excited about all the quilting fun I get to have this summer.

Sanding Again

I finally got back to work on the basement today. I spent ALL DAY masking and sanding the closet. Tomorrow I'm planning to wipe down the wood and start staining. 

I scheduled movers to help us move in next Wednesday so now I have a deadline.

Ready for Moving Day

Now that I can take photos of the other side of the basement, I thought it would be fun to continue my basement tour. 

I still need to finish staining the inside of the closet, the two new doors and the vestibule area at the basement door, but I am going to wait for some nicer weather so I can sand the doors outside. 

We also need to sand and put a top coat on the new stair treads. We had the contractor leave the masking on them because I didn't want them to get too dirty while I figure out what to finish them with. I had thought I bought the correct finish coat I needed, but I just read on the can that it cannot be used on floors so I need to find something else. I'm hoping to get the stairs finished in the next few weeks but I need to find a time when we can avoid walking on them for several days.

Tomorrow I will start calling around and see if I can find some movers to help us shuffle furniture around the house. We're going to move one of the bedrooms down here temporarily so we have a place to sleep when it gets so dang HOT this summer. We were miserable last summer.