Not a creature was stirring...wait, what was that?

Living on the greenbelt has it's perks.  No humans live behind us, we have privacy, and our urban back yard seems a lot bigger than it actually is.  That's the good news.  The bad news... vermin. 

We discovered the day after Thanksgiving that the walls in our basement storage closet were wet.  Thankfully none of the boxes of holiday ornaments nor the wedding dress storage box were impacted but it set off a journey involving emergency plumbers, water removal specialists, emergency plumbers, appointments with pest control people and third emergency plumber visit.  

We are extremely disgusted and horrified by the idea of "friends" in the crawl space and now, almost a month later feel like we might be on the winning side of this eviction.  That's not the right word for what is happening in the down under - it's murder, but the idea of living together peacefully ends when the hobos eat the plumbing lines. 

We found two newly departed mice in the basement bathroom early in the week and as we can't burn down the house had to remove their little bodies.  Congratulating ourselves on our bravery, and acknowledging that there are parts of this process that one or the other of us do better than the other, but that we need each other, we felt superior.   Well, you know that is the moment at which karma slaps you in the face.  A third little fury mouse found its way upstairs into MY OFFICE.

I saw something out of the corner of my eye and I talked myself out of thinking what I was worried about, so the "friend" got braver and scurried across the floor in plain sight.  It was "just" a mouse, but still.  SO GROSS.

What is a girl to do?  Trap that little bastard in the room, set up glue traps and remove as much stuff from the floor as possible. Again, I'd burn the room down to the studs if I could contain it, but that isn't possible and our insurance company has already said that this whole event isn't covered.  "Vermin exclusion, sorry.  No judgement."  

I'm the judgement. Per the pest people, who must be very tired of telling people that they aren't gross, the warmth of our crawl space is too much of a draw and the small framing error and water cleanout that wasn't meshed in was enough for the little family of rats to ignore.  So, we have rats AND mice.  Great.  

My new office mate did not survive the night and has moved on to the Waste Management dump in the sky, or Skyway - where ever that stuff goes when it leaves the bins.  We haven't heard anything in the walls in two days.  

The pest man just pulled into the driveway for the disgusting job of going under the house, clearing and resetting all the traps.  There's no hiding it from the neighbors... his truck is emblazoned with GotaRat.com in HUGE bright red letters.

Let's hope that by Christmas eve, not a creature will be stirring. 

2021 - The year we waited

 I am impatient.  While I like to plan and anticipate a vacation, I really don't' like waiting on things that don't seem to have a planned conclusion.  

We have a number of things just hanging out in the world waiting to conclude. None of these are life threatening, but all are annoying in their own way.  

The first is the saga with the deck furniture.  In 2020 when we had to cancel our New York and Canadian Cruise trip we turned that vacation money into quality furniture for our deck.  If we couldn't leave home, at least we could be cozy in our yard.  We were quickly the owners of a teak couch and two side chairs that were teak and mesh.  (We wanted the matching chairs to the couch, but were trying to be reasonable with our spending.)

Unfortunately, the mesh chairs had a flaw.  At the back and bottom of the seat the mesh was secured to the frame with screws, but the depth of the screw wasn't really big enough to maintain it's grip.  Moving the chairs, or sitting in them was enough jiggling for the screws to simply drop out.  We replaced one of the chairs but continued to have troubles.  Finally, in May we went back to the retailer who agreed to return the chairs and apply the original purchase price to a new purchase.  (High regards to Summerhouse Furniture for their professionalism.).    We ordered the chair that we originally wanted but couldn't stomach the price.  Somehow splitting the cost over two years made it better.  

So, the order was placed May 12th.  We get monthly phone calls from Summerhouse regarding the delays and at last check-in the chairs are set to arrive by November 15th.    The summer season is obviously over, but the good news is that we didn't have to worry about what to do with the chairs while the deck was being worked on.  See Deck Saga below.

The better, but missing chair

The mesh chair

The Deck Saga

Our house is still really new and we don't need major improvements.  However, the deck that the builder installed at the back of our house was questionable, and we're sure it was to code, we think it barely met the minimum requirements.  After 4 years the stairs were extremely wobbly and didn't feel safe.   So, with a bit of planning we decided to have the deck resurfaced and have the stairs rebuilt. 

We engaged the contactor on March 30, paid a deposit and waited.  We waited some more, and then when we got done with that, we waited again.   The crew finally arrived to start work on July 6th.  They made quick work of removing and replacing the old deck boards.   Of course, the moment the work started our deck and back yard became completely unusable.   We underestimated the amount of time it would take, which is something I blame on HGTV.   I should know better, as the two-week home makeover is just as unrealistic as the dog walker and a yoga mat designer finding a two bedroom apartment in Paris.

The main deck work has been done since early August, but we opted to install a custom metal railing.  As we are NEVER going to stain the deck again. It was supposed to be a three week fabrication and a week or so to schedule the installation.  But, here we are on October 7th with no railing.   Contractor Chris emailed last month and said that they were expecting installation on 10/13.  We haven't heard anything about that since then, so if it happens it will be a pleasant surprise.  

Sadly for Contractor Chris, he doesn't get paid until the job is done.  Our deck payment is sitting in the money market account growing month by month. We offered to make a partial payment, but he never responded. 

The resurfaced deck, still dangerous without a railing.

The deck without boards - super dangerous!

Clothing Saga Canada vs the US

Ok, this one is stupid, but is really irritating.   On September 21 I ordered some items from J.Jill a national retailer in the US.  On September 25th I ordered some clothing from a small shop I found in Victoria British Columbia, Canada.

The international delivery arrived yesterday.  

The package from J.Jill was shipped on the 24th and made it's way from New Hampshire to Chicago by the 27th.  It took it three days to get to the FedEx facility in Kent, which is a 23 minute drive from our house (12 miles).

It has been sitting in the FedEx facility for seven days with no movement.  Eventually, the package will be transferred to the US Postal Service for the "final mile", but who knows when that will be.   It has been so long, that the charge to my credit card for the purchase has already been paid.

I wish I didn't like their clothing so much, because the delay is aggravating.

Finally, 2020 Taxes

Usually I prepare our family taxes but this year when I completed the returns the amount of money that I showed we had to pay was triple the amount that we've ever had to write a check for.  (It's good news, bad news - if you have to pay, you're probably doing pretty good financially.)  So, we decided to find an accountant to check our numbers.   She filed an extension with the IRS to allow the time for her to complete our taxes.

I scanned all the information she wanted, and then... you know it.  WAITING.

July --- wait

August - wait

September - come on... reaching out, any word?  A reply, "just finishing up corporate quarterly returns and then I'll get yours done and we can go over them."

October 7th... these damn things are DUE 10/15!   I pinged her today to see if we can schedule time next week.   The lack of communication is beyond frustrating, and unless she comes back and says "you only owe $3,000"  I'm pretty sure this will be the end of our business relationship.   I'll spend the remainder of the year searching for a new accountant.

Health...mental and otherwise

So it turns out that this pandemic thing is wearing on me.  I am go grateful for our home, these people who are here and a solid steady job.  My experience is really nothing compared to folks who have lost jobs, businesses and family.  I have this perspective - I am lucky, I am ok.  However, I am tired.

It is no secret that I enjoy traveling for pleasure and for work.  Those little jaunts to San Jose are good for my career and my well being.   I haven't been since January and I honestly don't expect to go at all in 2021.

We cancelled multiple vacation plans in 2020 - the first being a spring break cruise to Mexico, which for a brief moment was a week in San Diego hanging out at a luxury hotel.  We cancelled the cruise (before the cruise line cancelled the sailing) and booked ourselves on a Western Caribbean cruise out of Miami 1 year later.  That sailing is scheduled to leave Miami on April 3rd, 2021, but as of last week, the cruise line has cancelled all sailings thru February 28th.   Realistically, a cruise the following month is not wise, even if it did happen.   Ships sailing from other ports are being turned around after a single person tests positive.  No one wants a repeat of the initial ships that were stranded with people getting sick.  Especially not for something as optional as a pleasure cruise.

With the window of likelihood for sailing in April dwindling, I found a similar sailing in 2022 and moved our reservation.  Oddly, the cabin was the same (a balcony) but it's in the "Concierge Class" which comes with lots of perks.  The fair was actually cheaper, and do I love perks.   Unfortunately, our travel companions didn't book within the same haste as us, and while on the ship are not in the special category.   To be honest, I think their original fare was much less than ours and the move to the CC wasn't practical.   Provided the sailing occurs, we'll use the CC perks to reserve the activities we had little hope of being able to book as lowly new customers.    We could get our money back at this point, but I am looking forward to this cruise.  And, technically, our travel companions could book into the CC class, but they don't seem too interested in adding an extra $4000 to their vacation costs.  Sheesh, some people.

We are trying for an alternate activity to replace the now moved cruise.  We have two - two bedroom villas reserved in Palm Springs for the week of spring break this year.   I've never been to PS, but I love sunshine, a pool and not washing my own sheets.  It's been fun researching a new location for things to do, but I just looked at the travel restrictions in Palm Springs and unless things get better it looks like we won't be going there either.   

A lot can happen between now and April, I hope that people do their part and stay home for Christmas - like they didn't do for Thanksgiving, and that this vaccine works (and that it doesn't have long term ill effects that we can't foresee).   

Our summer travel plans have shifted quite a bit.  Instead of using my sabbatical to  go to New York as planned last summer, the rescheduled time off will include a 1 week house rental at Seabrook in July.  Fingers crossed for good weather.  Our good neighbors will come join us for some or all of the week which will be fun.  The rest of the time off will be spent doing other things - maybe time at the lake with Marty & Lynne or if Lucy can go to summer camp a few days that's just Jason and I somewhere.   

The sabbatical program is wonderful, but it is hard when your partner doesn't get the same time off.   I expect that I'll take the peanut to go camping with Grandma G.

The other activity I am mulling is to change the flooring in my office.  I was thinking a fabulous tile floor would be great, but Jason would be more comfortable extending the hard wood floors.  I agreed that if we can find the same exact flooring that I would agree to using it, but if not - I get to mix it up!  Tile or a different (darker) carpet.    It will be a big job - obviously we will hire out the actual floor material removal and replacement, but there is a LOT of stuff in this office.  (Especially at Christmas)  Some of it may be time to part with, but other stuff I love.  I do think better storage could make a difference.  So, the planning for that has begun to form in my head.  

Anyway..here we are, all plans and nowhere to go.

Back yard landscaping

Trees along the fence

The pretty maple and some rocks

stepping stones to the gate

the natural hedge/fence to soften the slope

Fence me in!

Our fence is finally in!  Because the back nine is so far down the ravine the back part of the fencing is impossible to see, but indeed there is a six foot fence down there.   So far, the fence is doing exactly what we didn't know we needed it to do - keep the critters from the green space out of our yard. It has been a long time since a furry being has left me the heart of a dead rat as a gift, but it happened a few times. So far, no more gifts.

Whew.  That was gross. 

Spring

The first mow of the lawn!  March 19.

I'm 5!

No-man cave

  Jason's land of the big tv and big couch.  Sadly, during the super bowl party all activity took place upstairs in the tiny tv land.  His wounds were soothed by a Bronco win.

Wait...what?

Ok, now the shutter saga is getting shadier, pun intended.

So, it appears that our builder feels bad about the window treatment order being messed up.  I don't think they can be held responsible for the one shade that arrived broken, but it also seems that they failed to order the shades we paid for on both back doors as well as the large window in the princess bathtub area.

To make things right, they have offered to upgrade the treatment on the door on the main floor to a shutter to match the other two windows (only one of which we have installed.)

This is a VERY pretty option and of course we said yes, but I'm still in awe of the earlier mishap where the windows were measured for the wrong type of treatment.

We will wait in anticipation of when these items will arrive, we have not yet heard a timeline, but I do know that one of the reasons these shutters are so expensive is that they make them custom to fit your exact window.  I don't imagine they have a warehouse of doors and window shutters just laying around.

These lovely things will not be in by Friday.  So, to use the master bathroom we will have to install a lesser temporary solution.  Jason says we should just tape a blanket to the window.  We have this extra one - classy?

Four sleeps until the house is ours.

 

Final kitchen

Stairs

So much for not popping over to look

I was 100% serious about not dropping over to the house to look at the progress, but that evil Jason made me go last night.

I'm so happy we did.

The detail work is happening now.  They are installing the closet and bathroom fixtures.  Our sod has been rolled out and the yards look amazing.  Our front yard is still extremely tiny, but now we could bury at least three people where as at the other house it was a single body yard.  The back yard is by no means expansive, but it is large enough for croquet and I love it.

There were workers in the kitchen installing our crown molding and the posts that will support the overhang on the island.  When selections of cabinetry and crown molding were done we did not have the benefit of having examples of all the other finish work that was standard to the house (posts, doors that sort of thing) and I think our selections look great!

There have been some drawers and pieces with our cabinets that have not been finished and last night we were told that some of the pieces arrived broken and had to be rebuilt.  We had ordered pull out cabinets in the island and in one of the cabinets flanking the stove.  It turns out pull outs were ordered for all the cabinets (which would be one extra) but one of the sets came broken.  The installer was in the kitchen mulling over how to custom build the pull outs and asked us what our preference was.  We made his day by saying we were happy with the one set that was already installed and that he didn't need to rebuild anything.

Making his day made all the workers happy and we got a high five.  Then I walked over to the fireplace to look at the paint job on the tiny and super wrong mantle and the lead wood worker called across the room to me and said "we're going to fix that, you'll love it."   I said "it was supposed to have an overhang right?"  He said something about the paperwork being confusing, but that he was still working on it.   I don't have many expectations as to what it will look like, but I'm hopeful that it will not look like a mistake and be reflective of the other amazing finishes in the house.  He said "trust me, you will love it."  All the other guys were all "he's the best, it will be great,"   I can live with that.

We get to do the formal walk thru tomorrow.  That leaves them with three official work days to finish it all up.  We sign our paperwork on the 20th or 21st.  Money transfers happen on the 21st and we close on the 22nd.

Lucy is holding it together pretty well.  We are being very lenient with attitude and making sure to focus our family time on playing with her.  She's ready for normalcy and I can't wait to give it to her.  She is a champion.  Leniency does not mean that I'm letting her get away with barking orders at me "Mom, I'm HUNGRY.  Juice, Toast!"  That is not how I roll.    She crossed the line this morning and we had a talk about it.  A calm, low toned talk.  Those are scary.

We are letting some rules slide because of the changing environment.  She gets to eat her breakfast in our room until we move, and I'm allowing her to watch the movie in the car on the way to school.  Once we move, our room will be a food free zone and the commute to school will be so short that we'll be back to no movies.  Right now, these are small accommodations and we've already talked about the new rules at the forever house.

Nine days

The Princess Tub

  Can you see it?  My favorite spot in the house will be this six fool long bathtub.  Yes, we had a tub in the old house, but this one is designed for a solo soak. 

It was hard to focus at work yesterday after seeing all the exciting changes in the house.  I stopped by after work and found that the carpets were fully installed, the mirrors in the bathrooms have been placed and all the shower doors are in place.

The under cabinet lighting seems to be working, and Jason's speakers were finally finished.  

We are getting right down to it and the time is going fast, and super slow at the same time.

We have our walk thru Friday, and I'm going to try and stay away until then, so that there are surprises when we do it.

Imagine the soups I will make on this cooktop!

New Photos

The progress last Friday was disappointing and Jason came home from the inspection deflated.  His faith that they would get everything done was diminished.

However, here we are just three and a half work days later and whamo!  It is starting to look sexy as heck in our new house.

I snuck in at 8:00 am this morning and snapped some pictures.   The top pictures shows the under-cabinet lighting and the progress on other electrical requirements such as plugs and switches.  The vent hood is in progress and the oven is ready to go.

The second picture is the nook next to the refrigerator cabinet.  This will be our coffee zone.  Cups up top, and coffee fixins in the drawers below.  

Looking across the room to our sink you can see how bright our kitchen will be even with the counter tops covered.  Jason assures me that he will install a dimmer for the under-cabinet lights so it won't always be as bright as an operating room, but we'll have the option if we want it.

coffee zone

bright kitchen

shutters

office

The last two pictures are the window treatments in the main living area, and then my office.  The Office picture has funky lighting because the walls look yellow when in fact they are grey.

I was thrilled to see that window treatments were mostly installed and that the carpet men were putting down the carpet pad and working on installation.

At a friend's urging we upgraded the carpet pad to the best they had to offer and I don't think we'll regret it.  The warmth, softness and durability will add to the longevity of the carpet (also an upgrade from the standard offering.)  We did learn from the builder grade carpet in the other house.  GO BIG because changing carpet is hard.

I imagine they will be done with the carpet by tomorrow.  I wasn't able to get upstairs because of the carpet install, so all my fun finds were on the main floor.

In addition to what you can see, they also installed the shower door on the main floor.  Because the tile goes all the way to the ceiling, the standard height shower door looks dwarfed but I think I will be able to get over that within about 4 minutes of moving in.

They haven't painted that bathroom the custom color yet, but they will.

I could see that the shutters in the princess bathtub area had been installed on the back side of the house. but not on the window facing the neighbors.  The blinds on all the main floor windows were in with the exception of the door to the deck and the second main living room window.

So...here's a story.  We really wanted the wood shutters on the windows in the main living area, they are beautiful, but super expensive - like $600 per window expensive.  So, we opted to do little shutters on the two windows flanking the fireplace and do the faux (fake) wood blinds on the large expensive windows.  Our logic was, we'd likely never have the little windows open, so the shutters would let in light but be very pretty.

We made our selections at the design center and months pass.  As I'm walking thru this morning I see that one of the two main windows has a shutter on it.  A SHUTTER.  The two little windows have faux wood blinds.  HOLY HECK!  Did the person that came and measured the windows mess up?  We are hoping so.  We won't know until Friday, but keep your fingers crossed.  This would be the first error that has worked in our favor.  The only downside of the shutters is that they can never really be open - we can tilt them, but a clear view of the back will not happen.  But, if you need a clear view of my trees in the back, put your shoes on and go stand on my giant deck!

18 days

In drawer trash bins

My little carpenter

Fireplace!!!

We are getting right down to it.  The tile is installed in the kitchen and in most bathrooms.  Grouting still needs to be done and there is some finish work to be done in our master bathroom.

The fireplace tile does not look like I expected but after seeing it on the fireplace, I rather like it, which is good because it's too damn late to do anything about it now.  Once the purple spacers are removed and the grout is in it wont look so pink.  I wish the mantle was more ornate - or that it matched the crown molding that is in the kitchen.  I'm going with the flow on this item, because when the room is put together a traditional style mantle might not be the right thing.  We will see.  (I also think that with a checkbook, a topper could be added.)

Our hardwood floors are in, the cook-top is installed, but not connected, the stove and microwave are onsite ready for installation.

We have sinks, faucets and working toilets in all bathrooms, but they installed the wrong toilets so that has to be dealt with.  We paid extra for "comfort" height toilets and they installed their standard toilets.  Had they not charged us extra then it wouldn't be an issue, but they did and we want the right items.  $460 is nothing to sneeze at, or piss about.  ha ha.

We have been delayed a week, which is awful but not the end of the world.  We were able to quickly reschedule all of the deliveries and child care plans.  We were adamant that the toilet problem should NOT impact the delivery date - we will allow the plumber access to the house after we move in if that's when they need to swap out the toilets.  Delays at this point are costing us money and we're already living in a state of boxes, so no more delays!  Damn it.

Kitchen

I can see it better now!

a few months ago

Exterior

It's really starting to come together.  The paint job looks great (from here) and I love the trim.  I think we'll end up with less junk in the garage, but I understand this is a work in progress.

Siding done!

We have a due date.

January 18th.

This is a mere 97 days away.

In that time we have:

• Terri's annual trip to Phoenix (4 days)
• A concurrent visit from the in-laws 8 days)
• Book group (gotta get reading!)
• Halloween!
• Dinner party with friends on 11/6
• Veterans' Day (Lucy has the day off, so she and I are going to take the bus to the aquarium)
• A San Jose trip (3 days)
• Thanksgiving
• Another book group
• The Renton trio (that's us) annual dinner and night out to snow flake lane
• Tree decorating
• Christmas
• New Years
• Undecorating
• Then 18 long days of packing and purging

House things that we have to do:

• lock in the mortgage rate (anytime after 11/18)
• schedule delivery of appliances
• schedule apartment pack & move date
• schedule delivery of new furniture
• schedule delivery of items in storage
• Schedule delivery of ikea things (or get them ourselves)

1/18/2016 seems so super far away, but it will go fast and I'm happy to have an actual date to plan.  Sadly, the 18th is a holiday, so we've asked to move the final close up to the previous Friday so we can use that weekend, but we'll see how that works out. If we absolutely cannot get into the house before the weekend, we may borrow a gigantic car (truck with a lid) and head to Oregon to pick up the fancy tv that Jason has picked out for his basement oasis. I'd rather things of that value just magically arrive at the house because I'm not keen on lifting and breaking such things, and I seriously doubt that the tax free nature of purchases in Oregon will offset gas and impulse purchases/

The front

All closed up!