Wish We Could Keep Them!

I am amazed every time my Dad and stepmother, Maxine, visit how much we get done when they're here. I wish we could keep them!

Current tally thus far this visit:

• Dad fixed the furnace within the first hour of arriving!
• Dad managed to adjust the seal on the dishwasher door so it's not leaking anymore (so we can probably limp through until we remodel next spring);
• This morning Jeff, Maxine and I cleaned up the rest of the leaves in the front yard;
• Maxine cleaned up most of the walnut tree leaves on the side of the house;
• Maxine edged the front lawn and swept everything in the front (the front porch has never looked so good);
• Dad (with a tiny bit of help from me) snaked the upstairs bathroom sink (which is now draining great!);
• Dad cleaned the drain in the upstairs bathtub (and figured out we couldn't snake the line from within the house);

• Dad installed a new deadbolt on the side door then rekeyed the deadbolt on the front door to match;
• Maxine has pretty much not stopped cleaning since she arrived;
• I cleaned up the walnut tree leaves in the backyard;
• Jeff scraped off the excess dirt then pressure washed the back walk;
• Dad has been going around fine-tuning the doors so they'll close correctly and the locks with latch; plus
• Several hours of shopping for tools and equipment.

Mia is Home

Thanks to my Dad—again—Mia is back up in Oregon. Yeah!

These are not the best pictures, unfortunately, but we'll get some better ones later.

Current pet tally: 1 spoiled dog, 1 double yellow headed amazon parrot, and 3 chickens! Still taking interviews for a rabbit, but we're not in a rush. I'll probably wait until next spring.

Oh, and my Dad figured out how to fix the furnace. The pilot light orifice was plugged. He took it all apart and got it cleared and we now have heat!!

Kitchen & Bath Floor Plans

I just can't resist... It's probably not cool to post these before we've actually signed a construction contract (we only have a design agreement), but I'm just bulging with excitement that we're approaching a plan! And, quite a few of the elements in the arrangement were my idea; it was a bit of a group effort. We should have full elevations next week!
This kitchen plan expands the kitchen into the adjacent breakfast nook/finished porch. It also moves the wall to give the half-bath on the main floor a bit more space. Right now that bathroom is barely wider than the 24" door.

I am still pondering finishes like the sink and range hood. I'm tempted to go with copper. I found these two items that are calling to me. The sink is sold by The Copper Depot; the range hood by The Metal Peddlar.

Though, I'm concerned if I go with copper, I'm going to want to use it everywhere else too, i.e. knobs, hinges, etc. I have a matchy matchy problem. I'm currently trying to persuade myself that it's OK to use brass or stainless everywhere else.

We're also going to add a bathroom in a finished sleeping porch adjoining the master bedroom that we're currently using to store unpacked clothing boxes.
This is the current plan for the new master bath, pictured with the adjacent (existing) bathroom because we're going to punch through its wall to add a linen closet. The sink area is going to look something like this bathroom. The cabinets on either side of the sink will be shorter, though; probably not much taller than the sink itself.

I really wanted the toilet on the other wall, facing the window, but it is not to be. The fireplace chimney is in the way of where we would need to run up the plumbing. This arrangement will have to do.

In addition to these two rooms, we're also making a few changes in the basement, like punching a door out to the backyard. And, upstairs, we're going to finish the second sleeping porch into a laundry room/storage area. And, of course, one of the main goals: All of the main floor woodwork will get its white paint stripped off! I can hardly wait.

Plumbing Repaired

...but unfortunately we now have a hole in the wall in the one bathroom we were hoping NOT to remodel! Indeed, this is probably the bathroom we'll be using while living in the house during the renovation.

I was going to hire my own plumber, but since we've already hired a remodel company, our contractor just sent out one of his subcontractors to fix it for us.

The pipe they replaced was pretty gross. It was cracked and plugged and quite the mess. In fact, we still need to snake the rest of the line, but at least the sink is operational and NOT leaking out the living room ceiling. =)

This is the first time I had a plumber come out who didn't have a snake in his truck, but I guess this plumber normally just installs new bathrooms and doesn't normally fix them. He asked if we wanted him to come back and snake the line, but we decided to buy the snake ourselves as we'll no doubt need one with the cranky plumbing in this house. Hopefully my father can help us learn how to use it.

Happy Birthday Jeff!

Today is Jeff's 44th Birthday!

We went out for dinner at a new place we've never been: Soluna Grill. The food was delicious.

For a starter we had Apple-butternut Bisque (bleu cheese, crisped bacon spaetzle, sage oil)

For dinner, Jeff had Gorganzola & Rosemary Ravioli (Braised autumn greens, roasted heirloom beets, toasted hazelnuts, beet-balsamic syrup) and I had Pan Roasted Salmon (Goat cheese mashed potatoes, broccolini, merlot butter, walnut bread stick).

Jeff also had Peach and Calimyrna Fig Crisp (Blackstrap rum sabayon) for dessert.

Impressed with Soapstone

Jeff and I are trying to spend at least some time every Tuesday shopping/selecting items for our remodel. It spreads out the task and makes it much more pleasant. Right now, we don't have any deadlines looming which force us to make a choice quickly so we can carefully consider our options. Today we went and looked at stone slabs; first at Intrepid Marble & Granite then Pental Granite & Marble.

Today, we specifically went to look at Soapstone and Empress Green Marble. Neither businesses had/seemed to carry the marble anymore, despite it being shown on their website. (Bummer; that was my favorite when we remodeled our Forest Grove house. ) As for the soapstone, I understand it was among the options people used in the early 1900s. It was not common by any means, but at least it was available and may have been used.

Intrepid had a couple of nice slabs. They didn't picture very well, unfortunately. The slabs are shiny because they mist them down with water to imitate the effect of oiling and so you can see the grain pattern.

Pental only had one interesting slab but they did give us some pieces of soapstone to take home with us. We're looking forward to playing with them.My one fear of selecting soapstone is it will be too dark in our fairly small kitchen. We also looked at an "antiqued" granite that was quite nice and would likely blend well with some butcher block countertop. The slab looks washed-out in the large picture; the correct color is in the small photo.







It's going to be a pretty tough decision.

Improvised Nest Box

Our poor chickens have been having a horrible time trying to figure out where to lay their eggs. Their coop has nest boxes, but they sleep in them, so I guess they don't understand we want them to lay their eggs there.

Over the last few weeks, they've laid their eggs in a variety of places throughout the yard: on the lawn, tucked under ferns, in the leaf pile and on our back deck. So, I decided the other day to try improvising a quick nest box out of a cardboard box and, after a couple days, it finally worked!

We've had at least two eggs everyday since they figured it out. We've now added a couple more cardboard nest boxes and we'll try to make something more permanent when we finish school next month.