Simple Gifts

Ed and his helper, Taylor, started on the stairs right away. Because of where the basement will be dug, they will lay them out to go straight down. Later, he will take off the lower section and turn them toward the deck between the garage and the house. They plotted out where the pier posts should be and set those on Friday. Saturday,the stringers went up.

That was about the point where Ed realized that the main electrical wire coming from the box at the road to the main panel was currently under the concrete slab for the former doublewide, and try as he might, he couldn't pull it. It would have to be re-routed. You guessed it. Right underneath the new stairs. So the stairs were put on hold, and Ed began trenching. Yes, he tried a ditchwitch. Actually it was one that a neighbor very graciously lent us. Problem was.. it was older than Ed...no, really. Anyway it wasn't cutting it (no pun intended) so he just used the backhoe.

In the meantime, Taylor was attaching the steps to the stairs. By Sunday night, we had a functioning set of stairs. They still need a hand rail, so they are a little scary, and they need more lighting at night, but it sure beats climbing up the ladder!

Every day, Ed has been working literally dawn to dusk. The excavator team will be here first of next week do dig the basement, and all the prep work has to be complete. We also have a window of opportunity because the rainy weather has held off. We know that will change in a big hurry.

Tuesday and Wednesday, Lance The Electrician was here, and he and Ed did whatever electricians do to re-wire the main panel and put new wire in the trench.

The phone line needs to be located (underground) and relocated.

There is an existing water line that was buried too shallow and needs to be buried deeper.

Thursday, I had a whole list of chores to do in town and left in the morning. Ed was already outside working. I got home just after sunset, and it was getting cold and dark. Ed was still outside with a shovel.

"I was using the backhoe, digging for the phone wire, and snagged that shallow water line. It's broken someplace underneath the concrete slab.", he said. He looked exhausted.

So, ok, one night without any water. No shower, no flush toilet.

Friday was our 10th wedding anniversary. After laying awake most of the night, Ed decided that it would be best just to cut the pipe at the wellhead and lay new pipe over to the garage. The existing water pressure tank is over 15 years old and probably should be replaced, so we'll just get a new one and put it in the garage. So, we drove to Longview for plumbing parts, got home by 2:00 pm, and Ed went to work to get it together so we could have a shower. Yea!

Not.

As Wally Wright, our Pro Hardware Store owner says, "It's not a plumbing project without three trips to the store."

While Ed fitted stuff together, I headed in for the few parts we didn't realize we needed.

By 7:00 he had everything together. It takes two hours for the PVC glue to dry so we had some dinner and waited for 9:00 to turn on the water to take showers. We were both tired and sticky.

At 9:00, Ed went down to turn on the water and check for leaks. In all the plumbing he has ever done, Ed has never had a pipe leak. The water came on fine, everything looked good, then ...gush. In his fatigue, Ed had primed the PVC pipe and checked fit, then forgotten to put on the glue. Now there was a flood in the garage, and a very tired, very unhappy Ed. He got pipes dried off and glued together. Two nights with no shower and no water. Do we wait up until midnight to shower? No, we do not. Feeling like refugees, we climbed into bed and went to sleep. At least we had a bed and a roof. Could be worse.

Saturday morning, Ed got up and turned the water on for another test. Oh, blessed water! Oh glorious shower! What wonderful gifts we ignore every day!

Sunday morning we went to church. After lunch Ed called the excavator company to see what day they would be here to dig the basement.

"Tomorrow...we'll be there at 6:30." he says.

OOhh kay. Ed started filling in the big trench across the driveway and cleaning up the site. By the light of sunset, we plotted the site on the ground, spray painting as we went, the site plus three feet around for foundation. I'm spatially impaired..it's hard for me to look at a set of plans and get a good feel for how big the rooms will be. For the first time, I could stand in one spot and imagine where the rooms would be. I'm still in a daze.

Road Show

Saturday:

The new buyer of our doublewide, who is also a contractor, showed up to take a look at the worksite and give us a timeline for the doublewide's removal.

"Jim," I said, "You guys are content to tear stuff apart and use power tools. But this is my nest, and it's all disturbed. I need to know when I need to have absolutely everything in a box and out of here."
He looks around. He thinks. "Tuesday morning." he says.

Cool! I can do that. So I get in my car and take off to do a few errands. When I get back an hour later, Ed says, "Change of plans. The removal crew will be here Monday at noon to start tearing the center shingles off the house and sawing it in half, so everything needs to be done by Monday morning."

Shoot me now.

Sunday:

We both skipped church and I started frantically packing. About noon I ran out of boxes and quickly learned that cardboard boxes are not easy to find in a little town where most of the businesses are closed on Sundays. So..ok..my boxes are a little soggy from last week's rain and smell like pizza dough. Could be worse. Ed was working outside the house tearing the last of the decking apart and clearing the way for the big move. He and his helper, Taylor, muscled the water softener, washer and dryer, and hot water heater into place in the garage. Sunday we went to bed feeling wrung out.

Monday:

Bright and early..actually not so bright..it was still dark. I hear a truck rumble up and stop at the driveway. We jumped up to find an excavator in our yard.

"How did you find us in the dark?" Ed asked.

"Actually" the young man laughed, "I used to live here. You bought this place from my dad."How weird is that?

So Nick started tearing dirt away from the front of the doublewide so it could be moved freely from its site.

Now I'm to the point where I'm just tossing stuff into boxes like a mad woman. My neighbor, Vickie, showed up with a shovel and started to move some plants and flowers that I had intended to move earlier and never gotten to. Then she moved on in to help me pack the kitchen. Thank goodness for good neighbors!

After Vickie left, I emptied the fridge into the new one (in the garage) and started cleaning the old one.

The buyer is taking the spa too (thank goodness) so Nick helped him load it up on a trailer using his excavator, then back to digging.

I heard some salty language and the word "water" ... Nick had accidentally ripped up a water line that wasn't buried deep enough, so Ed turned off the water at the well.

That's when the house movers showed up.

In strides a man with a hammer, pry bar and a sawsall. We'll call him Vladimir because I can't remember his name. He had his shirt unbuttoned, a cigarette dangling from his mouth, and a big gold chain around his neck.
"You can stop cleaning." Vladimir says, "We're gonna make a big mess." And he did. While his buddies were up on top ripping off shingles and taking out bolts. Vladimir began prying up carpet and sawing sheetrock.

Guess I'll stop dusting now.

We still don't have working plumbing inside the apartment, and the doublewide bathroom is off limits, but the guys had it easy. Me...not so much.

By the end of the day, the doublewide was unbolted and sawed in half but still together. The utilities were still hooked up, but was otherwise gutted. Our bed, clothes and what was left of my kitchen was in the garage. We had to shower inside the gutted doublewide then trek out to our new digs in the garage.

Just about the time I was so tired I couldn't blink, the phone (yes, we still had a phone) rang. Vickie-The-Wonder-Neighbor had dinner waiting for us. A thousand blessings on her and her family!

Ed and I fell into bed in our garage and couldn't sleep a wink because we were so darned tired.

At least the toilet and shower were still hooked up inside the doublewide.

Tuesday:

Tuesday morning we had a brief respite, which means nobody showed up to start work while it was still dark. At 0900.Vladimir and crew rolled up and began the final work for the Big Move. In real life that means, the water, sewer and all connections are undone, and the thing is pulled apart about two feet. When they finished what they could, they waited...and waited.. for the excavator to show up to tug the front part of the first section out so the semi tractor could hook up to it. No excavator. By now our phone was out of service and cell phones don't work up here, so they couldn't call their boss. At about 2:00 they packed up and left.

Ed temped in the toilet (oops wrong waterline connector) and the hot water heater running so we could at least take a bath. Did I mention this bathroom is upstairs in the new apartment, and I use the term "upstairs" loosely because technically...there are no stairs..only a ladder. So here's how it goes.. you wake up at 0200, find your clothes in the dark, socks, shoes,

and go outside. Around the corner, checking for raccoons and other night visitors, and up the aluminum ladder...the cold, wet, slippery aluminum ladder. Inside the new apartment, take off your shoes so as not to spoil the ungrouted tile, get down to business, put some water from the tub faucet in a bucket and "flush" the toilet. Shoes back on, and down the ladder. It could be worse. It could be cold and raining.

Someday we'll look back on all this and laugh.

At 4:00 in the morning, the water softener began it's regularly scheduled recharge cycle. The one we forgot about. All those of you that know how many gallons of water it takes to flush a water softener, raise your hand. No? Well I can tell you..it takes about 40 gallons. Using a five gallon bucket and a plastic kitchen garbage can, that's about 15 trips outside. We got about three hours of sleep.

Wednesday:

Wednesday Vladimir showed up by himself, with his boss right behind driving the semi tractor. Jim, the truck driver, points to my far corner landscaping and says "Is it ok if I drive over that stuff?"

I just stared at him, stunned. "I guess so, but I may cry."

"Ok." he said, and climbed in his truck.

They hooked up the tractor to the trailer tongue and start jockeying the first half of the doublewide around. Vladimir is jumping under the moving trailer like a chipmunk in a national park. I would have been glad to dial 911 in the event of his demise, but we had no phone.

I could drag out this narrative to each heart-stopping step,..smashing every plant I own, missing the corner of the new construction by about a half an inch, almost taking out the wellhead about six times, but words wouldn't describe it.

Finally after an eternity, the first half of the doublewide went down the road, and the show was over. Nothing to see here, folks, go back to your homes. Oh wait....we don't have one! Eventually we climbed our ladder, took a bath in our tub, went downstairs and slept in our garage.

Thursday:

Thursday morning I had an appointment in Portland and was gone all day. After I finished the first appointment I decided to hit the tile outlets and other tile stores in town, in the northwest area of Portland. What a waste of time. The warehouse outlet had NO granite tiles, and the other showrooms were apparently too high end for someone showing up in a three year old Jeep because I couldn't gain the attention of a single salesperson in any of the showrooms. Oh well. I'll find what I want elsewhere. By the time I cleared the grocery store and Lowe's (more grout), and got home it was late afternoon. The second half of the doublewide had magically disappeared while I was gone! Ed took a few shots of the last half leaving.

Ed and Taylor have been working like donkeys all week. Taylor took the broken cinderblocks from around the doublewide, and broke them up as baserock for the barn road. It's amazing what youth and energy will do! We'll fill in with smaller gravel later.

Through all of this Ed has had the patience of a saint. Every time I get frazzled he makes sure he does whatever it takes to get me through. We stood outside and looked up at the west side of the apartment and new garage for the first time, and we were pretty happy with what we saw.

Tomorrow they'll start the stairs. Yea!!

Ed Gets A Wedgie or Working Without A Net

Saturday we drove to Portland to visit family, and on the way home we stopped at Lumber Liquidators to pick up our flooring. That in itself is a story, which includes but is not limited to, a very tired Dodge Intrepid with a trailer, an entire forklift full of flooring that fell (nobody was hurt), and a very nice young couple from Sandy, Oregon with whom we chatted for the better part of an hour. Finally we were home with a very full pick-up truck. Who knew you could fit an entire apartment floor into a truck?

While the weather has been beautiful, cool evenings and warm days, Ed wanted to get that chimney finished before the rains start in ernest. Last winter he wrapped the plywood with roofing paper to keep the bulk of the water off. But to shingle it, he wanted to take off the roofing paper, wrap it in Tyvek and then put the shingles on. This is a very tall, very steep roof, and the chimney is way up above all that. Needless to say, it's a little scary. Ed came up with a great idea to take some of that very heavy vinyl lining that was used to line the pan under the balcony and wrap a wood wedge with it. The vinyl made it much less likely to slip on the shingles.Then he put two huge eyebolts on the end of the wedge, looped a rope through the eyebolts and around the chimney. Now he had a level place to stand and work, and was (some) less likely to slip off the roof. Not exactly OSHA standards but, hey, this isn't a union jobsite. I'd be happier if he had a net.

Once he could work in relative safety, he tore off the roofing paper, put up the Tyvek and started shingling. Since the chimney is tapered, almost every shingle had to be cut to fit. Did I mention the warm days? Yeah, it was way past warm.

See that ladder? No..the yellow one against the chimney. Yeah, that one. Well the shingles go all the way to the top.

After the chimney was shingled, Ed went after the rest of the west side. He wanted to get it all done and get the staging down and out of the way before the doublewide gets moved. And check out that finished chimney!

Then yesterday, the fateful phone call. We got word that the doublewide will probably go this Monday or Tuesday. That's like...four days! OK I knew it would be soon, and I knew I had lots of stuff to do to finish getting ready. I had already scheduled a garage sale for this Friday and Saturday, and I'm now frantically and randomly throwing stuff into boxes and taping them shut.

Ed kicked into high gear and finished shingling the west side yesterday, and will be taking the scaffolding down today.

By Sunday we will probably be living a much more primitive lifestyle, although better than many in the world, and ours will only be temporary. But the computer will be in one of those haphazardly packed boxes I mentioned and we will be off-line for several weeks. Wish us luck. I'll take lots of pictures of them sawing the doublewide in half..or however they do that.

Moose and Squirrel

I've never been a fan of getting up early in the morning. Having said that, I must admit that once I'm up and awake, early morning is a special part of the day, not to be missed. If only I enjoyed coffee.... Somehow sipping on a diet Coke and watching the sunrise just doesn't have the same warm fuzzy literary sound.






Nonetheless, it was a gorgeous beginning to a busy week. After just a few magical minutes, the mist cleared and we were left with a fine fall day.












Ed finished putting in all the lights, switches, outlets and inlets. Along the way there were a few alternative words thrown about as Ed fought with cheap Chinese-made screws that bent over and wouldn't thread. Then there was the light fixture that had been the victim of someone's five-finger discount and was missing some crucial parts. Keep in mind that the store is an hour each way! The grout I picked out was way too light for the tile. We had to get a different color only to find out we didn't get enough and had to put off grouting the shower.

Finally all the electrical is complete, all the switchplates are on and we have power upstairs.



We put a fan in the living area and one in the bedroom. I like the one in the bedroom. I picked it out. I especially like those little shades. What I didn't notice was the forest scene around the motor complete with moose and bear. I have since learned that there is a little known Washington building code section 412.1006.2687WBC that says all new construction and any remodel construction more than 500 sq ft, must include or depict wildlife, either living or dead, to maintain the builder's green status, to include but not limited to antler furniture, taxidermied fish or metal cutout artwork. Lucky for me our moose fan with antler pulls has it covered.
Ed and I spent one afternoon driving to Longview running from store to store with a list as long as my arm. Then to Portland to Lumber Liquidators to pick out hardwood flooring. That'll take three weeks to get here. We're also waiting for the rest of the tile to come in so that we can finish that up. We spent a day driving to Seaside to talk woodstoves with someone too new to the job to be of any assistance, but it was a lovely drive. So our time on the actual jobsite has been a little limited. Sunday afternoon we spent some time ripping down spruce boards for baseboards and window trim.
There are just a million things at once, and it's making me a bit squirrelly. We still don't have a firm date on moving out the doublewide and I'm still packing up stuff to move..some to the barn, some to the garage for the apartment. Garage sale pile or garbage pile? I haven't used some stuff for the last three years, but will I need it in the next two? Paper or plastic? This next week, Ed will be working to finish shingling the chimney and I will be trying to finish packing the house.

It's A Home Run!

Big Ed is finally retired! After moving to Washington, Ed continued to commute to California every week for work. Now, three years, nine months and two days later, he is home and able to work on his project as much as he likes. He's out there cutting tile as we speak..er..type.


I did manage to sneak in a day or two of leisure before he threw himself wholeheartedly into the job though. Ed's dad, Ed Sr. and his wife Elaine came up for several days and we had a wonderful, relaxing visit. Ed Jr couldn't help himself and snuck off once in a while to play with his tools, install the bathtub and get ready to paint. Before company left, we took in a dinner cruise on the Portland Spirit stern wheeler, out of Cascade Locks. If you ever get the opportunity to take this dinner cruise, do it. It's a beautiful view of the river at sunset.



Company left Saturday and Sunday after church we were rolling paint over primer. The entire apartment took a nice coat of Sherwin Williams Summer White, then the living area was given a glaze coat of Valspar Cliveden Leather which was a 6 to 1 mix, glaze to paint. Once the base coat of Summer White was dry, using a brush, I applied the colored glaze in a criss-cross pattern. Then I ragged and rolled the glaze with dry pieces of old t-shirt, and feathered the edges of each section with a small dry chip brush. It took forever and my right arm feels like it's been filled with lead.





But between the glaze color and the drywall texture, the walls look like old world plaster. And the Summer White which has a tan/yellow tint, now looks white. It took two days to do the living room and kitchen.


The bedroom and bathroom already have the base coat of Summer White, but will get a different color glaze. The bedroom will be Valspar Lobby Yellow, and the bathroom will be Valspar Linen Napkin. And of course, the beauty of paint is that if you don't like it, you can just get another color!



As I mentioned, Ed is already working on tile. Doesn't that sound easy? Did I mention the cement backer board? Did you remember there are no stairs? I have no idea how much a piece of Durock weighs, but I can guarantee that they are heavier than a can of paint! So he hauled the Durrock up the ladder and over the balcony. The shower, bathroom floor, front entryway and two front closets will all be tiled.
I go to town tomorrow with a huge list of stuff Ed needs to finish installing the electrical fixtures...a double poled switch, whatever the heck that is..
those poor guys at the hardware store see me coming and hide! Friday Scott the Cabinet Guy comes to measure for kitchen cabinets.
Think we can get done before winter?

Color My World

Last Monday, the finish coat went on the sheetrock, and we are ready for primer and paint. The finish coat upstairs is a Venetian plaster finish, which is lighter and a little more complicated than a skip trowel finish. It should trap and reflect light, and at this point the plan is to put on a base color and then a glaze coat over that.

So down to the paint store I went. Used to be, you'd buy a quart of the color you thought you wanted, take it home, slap some on the wall and it would be too dark, or too light and you'd go buy something else. Now you can buy several little cans for about $3.00 each and go home and toss paint everywhere! To create a Venetian plaster look I will paint the walls a base color, then mix the contrast color 5 to 1 with glaze, to just barely tint the glaze, then sponge and wipe the glaze with dry rags.

The plan is to paint the living areas a tan/toast color and the bedroom a very soft yellow.I decided to try different color combinations of base coat and glaze before painting half a wall the wrong color, so I made a color board. I brought home 6 little cans and went to work. These are Valspar colors. The good news is..it showed me what I didn't want. The bad news is, I didn't hit on any combinations that just wowed me. The light yellow is a good base, as is the medium tan, but I'm not happy with the contrast. Surely it isn't my technique!

I'm still working on trying color combinations and reading about the application technique, so if anyone has any advise please leave a comment.

We began painting the downstairs garage Sunday. We got it all primed, then painted with Sherwin-Williams Summer White. Looks good!

See that stove? That is my pride and joy.. a Magic Chef 1000 circa 1920s , six burner, two ovens and it's going in the new house.

Cute Factor: 11

I took off to visit family for a few days and Ed stayed home and worked worked worked. Now that the sheetrock is all up Ed corralled a few kind neighbors, Dennis and Mike, and put the last window in. He also finished the last shingles on the front. You know, the really high ones that have to be done off a ladder, each one measured and cut.

He also finished making the last of the outlooks and one or two honey-do projects for me. Thank you Ed!

The sheetrock crew from Redmill Drywall out of Vancouver finished taping and mudding the sheetrock tape, and the finish crew will come in today and complete the job. Very exciting! The whole place looks, sounds and feels totally different!

I picked up primer on my way home from the airport yesterday, and as soon as the finish coat is dry, we can start priming and painting the walls. Things are picking up speed.

Sidebar: On the cute factor scale, these little guys are about an 11. They come through the yard with Mom on a regular basis. They ignore all the construction noise..go figure.l