Workin' woman

Wow. This last year has been an adventure! I am taking stock and gearing up for spring, time of renewal, time to get things going again...
Sadly, I sucked in the gardening department last summer. Absolutely.  I think I got 10 tomatoes out of the deal.  I also was too busy to tend flowers, which I love doing.  Everything is a trade-off, and I'm okay with it all,  I was having a lot of fun!
It is the time when I start looking for my garden gloves and clippers so I can go outside and put things in the ground.  Primroses have already been purchased and planted and lend a wee bit-o-color on a grey day.
The year:
1. Our guinea pigs, Guinevere and Flambe, can now be visited in the pet graveyard that came with the house. No worries, it was natural causes.
2. I  finally painted my living room!  It only took almost two years, and three color choices spread at sporadic places on the walls before I committed and painted it fully.
3. There is a wonderful partner, friend, man in my life.  And I am having a blast.
4. I was looking at jobs with my daughter, who is going to college, and saw one that I qualified for with a nearby 501(c)3.  I applied and got it!  I was going to look for a job by June, and here I am, a workin' woman again.
5. My "unusual" medical stuff seems to be in a holding pattern.
6. My daughter graduated high school, got a piece of work not-really-sane boyfriend, flailed around, quit college, pushed every button and limit I ever had...put her head back on,  started college, ... and started seeing the same boy again.  Argggh.  Pretty sure she is not going down the same path but if she needs to go, I can't stop her. (Which kills me....but it is all part of life, and making mistakes, blah, blah, blah)
7. Growing more and more gray hair. (see above...)
8. Our son is growing leaps and bounds and achy and grumpy and joyous all within the same five minutes.  Ah, to be 14 again.
8. Bought a new (used) car. It is a little zippy.  I have already been pulled over for zippiness, not speeding.  No ticket, however! Killer gas mileage.  40+mpg.
9.  Almost started working on the upstairs bathroom again.  Then it was decided to sister joists under that bathroom to stop the floor/ceiling from flexing which entails my dining room ceiling coming down.  And, while we are at it, might as well re-do the dining room electrical.  Waiting for that project to become a manageable size again with a firm cost. Oh, and I suppose the discretionary funds to complete it in my savings account would be nice.  I would love a soaking tub again.  Sigh.

Port Townsend, Ft. Worden beach. 

Hiring a contractor - why I screwed myself

I had a contractor out last week familiar with old house restoration come look at the farmhouse.  He had a multi-page article in our local magazine in his restoration of a century old craftsman, so would understand how to fix all the funkies in my old house.... keeping its integrity without Home Depotizing it. 
This is how in the last four years I have screwed myself.  By doing (what seems like) four years of research and how-to classes and online information and books, by hiring my own labor when things get over my head (sometimes it doesn't take much!), by shopping craigslist and all the re-use stores... well, that basically makes me a cheapskate.  Since I can find most anything I need dirt cheap, I can't see paying someone $8K to replace the siding on my leaking exterior wall (and weatherproof, and seal, and replace windows).  One wall.  One wall of six.  Because I know with a bit of hunting I could find leftover cedar siding from someone's project for a couple hundred. I could get those windows for $700.   And if I had the experience to be able to know and explain how to fix whatever weirdness (mold? rot?) is under that siding... I could have Javier do it for $300. 
See the knowledgable contractor knows what to do.  I don't.  But it is not worth the $7K difference for me to hire him.  And that is why I screwed myself.  I can't get someone in who really knows his old house stuff because I know I can do it less expensively.  I already figured out if This Old House was going to re-do my house, I wouldn't want them, since I watch what they put in and think "Holy crap, they paid full retail for that gas stove/old barnwood flooring, patio flagstone, etc etc. that they could have got for 1/5 price on craigslist?"  Cheap. Skate. 
I still haven't had that architect out that I won at Wilder's school auction.  At least I don't have to fret about that money!

Keeping me honest : to-do list

Since I seem to be moving rapidly from one project to another... I thought if I wrote them down here maybe, just maybe, it would keep me focused so I could actually finish a couple before summers end. 
-finish painting the barn and the chicken coop.
-reattach and/or replace the trim on both.
-take out three of the seven holly trees and make a patio.
-paint the damn house.
-finish the damn bathroom.
-find reason why it rains inside my bedroom window sill and fix.
-reattach my interior base moulding.
-rewire the garage (have my electrician find where the power originates and replace)
-have neighbor show me how to replace my trucks brakes...
-then do it on the horse trailer brakes, too.
-clean out car(s).

The bathroom and bedroom leak really bother me.  But in the day-to-day of everything they get ignored, I am hoping now that it is written it will be like indelible marker on my soul until I finish.

Not my barn. This is a barn I drive by on my way to the ferry that has always fascinated me since it is such a rambling affair.  I can only imagine my to-do list if I owned this. Shivers.  Since this picture, part of it has collapsed.

Plan of Attack - farmhouse

So say I had $10,000. And with it I could do any house project I wanted. (Which I guess is not that much considering what I am working on --it could disappear fast.)
Some options are to:
1. Paint the whole house and replace some siding (who is burrowing in my siding? Do I really want to know?)
2. Replace my three garage doors (two of which are broken) and the painted FOAM filled support beams-- part of the previous owners Walmart crafty repairs. God I love them for the humor aspect when I am not cranky about their workmanship. Foil. Foam. Empty paper towel rolls. Why buy it when you have perfectly good repair materials laying about the house, preferably from the garbage or burn pile?
3. Foundation work. Add support to the basement and stabilize the south wall which has a bit of a tilt. Should my house move like I live on the train tracks when youth are running rampant on the main floor? Granted they are boys, but still.
4. Move my fridge to the kitchen. Yeah, a novel concept... it is currently in the mud room. This job involves electricians, and they never come cheap.
5. Build out a two level studio/guest house into the loft and main floor of the garage. This might be a weeeee bit more than $10K. BUT it could be an income generator down the road.
6. Build a porch. I have always wanted a porch to sit on and narrate the neighborhood goings on. My house would be cuter with one, too.
7. Something else that I can't remember now.

A side note: I was doing house research this weekend and found the obit for a 92 year old woman who was born in my house. Makes me sad I found out about her from a news article about her passing. I would have liked to invite her over and visited.

Updating the to-do list 2011

I dug out my old to-do list, which "dug out" is relative considering it is located on my computer in Microsoft One-note. Looking it over I am always surprised about what I get done. See, I think us old house owners don't remember all the stuff we DO do, since there are always new projects in front of us clamoring for attention. Like my house siding is all of a sudden looking very sad. Like literally it is popping and cracking where just three months ago it was fine.
So on the 2012 to-do list it goes.
This is a moment to recognize that which has been accomplished.
1. Rebuilt complete horse fencing. Hired labor for post digging and fence pulling.
2. Finished downstairs bathroom. Hired, fired, hired labor for plumbing and electrical. (I really need to put pics up of the bathroom, it took me two years)
3. Built raised garden beds. My regular garden is too far away (the end of my property) so I built beds from composite wood next to my kitchen.
4. Painted one side of the barn. I paint one side a year, don't ask.
5 Demossed roof. Hired men who dressed in mountain climbing apparatus and scaled my steep roof to get the goo off.
6. Completed a major trim of wayward bushes. Laurel, snowball bush, quince, apple trees, they were all getting crazy and out of control. Hired someone to trim the 100 year old trees, I did the bushes standing in the bed of my truck (for height) with electric trimmers.
7. Planted several gardens - flower, vegetable and bee.
8. Dreamed about building a porch.
9. Dreamed about finishing the loft and one car area of my three car garage.
10. Bought the kids dad a car, his money my skills. (I love negotiating for cars , so friends and family have me buy their cars.)
11. Cleaned horse trailer. Alot harder than it sounds.
12. Bought pressure cooker. Canned jam. Processed 20 pounds of tomatoes.
13. Pulled carpet out of Wilder's soon to be room and painted floor.
14. Painted various rooms.
15. Repaired barn from bully horses and laid yards and yards of gravel on my road and in outside the horse barn to hinder the mud.
16. Since moving in three years ago I have replaced the stove, furnace, kitchen sink, one bathroom and in process on the second, fencing, some windows, and tore out all the wall to wall carpeting.

Quick done list

I have been busy. Or, I have been keeping other people busy. I lost my linkup for my cam, so pics will be later.
1. Put a new screen door on. I did it! With Dennis helping lift it up while I screwed it in.
Two minor details. a) I was soooo careful putting the z-bar on. But moved the door at the last minute, so mounted the z-bar on the other side of the door. So my door opens on the other side from what I wanted. I am embracing it. b) I found a lottery ticket shoved in the old broken screen door we took down used as a shim. If anyone needs lucky numbers from 1994, give me a holler.

2. Put the marble backsplash behind my kitchen sink. The marble came !free! from Craigslist. Thank you Capitol Hill person who was giving it away. This is the backsplash that was wood. Ah yes. Wood. One inch behind the sink, where water sits. It was the second thing I pulled out of this house. It was rotting.

3. Fixed the barn. Again. Dang horses that try to shove their large bodies in one stall together. And then try to get out the door at the same time.

4. Replaced the living room window. Added new window molding, interior and out. While doing this, found an newspaper clipping from 1964 when the Queen of Norway visited Poulsbo. It is from the Kitsap Sun.

5. Had the roof cleaned off and treated. There was a whole lotta moss on this thing in one year. That is why northwesterners are sometimes called "mossbacks", we inhabit a wet clime. The two young men who scraped and brushed the roof... rappelled on our steep roof. It was rainy and windy. I felt so bad they were doing it in this weather so we made them cookies and hot chocolate.

6. Laid new carpet in the living room. Note: Sawzalls cut carpet REALLY quickly, but it will disturb your dog. If you have one.

7. Painted the living room trim.

8. Hired the plumber.

9. Picked out the marmoleum for the bathroom floor. I am getting screwed on the cost -- $560 for a (7 'x 8') floor. But there are not many people over here in Kitsap that know how to install (or want to install) marmoleum. It is pretty grueling.

10. Covered the bay window "bottom." I have no idea why it was uncovered, exposed, open to the elements, but it was. And now it is not.

11. Replaced the rotten garage door. Person size, not car size.

12. Replaced half the chicken coop roof. Am slowly doing the rest.

Still gotta do:
--Move dirt out of the basement (there is a pile of dirt in our basement, no clue why) It is where the plumber will be working.
--Replace crappy horse fence.
--Replace upstairs bathtub. Have the tub, need to move it in and build a frame for it.
--Move and replace house interior lighting. Not all, just a few.....

My new job -

I haven't actually applied for any jobs. That may be a hindrance and even an obstacle to being hired for one. But what I am going to do for the next month is be the project manager for my house. That way, I can get (the big) cursed projects finished around here. And be a focused mom for a month. Get that lad of ours settled in his educational prospects, keep the teenage gal on her toes. And keep my house clean. Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha

September and the Livin' is Livin'

I remember when I was startled toward divorce in my (what I thought was a) lifetime marriage ... on a subsequent doctor's visit about something else I asked her " Where is the book that explains how to navigate this? Is there a website to visit? " I had a similar reaction when the first wee baby Rose came to be... I went looking for a book, something like "Every Minute of Your Specific Baby's Existence" (couldn't find that title.) So in some educational assessment it would probably say I learn by the written word, not verbally, not by doing. You gotta give me something in text.
I have pulled out all my house books -- just to finish a flippin' chicken house roof. This is where perfectionism gets in the way of doing. We pulled off half of it, well half of half since alot is the nasty asbestos tile and I thought we could cover it.
On a similar vein. My chicken area fence is a comedic blunder of chicken wire and wood.
My house I would gently say is : in a shambles.
The horse fence is : dangerous.
I very much appreciate the housing blogs that tackle this stuff on their own. But I also realize they got someone in the background cooking, cleaning and if applicable, raising kids and taking care of animals that we don't know about. Or they don't sleep.
I have been canning applesauce, baking bread, getting educational stuff rolling for the kids, doctors, dentists, dump runs, hay hauling, garden mauling, chicken burials (don't even go there about eating them...), keeping the sheets changed and bathtub clean. Oh, and yesterday I cleaned the laundry room floor. Which means I can see it again.
I am tired right at the moment. Problem is I can't find the book that tells me if it is : female aging problems, weather related (it has turned cold and rainy here in the Pacific NW), or just that I have too much on my plate.
My solution is to hire someone to fix these things which is not at the moment feasible.

Image courtesy www.biggirlsruntoo.blogspot.com

House - Painted stairs

Yes, this could be considered a rather bold color... and yes, I did really like the white that the owners had the stairs painted, it was very "original" but with KIDS and their FEET and DOGS and their MUD and CATS and WHATEVER IT IS CATS DO my white house interior does not stay very white.

Some parts of it are even a dingy sorta dirtish color.

Electrical work done!

Two stories.

1. Olympic Wiring in Silverdale is absolutely fantastic. They did such an excellent job giving me a new panel and moving the service, and rewiring the main floor so it does not blow if I talk on the phone and turn on a light... plus did it within budget. The cranky cranky inspector who called them on things that I Did Not Even Hire Them To Do and wandered over to my new furnace to write it up for non-compliance (it was bogus, it was compliant) even said "They did a good job for you." Thanks to electrician Mike, who grew up in my neighborhood and remembered delivering the paper to my place when it was the big monster farm (not my three acres... more in the 180 acre range) I was sick while he was doing it, so he got no perks of coffee, goodies or pop. I did not want to infect the man with our tarnished germy foodstuffs.

2. I have started a three day process of changing a light fixture. Ah yes, you savvy do-ityourselfers may scoff at my longterm projects that take most people a couple hours (or hey, a few minutes) But before you go into full "full-of-yourself" mode, keep in mind what I am surrounded by. A) The fixture is on the second floor. Half of that area is still knob and tube. (I have not yet ventured into that costly update of electrical...) B) The fixture was managed by the previous owners. Cursed god-fearin' really really cheap and not very bright (I am guessing that last part--it could be that they were so god-fearin' that their ineptness at repair was because they prayed and had faith that god would take care of them, no matter what cheap crap they installed with what crappy methods and dangerous open wires BUT I DIGRESS) The fixture blew both it's lightbulbs out of their socket. Like, turn on the light, an explosion occurs, you are surrounded by a blue light and then darkness. Quite exciting, completely electrically nightmarish.
C) I have ceiling board over tongue and groove unblemished wood so had to go to Home Despot where Jim the electrician showed me how to install the "container" that the wiring goes in while in the ceiling. Maybe the correct term is "box" but it is a short squat tube shape, bright blue, so box just doesn't cut it for me. Anyway. Turns out I have the wrong box, and so he sells me a new one. wilder is all excited because I am taking him up into the attic to drill the new hole through the ceiling. (When he went to bed last night, he had me close the attic door that is in the bathroom... not wanting to risk any attic escapees, sometimes called Monsters) Funny how they can be so mature, and so kid at the same time. (I am fairly sure if the attic access was in my room I would close it at night, too)

Pictures Owed - This is a painted LR floor

Three Views - painted floor. First: 7.25 " baseboard (that electricians can hide wiring behind if you are not wanting to gut your whole house) with unhung picture (I have many pictures sitting just like this one.) Second : Thought I was going to paint the floor yellow first. Blech. No yellow, but there is an addition of our cat, Linda. The wood seams are visible here. Third : Sideways view, in case you have dropped your computer monitor on its side.

I have been not good at having my laptop with my dig camera and then keeping the transfer cord close, and then the camera batteries died, and then I lost my laptop charger cord, then the camera wouldn't work, then I had to buy new batteries, then put them in backwards and shook camera, then put them in the right way, then the laptop was in my other car. (No wonder Rose says I make excuses) Finally, all the pieces were in place with the camera charged, and I got to download old pics. Here are long owed pics of my living room floor. Timeline : 1. Moved into house. 2. Pulled carpets. 3. Sent Rose to hospital with asthma attack because of mentioned carpet pulling. 4. Threw carpets out window with Geri. 5. Had naked floors. 6. Had no money. 7. Laid wood floor over subfloor in my room. *forgot to mention asbestos flooring in my room pulled up and thrown out the window. 8. Painted kids floors upstairs. 9. Pulled so many fantasmagorically insane carpet staples out of the floor that I went through two staple pullers, ripped my floor up with screwdrivers, and bled several times when I was barefoot and walking across sticky uppy staples. ("wear shoes" comments would not be helpful right now.)

I had said I did not like my living room painted. Mostly because, well mainly because I can see the wood seams.

Here you go.

House - Heat and Electrical work

1. Victory on the heating front. Got my 500 lb dang oil furnace (I mean durn) dragged unceremoniously down the basement stairs and it is being installed! $1000 bucks. And I bought the "new" one off of craigslist. Can't have propane because it is in the basement, can't have gas because there is no service out here.
But the original 1200 lb. wood/oil furnace was OLD and mightily cracked. See there are huge bonuses to living in an old house. They are not so hermetically sealed that you get carbon monoxide poisoning if your furnace firebox has a 6 inch crack in the side. (in my mind, I am trying to be generous, but only come up with "snaky snaky sellers", hiding behind christianity to soothe your lyin' soul) Whoa, did I say that? I have never learned that forgiveness part of humanity. I will work on it before I die, but probably not with them. Did I mention the boys found more in the wetlands when camping? They pulled out a camper stair set and a computer monitor. Who the %*# puts a computer monitor, gas can, oil can, 20 foot rug, gas grill, motorcycle, truck and car parts "in the bushes" when the garbage truck takes pretty much anything you put out there away for free. Aaah. I think I figured it out. They buried or burned their garbage, not gonna give it to the man when God so graciously gave them these mini three acres to hide it all on! When our well water goes oily, I will know why.
Sorry. Big rant action there.
2. Hmmm on the electrical front. The first quote to do my electrical is $2500. And that is only for a new box, and to update the kitchen. That is it. No living room, dining room, bathrooms, laundry room or any of the bedrooms. So that may mean that this will be a kaboodle of bucks job to finish it all? And I just spent $123 which I felt was a luxury... on base molding for downstairs. Yes, I need it. No, heat is not more important. Why yes, I am lousy at setting priorities, why do you ask?
3. I have been subtley forced into thinking of my plywood painted floors (pics to come!!) and deciding I don't like them and want the wood underneath exposed and refinished. What are the chances that is less than $1K? Yeah, thought so.

Work - Procrastination Station - Right here

What I would rather be doing. Image Blue Shoe Farm Blog

Writing three blognotes in one day means I am procrastinating on other things. I have not written in a while on here due to the (still) active virus on my home computer, so I am never online at home. That means I get a lot of work done on the house, yard, etc, but not a lot of work done of PAID work . (I process dozens of work emails a day, call folks, yaddy-ya, etc) Due to this virus event, I have over 1700 emails waiting for processing in my inbox. I only have done 2 hours of computer time a week for the past month. That is not enough for me!
So I am behind on work, so am working on typing these little missives. Please give me the key to overcoming procrastination. I need to unlock a really really big door with it.
(Am leaving now to Go To Do Work)

House - Project List

I have actually finished another item on my to-do list. The big wicked festival of mud that was right outside the barn stalls is no more. Well, technically, I think it would be no more in the summer since it is dry, but that is besides the point. My retired neighbor Dan came over with a borrowed bulldozer and not only scraped the stalls (you would not believe the smell when you did down through 10 years of horse cesspool compressed into layers) (previous owner must have had major hoof problems with his horses if he let them stand in that), but also took away all the extra goo outside the stall doors. He absolutely rocks. And I don't know how to appropriately thank him. Then, I had a big BIG truck dump 12 yards of gravel down. I don't know how big a yard is, but I know it was a big truck that mooshed down my grass 4 inches into the ground it was so heavy. The other thing was my scoring deal on a new kitchen sink (the previous owners were a bit on the cheap side, and put in a plastic sink) (not kidding) . Home Despot had a 400 buck Kohler on sale for $52! Love that sort of deal. Now if I just had the time to put it, the bathroom vanity, sink, toilet, flooring etc etc in my house, I would be set!