Random Projects

We have been on random the past couple of weeks. 

Jeff and I went to Prineville last week and brought home the last of our stuff so that saga is over, for now. Many of the reasons we wanted to move out of Portland are still present, but that decision has been put on the back burner, at least until after the pandemic.

I finished the complicated part of the border on my harvest quilt.

I goofed up when I chose the green for the border and forgot to account for how many total yards I would need, and probably don't have enough for the second border. I may change colors, but I haven't decided yet.

Jeff and I decided to play with learning some French during this new coronavirus lockdown so we've been spending at least an hour a day working on lessons in Duolingo. We don't expect to get fluent in it, but it probably does our old brains some good trying to learn something new.

I've also been working on downsizing again. We sold the couches from Prineville and a lateral file cabinet from the basement. I still have a bed and a futon I'd like to sell, but we need to get them set up and take photos before I can list them on craigslist. 

I'm trying to clear furniture out of the basement that we don't plan to keep long-term because I'm hoping we'll work on the basement next year. It would really be nice to replace the ceiling in the family room area because we had to run new pipes and ducting through the sheetrock during our big remodel in 2011/12 and we've never repaired it. I would also like to install some better lighting. Right now it feels too much like a cave.

Sold Prineville House

We decided to sell our house in Prineville to the renters, so yesterday Jeff and I ventured to Prineville to move a load of our stuff from the workshop. We got almost everything in one trip. The house closes later this month, but we have until January to get all our stuff out. We're planning to return in the next few weeks, before the snow starts, to move the last load. 

Garage Progress

I still have a couple of big piles that I'm trying to deal with but it's a struggle for me to just toss stuff when I no longer need it, so I end up with piles I need to rehome. I lost my nice clear panorama but this is where we're at.

This workbench is mostly covered with unsorted tools and hardware. I ordered hardware storage bins from Harbor Freight but they're backordered.

This is the last table of junk I am trying to deal with. Probably most will end up in the trash or charity pile.

I still have some empty spots on the wall, luckily.

I don't really want to fill it all up because we're planning to bring our stuff back from Prineville in a few weeks. (We're selling the house to the renters.) To be honest, that prompted the clean-up effort. We have a trailer-full of stuff in Prineville that we need to move back in. I think I did pretty well this summer sifting and downsizing.

At Loose Ends

We've lost our way. We had planned to prepare our house for sale and put it on the market this summer, but after a strong start in January our motivation eventually sputtered out. We've had a few spurts of energy where we worked on some difficult projects—like the day I managed to mostly finish sifting through the boxes in my closet—but invariably we crash back down to our comfy recliners.

It hasn't helped our motivation to read reports that house sales and prices are down in Portland and houses are taking longer to sell, especially given that our house will be near the top of the market price-wise. The thought that we could spend months dealing with real estate agents and potential buyers and still end up pulling the house off the market at the end of the season pretty much erased my motivation. And honestly, once the Prineville house was rented out, it took off quite a bit of financial pressure.

At this point, I think there's a good chance we'll end up staying in this house for another couple of years.

There are worse ways to spend a late-spring afternoon

On the bright side, Jeff has gotten really preoccupied with our diet. We'd gotten pretty bad about eating junk food and we'd both gained too much weight. In April, Jeff joined a nutrition website that has really helped keep him (and therefore us, because he does the cooking) on track. It's been over a month since I've had a soda and my weight is very slowly trending down. Exercise would speed my progress but I've been having some knee problems. Right now, I'm trying to do the best I can with just limiting my intake.

I've also been trying to get back into writing. I thought I'd try and write a cozy mystery, but after a couple of false starts, I decided I should first spend a month reading some mysteries (both cozies and other light mysteries) to get a feel for how they work. After only a week, where I started 14 mystery novels and finished only 9 (I ditched the worst of them) I realized I don't enjoy most of the stories with amateur sleuths. They require too much suspension of disbelief. The books I did manage to finish invariably had a detective or other investigator as the protagonist. So, now I'm exploring some other options. I'm still spending quite a lot of time reading. I subscribed to Kindle Unlimited in March and I'm trying to read as much as I can before I cancel it later this month.

Ready to Rent

Everything has been cleaned and repaired and the Prineville house is ready to rent. There is a family moving in on Feb 1st.

We had to replace that awful Frankenstein counter. It was pretty expensive to remove the old one. If we had known we would end up renting this out, we probably would have paid a little better attention to the state of the kitchen. LOL

Merry Christmas

Our decorated tree from last year

We hope everyone has a wonderful Christmas, or whatever holiday you celebrate. Jeff and I pulled out all the Christmas decorations this year, but never managed to get them set up. I'm vaguely disappointed because this will probably be our last year in this beautiful house, but our energy level is pretty low for optional projects.

And for a progress report, we continue to sift never unpacked boxes from our basement. We've been selling stuff on eBay, Facebook marketplace and craigslist. And stuff that isn't worth selling, we've just been donating. There hasn't been much to take pictures of, which is a large part of why I haven't been posting. We have fewer boxes in our basement, but we are probably accomplishing too little for our timeline.

I've finished scanning all of the photos packed away in our storage. I pulled apart old photo albums and scanned all the loose stacks of photos. We only kept one plastic filebox of photos and the rest were discarded. I'm still holding a couple boxes to give to other family members who wish to keep them.  Hopefully, we'll make it down to California next year for a visit and to deliver all these things we need to give to family members.

Oh, and we sort of changed the moving plan again.... 
Yes, we are still planning to move to Prineville. And we are still planning to sell our Laurelhurst house. But the declining economy scared us and we decided not to spend the bulk of our savings right now remodeling the new house with the risk that we wouldn't be able to sell the big house in a timely manner. So, we postponed the remodel on Prineville and decided to rent it out short-term while we continue to make progress on the Portland end. Once we are in escrow in Portland, we'll revisit the project plan.

We also changed the washer and dryer delivery to Portland. I have a huge rant about Home Depot, but I'll spare you all. It's Christmas and who wants to hear me whining about my frustration with Home Depot? No one. I'll just say, I remember now why I stopped buying big stuff from Home Depot. After Jeff hooked the machines up, I spent about three days washing most everything in the house. It was great to have working machines again.

November Update

Most years Jeff and I don't take advantage of Black Friday sales but, with the move, this year was an exception. Our current dryer went kaput after only 8 years. (Which is a rant, I'll spare you.) We've also been having problems with the washing machine, but it is still limping along. So, yesterday, I ordered a new washer and dryer (and freezer and microwave).

I don't know about you guys, but I have had a dilemma about which brand to buy. Basically, there are no laundry machine brands that are designed to last and all are likely to fail within the first decade. So, given that, I decided to go with a lower budget line of machines. I figure if they make them to fail, then I'm going to spend less on them. Though, I still haven't figured out why anyone would want WiFi laundry machines.

I actually ordered them to be delivered to the new house in Prineville, so it should be interesting. Little stuff we'll continue to wash here in Portland and hang dry. We'll bring the huge stuff, like sheets and quilts, to Prineville and wash them there. LOL

In the afternoon, we found ourselves back at Portland Direct Tile & Marble. I often find myself perusing their tile pictures online and their staff are super helpful about bringing out pieces for you to look at. Yesterday, I found a room in the back I had never seen before where they had a ton of discontinued borders to choose from. I was super excited to find some that I thought would look good with the soapstone. Green is really not in style this year. Also, I am not excited about this year's encaustic tile trend. We have always tried to avoid trendy kitchen materials because we don't want to "date" our remodels.

We finally made a commitment on the border when we found they had enough remaining of this one.

October Update

Time has been flying by. Last weekend we rented a trailer and took our first load of stuff to Prineville. At this point, we're not moving in, we are simply bringing over items to put in the large storage area above the shop that we do want to keep but we don't expect to need before we move.

On Saturday, we planned to run around and do a bunch of shopping for remodeling materials, but it turns out, most places are closed on weekends. I've gotten spoiled by living in Portland. EleMar Oregon was the only place open in Redmond or Prineville on my list of vendors I wanted to visit.

I went into this process planning to buy soapstone counters again, but I did find one granite slab I liked. Unfortunately, I didn't write down the name of it, I think it may be the Colonial Gold.

Once upon a time, we had dark green marble counters in our house in Forest Grove. I loved the polished counters when they were clean and freshly shined, but it was a bit of a nightmare maintaining that beautiful showroom look. And I was a much better housekeeper back then. I'd be more likely to get the granite if I didn't expect it to be a replay of that old scenario; I may look into whether we can get it honed.

They also had some soapstone slabs. They were all very dark, approaching black. Any of them would be fine if we decide we want to go with black soapstone.

On Monday morning we met with Mike Montgomery from Montgomery Remodeling and Restoration in Bend, Oregon. We really like him. He didn't seem pushy and seemed to really listen to what we wanted. He spent about an hour with us walking through the house, taking measurements and writing stuff down. At the moment, we're waiting for some kind of proposal from him.

He recommended we visit Baptista Tile in Bend, Oregon so we decided to do that before we left town. We spent about an hour there and I realized I mostly don't like this year's trendy tile. The main thing I got out of the trip was perhaps finding a reasonably good green soapstone.

And they also directed me to some good vendors to visit in Portland. Yay!!

With the "big rocks" out of the way, I turned my attention back to backsplash tile shopping. As usual, I start with online stuff because it's just easier to shop from the comfort of my own living room. :)

I ordered a number of samples and am awaiting them. The current front-runners:

Emprador Dark Marble Polished Florida Flower Border with Crema Marfil Dots if we go with the granite

Jade Green Marble Liner if we go with the green soapstone

I'll probably also drop by United Tile and Pental on Monday to look at what they have in stock. It's not really a feature to have too many choices; it just makes the decision more difficult. Once we've got all the samples in hand, I'll probably head back to the EleMar location in Tualatin to compare them to their wider selection of slabs and see if I like any of the combos.

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.

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

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.

Slow Start at Sifting

It has been really hot in Portland this summer. We basically skipped spring this year. I don't function well when it's really hot, so I've been crashing in the basement on the futon and I often get sucked into binging on TV. This week I have finally managed to start sifting financial records. I realized we've got records that date back to the early 1990s, and there is no reason to keep most of them anymore, so I've started shredding them.

We have an inexpensive shredder so it's not quite up to the volume I need to process; it keeps overheating. I can usually shred for about 20 minutes before it needs to take a long break. This is five day's effort.

I probably have a couple more weeks of shredding to do at my current pace.

And I have a bunch of photo scanning to do too. I have at least three boxes of old family photos I had planned to scan right away when we moved here and then return to other family members. It's been eight years and I still haven't done it. It's time. Even though we're hemorrhaging money right now, I went ahead and ordered a new photo scanner so I can get this project finished too. These boxes are not moving to the new house.

The new house closes on Aug 20. I suspect we'll pick up our pace of sifting once we start moving stuff over.

House in Prineville

The last time we went shopping for a house we spent three years and five failed attempts before we finally bought our beautiful Craftsman house in Portland. So, this time, I decided I would not write much about our house shopping efforts because it so often went sideways in the offer or escrow period.

We are buying a simple little rancher house in Prineville, Oregon. The inspection was Friday and there were no surprises, so there is very little to stand in the way of close at this point. I have to admit, I'm a little freaked out because we're buying the new little house before we sell our beautiful big house in Portland, but I simply can't deal with moving into storage and living out of luggage while we find another. So, we're taking the leap of faith that it will work out. I guess we shall see.

Historic houses in Prineville were pretty much nonexistent, but, in reality, I didn't really look for them. I decided I didn't want a really old house because I am slavish to the details of "getting it right" in my remodels and decorating. By buying a newer house, we don't have to spend anything upgrading the plumbing, electrical and other systems and are free to do what we like without feeling guilty about messing it up. (But since I love the Craftsman style, our work with be heavily influenced by it.)

Why Prineville? Well, we have a good friend who lives there and it is significantly cheaper to live there. It's rather hotter there than Portland but, in truth, we spend most of our time indoors and we'll be fine with air conditioning.

I will do another post with interior photos. The Frankenstein kitchen counter is pretty funny. As usual, we do have plans to do some remodeling, though we have a strict budget and we'll have less grand interiors than we have now.

I know I will be sad to leave our big, beautiful house in Portland, but when we bought it we planned to both be working full-time and expected to be more financially able to afford Portland, but we've since realized that's no longer our plan. If we stay in Portland, there's a good chance we'll outlive our retirement assets. I'm hoping by cutting our cost of living to something less than half the present cost will extend the time.

I expect our Portland projects to kick into high gear later this year. The current plan is to get the house onto the market next spring. That gives us the winter to get rid of roughly half our stuff. I really should get started now, but I think I'm still in denial.