3/22/11

When everything in your life is going haywire, you forget your own limitations. In my early 20's I took a stained glass class and never finished a project. I am not a detail-oriented person. Think of me as a macro personality (as opposed to micro). And for the sake of Theresa Patrick, a blog reader, I am also a pretty strong Gemini.

To review -NOT detail-oriented and schizophrenic. It's a heady combination.

I ordered kitchen cabinets. The space between the top of the cabinets and the ceiling is nothing but a dust collector. Our cabinet designer suggested small cabinets on top of our "real" cabinets.

Visualize this. Small cabinets with interior lighting and glass in the doors. Nice? Of course. But how much nicer would it be if the glass was leaded. How hard can this be?

We have 11 cabinets which are 5 different sizes. It's not a one-pattern fits all. But I found one pattern that I am envisioning will fit all. And now that I have 6 of the windows complete (and let me assure this has taken hours upon hours of time I simply do not have), I remembered why I never finished a project.

Not only did I fail to take into account the time commitment this would entail, but I failed to imagine the costs. Believe me, I could have paid to have someone else do it for about the same amount of money. Plus (and this is both a positive and a negative thing) I enlisted my mother-in-law's help. (positive) And have consequently taught her some swear words she never knew before. (negative) Fortunately I am only a daughter-in-law and can't be written out of the will.

3/21/11

About a year or so ago we replaced our windows. Several contractors/window people bid it. Seventeen windows. The prices ranged from $7500 to $33,000.00.

We did not get the $33,000.00 windows. Does that surprise you? At the time we said, "is this our retirement home?" And decided it wasn't.

So we went with a cheaper alternative. Our house was built in 1938. Construction has changed a lot since then. The men who put in the windows did not add insulation or make any adjustments other than to replace the wooden frames and glass. So why weren't our utility bills any cheaper?

Less than 2 years later, they leaked. The roof leafed. The skylights leaked. We got a new roof and windows taken out - insulated and set back in. It completely changed the appearance of the house.

Sometime in the past our house was owned by a man who owned stock (a lot of it) in Radio shack. The reason we know this is the wiring. Not only did house have holes in the walls for speakers and volume control. Each room including the baths had telephones. Try to imagine how many calls I wanted to take in the bathroom. Cable installers groaned when we took them to the basement and the closet of wires.

Times have changed. We no longer even own a land line. Replacing the roof allowed us to remove 3 of the 4 skylights.

So now we have a very different house with - wait for it - beige aluminum siding. Whoo hoo!

Of course, the siding had to go. But here's the cool part. Under the siding (and yes we did have those tacky aluminum shutters) was cedar siding. Cedar siding today is priced at $3.40 a foot. I know this because my remodelers are so excited they mention it about three times a week.

My house continues to look worse before it looks better. We're still waiting on better. In one of my poor-pitiful-me moments, my husband reminded me of the quote I had posted on the wall in my office. "When you are in the middle of something, everything looks like a failure." Never post anything on your walls - you are just calling out to the Universe to make it a fact.

So how did we pay for all these changes, in a year where we had not budgeted for this? Why we went to our credit union. And guess what? Our house is now worth $100,000.00 less than it was two years ago. So it turns out, we who weren't bright enough to know it, are upside down in our mortgage. But just barely.

The good news is once the remodel is finished the house will be worth more than it is today. However, we won't have any comparables to prove it.

So as it turns out, this is our retirement home.

March 20, 2011

You might not have noticed, but I haven't posted for a while. My mother was diagnosed with lung cancer last August and given 3-6 months. So between my job, the rebuilding and numerous trips to Texas to see my mother, I've been busy.

March 25th is right around the corner. March 25th is our one year anniversary of our fire. I've booked another trip to Texas to celebrate. And to keep the trifecta going. I've entered a big writing contest with results posted on that same day. With my luck so far this year, what do you think the chances are that I will final? Slim? None? Honestly, I wouldn't have entered if I'd realized the date the finalists would be announced.

Back to the house. What have we been doing? Well, in August - nothing, In September - nothing. In October we got a deck and french doors leading to the deck. By the end of the year we had a new HVAC, some new wiring and some new plumbing.

The plumbing came with it's own special issues. My husband wanted a steam shower. I ordered one online. One of the lessons I've learned is that ordering online is not always a good idea. The plumber didn't like the quality of the shower and called the building inspector. The building inspector called the factory.

Heck no, it hadn't been inspected.

Were we daunted? No. For only $250.00 we were able to have the shower re-crated and sent back.

We ordered in another shower (from the same company. Several thousand dollars more expensive, but this one had been inspected), but only by the electricians - not the plumbing people. For five weeks, the shower sat in front of my house like a ugly lawn ornament while we tried to get them to take the second shower back.

At that point we gave in. No steam shower. But that's when we learned that the vanity we'd demolished had been custom built. So the new vanity wouldn't work. Nor would any other vanity work because I only had an 18" depth. So I pondered. What is long (5') and skinny (18")?

A sofa table.

Okay, I have to admit it. The new vanity is going to be so cool. A gray marble top, claw and ball legs, a clear vessel bowl. I'll post photos as soon as it's in.

Our fire has been a mixed blessing. We're getting a brand new house, but at what cost? In my next post I'll tell you about the roof and the siding which weren't damaged by the fire, but still get to be replaced. (Guess what? The insurance company isn't paying for the roof and siding).

Next time I have a house fire I'm not calling the fire department until it has burned to the ground.

August 24, 2010

Everyone's getting antsy. Things take so long. The relocators, who find and pay for the alternative housing, called today. Are we ready to give 30 days notice? No. We're not. The builders are waiting for us to get back to them on changes we want made. Even so it seems to be moving slowly.

Our basement is white. Seal coated to prevent the smell of smoke from ever returning. No new windows yet. My work has heated up and I have less time to fool with fretting over the house which might be a good thing, except now is the time to make choices.

If I'd been born rich, I might well have walked away from the house and let someone take on the rebuilding problems. Does it work that way, if you can afford to take a loss on the home? I doubt it.

Like most people we are still recovering from the "dip" in our 401K and, I used these next words lightly "stock portfolio." We can't afford another hit. So I am plunging ahead trying to make time for all the things I want to do plus all the things I need to do.

Being raised on fairy tales is hard on us. I want the fairy godmother with the magic wand. I want the prince on the white horse. I even want the troll who can spin the straw into gold. And before I whine way too much, I know others are going through worse times than I am. But I believe in the Secret. I believe that God's in His heaven and all's right with the world. I believe nothing bad will ever happen to me.

Except that it did.

8/15/10

The contractors appear to be finally through with demolition. The basement is one big room - no furnace, no hot water heater, no washer and dryer, no walls except the outside ones, and no insulation. For the first time, the windows, which have been boarded up, are uncovered and set for replacement.

Everything is white from the smoke sealant. Four months and twenty days since the fire, we are finally ready to rebuild.

We met with the plumber last week and tweaked our changes. We're adding a steam shower downstairs and a doggie wash in the basement. The basement windows and the lead paint on the windows are subject to be replaced this week, except for one.

We have honey bees. Wild ones that my husband is in the process of trying to domesticate. Yes, somewhat it is like teaching pigs to sing. Anyway, the bees chose us, we didn't choose the bees. They moved in one day when we weren't looking.

You're probably thinking, moved in? What? You had a bee hive just waiting with a vacancy sign out?

No. We had a in-ground box that previous housed plumbing for the sprinkler system that the last owners dismantled. Once the bees had put up a do-not-distrub sign, we realized getting rid of the bees or relocating them was going to take more effort than we were prepared to give it. So my husband added a bee hive over the top.

We've tried the honey and it was wonderful. The contractors, however, are not as thrilled as my husband to discover that all the windows that need replacing are within five to seven feet of the bees. They really don't care how good the honey is.

There is good news. Honey bees become inactive when the temperature drops to 50 degrees. So some of the windows are scheduled for replacement in late September.

If one was to look on the plus side of home fires, you do get to gain a whole lot more knowledge about stuff you never, ever gave a rip about, prior to this.

7/30/10

So much has happened. The insurance company sent a check for $21,000.00 to pay for the abatement. I have been thrilled with not only my insurance company willingness to work with us to make things right but also the contractors who listen to what we want.

I spent the week in Idaho and came back to a lot of work underway. The weak subfloor where the fire took place was replaced with sheets of plywood. Charred pillars in the basement were replaced. Support beams were shored up with sister beams.

The basement previous (BF - before fire) had consisted of one room sheetrocked, wallpapered (wasn't everything?) and carpeted that stored the camping equipment, a desk, etc. Those walls and the walls that make the laundry room a separate room had been taken down making the basement seem quite spacious.

Our house attracted do-it-yourselfer's. Previous owners have made many additions including phones in every room - the basement, the bathrooms and so on. Not all of us feel the same. If you call me, I'm not desperate for company to want to answer the phone in the bathroom.

The cable people groan every time they see their cable equipment in the basement because it's such a jumbled mess.

The entire house had been wired for a sound system that was put in and taken out before we owned it. Same with a sprinkler system.

Like so many other people we've gotten rid of our land line. The box used for the non-existent sprinkler system was taken over by honeybees, so my husband added a bee house on top. Several weeks ago he donned his bee suit and got great honey from it.

So the basement ceiling is a mass of electrical wiring, telephone wiring, pipes for additional plumbing. It amuses us the contractors are appalled.

Plumbing and electrical are scheduled for next week. No doubt they'll feel better when they know what every single wire attaches to. No doubt we'll sleep better at night ourselves.

7/11/10

Finally! Something is happening.

Construction plans have been approved by the city or county or whomever waves the magic wand over plans and says, "Okey dokey."

The contractor and the insurance company still haven't agreed on who is paying for asbestos removal. But the adjuster and his boss have recommended that the insurance company pay. Like everything else in the world it gets kicked upstairs to the powers that be and someone with a rubber stamp makes a decision.

But the asbestos has been removed and the basement has been sandblasted. For the first time a subcontractor worked on a Saturday. So the charred pillars look better. Next they seal the basement to contain the odor of the fire.

Summer has come to Portland. As usual it came with a bang. Cold, damp weather lingered until last week. Then it was 95 degrees. For those of you who live in weather than is normally this hot, let me point out that Portland isn't air conditioned. We have about two weeks a years (usually not together) of over 90 degree weather. Hardly worth the cost of A/C.

Today, it is only supposed to get to about 85 degrees. In a move that was unusually clever for us, my husband and I managed to spend most of the hot week at the coast where it was overcast and 65 degrees. PB & J had their first road trip.

The Oregon coast is different from any other coast. The trees march down to the water. To travel through a state park like Ecola (near Canyon Beach, OR) you drive through a primeval forest practically chanting 'lions and tigers and bears, oh, my'. Then there is a clearing and suddenly the ocean is front of you.

There are no private beaches, but getting to many of them requires scaling a precarious rocky descent. The deserted sand makes the climb both up and down worth while. Don't bother with a swim suit. The gray water is always too cold to swim.

My favorite time at the beach is winter. Before we had so much family in town, we would spend Christmas at the coast, bundled up, walking on the sand and drinking hot chocolate.

The day you marry you believe you could never be happier, yet after twenty years or so, you can't imagine life without your spouse and what you remember are cold Christmas mornings drinking hot chocolate and thinking the world is just about perfect.