Blue Shoe got a Restoration Award!

Well, in all truthfulness, not really the house per se, but the contractor got an award for the work he did on my home.  He did do a great job... insulation, wood windows, age appropriate siding, plus all the structural work in the basement. As it was phrased in the award ceremony...."an appropriate restoration with a restrictive modest budget"... meaning I was always on them about cost details.

It seems like this is a summer 2013 picture - dead grass, daisies in full bloom. Note the chair outside the window? That would be one of the kids not having their key to get in the house so they clamber through my bedroom window.  

Contractor - I found a good one.

My house has never been so strapped down.  It has been seismically retrofitted, with monster brackets tying the whole thing together.  That and the posts and beams are new should make this all more solid.  Should.  I notice my south wall is moving.  I notice this because the previous ding dong owners built the stairs so they don't all touch the wall... it looks like a floating staircase at points.  Yes, in architecturally significant homes they do this purposely and it is quite a feat, in my house... an accident because what - they ran out of wood?  I dunno, but it has always been this way and I have called it "charming" in my mind. If I think "charming" and "original" that allows me to be more generous of spirit than if I focus on the words "idiocy" and "cheapskate".  Some days it is a toss-up. 
The staircase is becoming more and more floating.  As in, the wall has moved a quarter inch away. 
Sigh. 
Guess we aren't done in the basement. 
I will have a structural engineer over to confirm, but I will have my contractor do the work.  Because even if I question how he supported the south wall, the bottom line is I can call him up and say "Walter, seriously, this wall is moving because of what you did". He does not argue, get all blustery about it and grumble that it was like that before, or he did it all correct it must have been something I did (can you tell what sort of people I have had do work previously?) He just says something like : Sue (the project manager) differed in opinion on how to support this but we ran all the numbers (and boy did they run numbers) and I thought this would work but I guess we need to revisit this, or yeah, we didn't know (blah de dah), let me come over and figure it out.  Other than this, they stayed in budget and did phenomenal work. The ease of working with them all on a plain old farmhouse is worth it.  And, with this house, nothing is ever simple.  And no, I don't want a new cookie cutter development house which would take no brain power to own. Because for me, I need to have a challenge.  Oh, you say, having teenagers, being a single mom, health adventures, a geriatric horse or two,  acreage, gardens, aging cars, chicken eating coyotes is not enough of a challenge for you?  No, no, it isn't.  I need an old bug chewed, slightly tilting, story-filled, farmhouse thrown in the mix!   And yes, I should probably plan on being buried in the backyard because all my money is sinking into this landboat. 

Dave the contractor

I mentioned before talking to a contractor about my house.  His name is David.  He has a slightly gravelly, slightly nordic (NW) voice and asks all the right questions. We walked through my house, and he just wanted me to talk about it.  Seriously?  The first person not bored to tears about old house stuff ad nauseum?  About history and old beams and fires and how that all shows in the house?  It was all good to him.
After my list of stuff that was beyond my skillset --mystery leaks through siding, unsupported bathtubs, strange wood chewing insects eating the top of my fir floor and foundation work--he wants me to fix the foundation (as you all said I should do first).  My foundation is not attached to my house, a common thing in an old house.  Some posts are missing or taken out. The SW corner of the house is taking a slight tilt downward - gravity must be particularly powerful in that corner of the house, or, the 102 years the house stood without gutters did not do wonders for the foundation.
David and Sue, the project manager, are going to add/replace/sister all sorts of materials in my basement.  They are going to attach my balloon framing to the cement foundation.  They are going to have me clean out my basement so they can access everything.
OMIGOD.   Clean out my basement?  THIS is why I don't get this particular job done.  I have no closets in my house, my basement is basically my house size closet.  You know, the one that you shove things in when people come over and rapidly shut the door so it does not fall all out on your head?    The garage is not an option - it is full of construction materials.  My horse trailer is the only available covered protection I have and not near large enough.  I'll figure it out.  David says they will help with the moving....

Change of focus - Mom's House

My mother bought a house 11 years ago so she would have someplace to call her own when she visited her grandkids. I know she would add "and her daughter" but I am a realist, and when her grandkids came on the scene they were quite the attention hogs. As it should be.
She is here about 3 months out of the year so liked having her little house. At about 900 square feet and built like a tank it is a solid, if petite, place. She is gearing up to sell it this spring and I recommended Javier to do painting before she got here from Michigan so she was not asphyxiated by fumes. I told him what she told me - which was the ceilings need painting. I unlocked the door, gave him some paint, and drove to Lowe's for more paint. When I returned he had me follow him around. "It looks like a little hole for a mouse back here... (behind her fridge) want me to patch that?" "I pulled off some of this where the hole was and there was a whole 18" paper hornet nest (in her shower)." Do you want me to paint over the green paint around the doors (incomplete paint job)" " Do you want me to attach her baseboards and sink the nailheads and paint?"
So a ceiling paint job turned into a Javier fixit couple of days. God bless that man. Did I tell you he charges me $150 a day? If he brings his cousin I pay $300. And a day is as long as it takes the job to be done?
Did I tell you I pay my plumber $150 an hour?

I wish a Javier for all of you...

Pic: My chicken coop- before it got the face and foundation lift--and before it got a new fence. 

My coop. My sad lovely little chicken coop.  Made from milled on-site lumber... a 2x4 is really 2" by 4".  Javier said it would be cheaper to fix this one than build anew.  And now, looking at what he has done... I agree.  If Javier ever retires, I am going to sell my house, since I will not be able to do all the funky maintenance that it seems to require!  I am just kidding, but truthfully, to find an honest, reliable, no BS, tells you when he doesn't know something, inexpensive handyman is a dream.  Can you believe someone used to live it this little house?  It's foundation is a thin rim of bricks that are shattered and broken, the wood floor (still solid) now resting on dirt. The windows are haphazardly cut through rotten siding, and three of the four corner posts are not touching the ground because they are rotten.  Fun, huh? 

Bathroom challenges

Bathtub replacement.. in thinking stage. As in, we need to figure out how to do it right.

A tight fit.

Crawl space work. Looks fun, no? This is an incomplete shot of the "as is" plumbing in the side attic.  Steve the plumber questioned whether the knob and tube wiring he found running next to and on this mess was live. Good lord I hope not. That is not on my to-do list! 

Plumbing detail we have to move.  Steve is going to move the whole works and make it accessible to the crawl space, so if there is a problem, we don't have to tear out our bathtub surround.  

Our new tub is exactly replacing our old one, albeit with the faucet on the other side.  See that wood lip on the left side...part of the tub frame ?  I did not want the drop in tub look with the marble or tile rim, I wanted a smooth non-fussy look on the side.  But I have to have a little lip, so need to find some sort of tile that will cover that, and look good on the exterior edge. There are lots of thin tiles, but they are usually not finished on the side.  In the back of my mind I am also concerned about weight on a non-reinforced floor. But hey, they put in a tub for 20 years that didn't go through the ceiling, why would mine? 

Back in the home repair saddle - upstairs bathroom

Picture: A very undone bathroom.  I have not figured out the configuration of the upstairs in its early days...this bathroom was added in the 80's, somewhat haphazardly. The venting is 'creative' and the plumbing serpentine and octopus-like. The tub goes in the unpainted floor area.  We added the wall to hold the tile. 

Should probably be getting into the real horse saddle because the horses are turning to jello... but all in good time. 
Javier, my reliable home repair fellow, just sent a text that he has time to work on my house.  He takes the ferry from Seattle, because I have yet found a truly trustworthy guy in Kitsap to do my dirty  handy work around the place so import my ol' reliable person.  He fits me in his schedule, since I always have things for him to do, and it seems he has time this week.   I am very sure there are competent people over here, I just have not found that "can do anything" fellow like Javier.
That means today I was running around changing my mind about tile for the bathroom, and how exactly to set the tub upstairs.  I need to focus and finish for good grief sake.
 I also have a well house with a failing roof, a chicken coop that is leaning, a garage that needs some lovin' (I just noticed the whole thing is tilting... the neighbor says we could straighten it out "in two weekends"), siding replacement/repair and the usual stupid house baseboards that need attaching.  There also seem to be random holes in places.  Oh, and painting.  Lots of painting.
But first... the bathroom.

Wilder's room - before and after

  OK so technically I am not totally done in this room as is evidenced by the tools still laying about... and the holes in the floor on the right (not by me, courtesy of the previous owners thorough need to drill holes through the walls and floor preferably in the middle of the room).  I am including before and after shots-- these simple things are richly satisfying to complete.  I have been working on the bathroom at the same time with help from the my amazing handyman Javier.  Photos to come... 

Before - You can see the vibrant green around the edges that used to be. There is a mystery cut-out to the left, and crawl  space access to the right.  The floor in this room was the original unfinished fir, which had always been covered.  I ended up painting it due to the condition and that it is my only layer of flooring for the upstairs.  I didn't want to sand and diminish it anymore than it already was.

Before - No base molding, unfinished wood.  This is when I was trying to figure out what color to paint... I am not such a decisive colorist!  I probably had seven colors on this wall to confuse me. 

Wilder's favorite color is green, and yes, it is a small room.  The desk on the left is to come out, I just need serious muscle to do it, so am waiting for all my friends menfolk to be around at the same time!

Always the house

Three days after my stroke my handyman Javier came over. (With his cousin, Javier). I heard the kids dad talking in low tones to him, probably about me being sick, and sending him home to Seattle....when I moved out of the prone position and told him to come on in! I wasn't going to pass up work hours for a stroke!
That day they finished trimwork in the living room and bathroom, and wainscoting in the other bathroom. I am sure they did other stuff, but I forget.
That same weekend a predator broke into the chicken coop and killed two birds. It is always the nice friendly fat birds they get. I have not lost a buff orpington to natural causes yet.
In the chicken coop, amiable and gentle gets the short end of the stick.

What I did on a Saturday night

Ready for it? I sat here and got a trojan virus off my laptop. Oh yeah, I know how to have a good time.
If you go on the internet at all you should have a malware search and destroy program loaded up on your system. I use the donation or free Spybot by Safer Networking, but Malwarebytes or any of the other free or low cost one will do. Just make sure it is an approved malware killer and not actual malware you are loading.
I have been scanning this week and notice every other time a keytracker trojan virus pops up. I delete it (quarantine) and then scan again. When I do it is no longer there. Until next time, and it pops up again. Obviously, that virus was sitting somewhere on my computer.
A cnet.com forum had a similar question... the answer they received was to run the F-Secure Online Scanner to find and clean that puppy out. Another freebie. I downloaded and ran it from
www.support.f-secure.com. It only works on Internet Explorer only. You have to load ActiveX, which I personally hate. Or I hated on my old computer. Then do a full system scan which can take hours, and clean the results.
After running that, I have been checking spybot for something wicked to pop-up and nope. All clean. (At least for now.)

This is our generator. If not the first thing I bought after buying the house, it was in the first 4 months. My house power grid controls the shared well, so it seemed considerate to keep the neighbors in water. After sitting idle for two years, a big power outage this winter brought it out from the corner of the garage. The ladder next to it is my creative weather protection. Generators are not supposed to be exposed to the weather, and I didn't have anything that wouldn't catch fire other than this. So it is my rather sketchy and haphazard attempt at weather protection. Notice all the melted snow? There were some metal parts that would glow red when it was running. Dang hot.
I had issues starting it up. As in, the battery was not hooked up. And I had no idea until my neighbor pointed it out. Well, when I parked it in the garage after its reliable service when the power went out, I didn't turn off something and after six weeks gas was leaking over the garage.
Arggh. Called my mechanical neighbor, who told me how to check if I had gas in my piston. I do. Told me we need to suck it all out. DANGitall. I get tired of walking around this new life where I am completely inept at a whole scad of things. I am not a good inept person. Maybe for one of two things, but geez. I realize in a couple of years I have acquired many new skills, but enough already. Maybe I can learn one new skill a year? This year is already my tiling/bathroom remodeling/horsefencing/house siding year. I don't think small engine repair fits in all that.

John Deere lawn tractor - death and rebirth

This is the story of our cute little lawn tractor. I bought it from the previous owner with the house.
It takes over an hour to mow our yard. Back and forth, up and down, left and right, in circles, around things, through mush, over hillocks, next to fences. Rose has taken over this job, although with a more casual attitude around the edges. She is rather a speed demon over the property and finishes about 30 minutes sooner than anyone else.
I have hired a lawn maintenance fellow to do the yard since our mower quit. The little green machine started and then just stopped. It started again, stopped, and then would not even try to start. I rolled it under the big holly tree for protection and covered it with a tarp. That was about 3 weeks ago. Maybe 5. Since then I have taken the battery to be charged. It was fine. I have filled it with fresh gas. That was somewhat of a pipe dream because it had nothing to do with gas. But made me feel better. Put in a new air filter. Again, more to make me feel better since that would not stop it dead. Bought it a new starter solenoid after googling possible answers.
Today was strange weather, really really windy, rainy looking, then sun would appear. The mowers tarp cover was blown across the yard reminding me that the mower was still not starting and now exposed to the elements.
I had a cup of coffee and thought I would try to start it. Turned the key, no luck. Googled possibilities as to why it was not starting again.
The obvious answer I had been avoiding was to clean the battery terminals. I was actually ignoring that answer since it was so... 'duh.' Those terminals didn't look bad to me, they looked great!
The sun was shining down at that angle we get in October, I was outside enjoying the weather, and I thought what the hell. Got out my new box of baking soda, and my new brass brush I bought with the solenoid I didn't need. Scrubbed away, tightened the bolt back up, sat in the seat, turned the key and the engine started with a WHOOOSH.
Five weeks. Five weeks, 65 bucks for lawn service, and it sat next to my front door because I would not do the simple thing first. My life -- in a mini-mower size nutshell -- I seem to have difficulty with K.I.S.S. I will work on that.

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.

Refrigerators

If you have any good fridge recommendations, let me know. The other day I had some leftover soup I had put in the freezer. It tasted... "interesting" not bad, just a bit different.
About a week later I reached in the freezer and pulled out a bag of (formerly) frozen vegetables, squishy, leaking, somewhat luke-warm. Did a minor swear and started poking at the rest of the stuff in the fridge. Most things were still rock solid frozen. Thought.... "hmmm, maybe the kids left the door ajar a bit."
When I got home from work on Sunday, Dennis was dropping the kids off. He politely informed me that a cat or dog had went pee on the entry way carpet. Then, we noticed it was not animal wee-wee, but refrigerator wee-wee. As in, the fridge was no longer cooling. Our fridge is now located in our camping coolers. And last night I cooked all the meats, so we will be set with eating the leftover halibut, salmon, bacon and kalbi beef. I didn't want it all to go bad...

I just know my hot water heater is next. The upside of that is that it would ruin everything in the basement I have not yet unpacked that is in boxes on the ground. All that water damage would let me throw it all out without looking at it, or having to put it all away.
And have a clean basement, like the day we moved in.

Habitat for Humanity - how to put up siding sexily

Quick post.
1. Went for my first session of "how to build a house" so I can volunteer. Actually, just want to have those basic skills, practice them in a safe supervised environment, and then help build a house!
2. This is a specific class "Women Build" , all gals, I guess so we don't get all quiet and female-y around the "take-charge" men.
3. When I went to check in, the front desk gal at Lowes, where the class was being held told me I was early and I should go "look at some pretty flowers" while waiting.
4. The fellow leading the class asked me how old I was in the 80's to use as an example of black mold. (I guarantee my age has nothing to do with the prevalence of black mold in modern housing)
5. I can't stand any of that shit. How old am I? Go look at flowers? Argh.

Habitat for Humanity - training

I have written before about my extreme love for the re-use building supply store. And craigslist. The reason I basically have close to $7000 worth of never installed bathroom materials sitting in the garage waiting to go in my "new" bathroom, and what did I pay? Kohler, Restoration Hardware, American Standard...ah yes, I paid just around $900.
There was an article in the paper yesterday about training for women on construction basics with then the ability to help build a house nearby. I am going for it. I am master at painting, but construction has me looking to the kids dad, friends or neighbors. It would be nice to know how to do it. Way way in my faraway youth I was trained on what I consider huge equipment for art school.... which had a masterful shop, but I recall none of that. Other than the saw was really big. And would take your finger tips off lickitysplit. And that the art piece I produced got good reviews and a killer story from a classmate at 4 in the morning the night before it was shown.
Such a long time ago. But I still remember that story!

House - Knob and Tube Wiring

Is this really happening, do I get to delete something from my house repair to-do list? Why yes, yes I do.
We have a light that I wrote about that we supposedly repaired. Well, we didn't. It still shot the bulbs out of the socket like little glass jets. I had it with whatever electrical mess was going on upstairs and had money in the savings account so called the handy dandy electrician. My kids sleep up there, and I am not fretting about possible snafus in the wiring system that could be dangerous. The electrical co. is the same who rewired the main part of the house and put in a new electrical box. When I talked to the 'bidder guy' who comes out to quote a job, he told me that they just did a house like ours with knob and tube and it was $8K. That is NOT how much I had in the savings account. So we talked a bit, and he said he could send my original two electricians out, Greg and Jim for $700 a day and they could figure out what was going on. Greg and Jim came out yesterday and when they were leaving at 3:30 they said "We replaced all the knob and tube and questionable outlets and fixtures." So the price to upgrade the upstairs went from $8000 to $700. I gave them cheesecake and a loaf of fresh bread. I think that worked out in my favor.

How to Change a Light Fixture - the slow way

Sad picture of sad 'new' light without fancy shade. See the lovely hole I made around the switch on the wall? A similar lovely hole is in the ceiling now.

Denis' rear clambering into the wee roof space next to the chimney. He could not fit that rear between the chimney and roof, which is of course where the light spliced from.

This is almost embarrassing to write. But obviously not embarrassing enought to stop me. OR I have reached an age where I don't give a rip anymore. This is the story of a hallway light.
1. In August I noted the upstairs light blew its lightbulbs out. Literally shot them out of the socket. Recognizing the ineptitude of the previous owners who overwatted every single rippin' light fixture in this house of knob and tube wiring.... that it was more than likely due to that.
2. I went to Home Despot and got a simple fixture and from one of my fave antique stores a 'vintage' glass light shade. Vintage in this story means 'overpriced'... but attractive.
3. I took down the old fixture. Which was only a couple years old. But way overpowered for the wiring that led up to it.
4. Noted that the wires were coming directly out of the wood ceiling. As in, two holes were drilled and two wires poked through.
5. Sighed. Went back to Home Despot and got a junction box. It is my goal to slooooowly correct things as I discover them.
6. Changed hallway light switch that controls this to a dimmer switch. Had to drill and rasp the wood hole bigger to fit the dimmer.
7. Waited about two months... needed to go into the attic to make the hole bigger to fit the junction box. Needed daylight and I always seemed to be doing something else during the day, plus had promised Wilder he could go up in the attic with me.
8. Crawled in attic through the secret door in the bathroom.
9. Promptly began my usual cursing when I see what the previous owners have done. Gentle cursing, since my kids were present. My new favorite is "Oh, Flagnon!" You must see monsters vs. aliens to get this one. (Highly recommend this movie) I digress.
10. What the hell was my inspector doing up here a year ago??? Because he sure didn't mention that my outlets and ceiling lights are crappily/haphazardly spliced off the knob and tube wiring. Also, did not mention that the insulation is right up against the knob and tube. Flagnon! Can we say let's just friggin' burn the house down.
Grrrrrr.
11. ANYWAY, got the kids' dad to crawl up there so I could work from the second floor and he keep the electric lines away from my sawing to make the fixture box hole larger. It was right next to the chimney, so we could not fit. (the original person must have been teeny who put that in) I stood underneath with my eyes closed and sawzall'ed the hole in the wood ceiling. I had sawdust everywhere. EVERYWHERE. Ears, Eyelashes, Underwear. And I was wearing goggles. Put the box in. It was the wrong type. But we made it fit.
12. Put up fixture.
13. Put up lightshade. It did not fit over the new fixture with regular bulbs.
14. Waited a week.
15. Went to Lowe's for a bathroom window and found small lightbulbs that allow the 'vintage/overpriced' shade to now fit.
16. Will have my electrician redo this when he comes over, or at least give him a good laugh as he fixes it.
17. I really do love my house. It teaches me patience, and grace. Who needs anything other than children, four old walls, an ex, a job, horses, throwing up cats, a leaning chicken coop, leaking siding and a furball dog to teach you humility, kindness, time management and letting go of perfectionistic tendencies?
18. Oh wait. I have not let go of perfectionistic tendencies yet.

House - In case anyone was wondering

There are a couple construction-reconstruction-restoration blogs I like to visit. They make me feel like I got teensy, wee, simple little problems over here... since they tackle giant jobs like : move walls, dig drain lines, realign foundations, yadee yada. When I post this picture, you will see the level of my talents. For my defense, I will say I was waiting for the vet because Bey is trying to colic, and so only grabbed things nearby to create this glorious repair AND it now is upright as opposed to broken. My restoration bloggers would have a beautiful right-angled, secure, isometrically balanced finished project. Mine is, well, mine is holding rotten wood with screws. Which is no small feat. Rotten wood does not like holding onto anything. Just let me bask in my puddle of brownish glory, okay?

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)