Flip This House, without the drama.

Sooo......it has been along time since I have done a blog....or wanted to. But, Philomath, which is a town and the sole term used to describe my life, and Em's heartburn, over the past few months is starting to come together. We bought the house in late August, but didn't really get moving on the renovation until John and Jenn came back and kicked us out of their house, where we were quite comfortable mind you, in early November.

Em and I, with the occasional help of my parents, who must be getting very bored at home to come up and scrub the grime off of cabinets, have spent most of November and December renovating the 1800 sq ft house. Here is the deal between Em and I: if Em works at the hospital, I go to Philomath. On her days off, I either stay in Eugene and we work on Mist, which is rare, or she gets the joy of working on philomath on her days off. Lucky her.

Here is a quick summary of the work we completed.

First, there was the 30 yard dumpster of stuff that had to be hauled out of the house. Being a foreclosure house, the previous owner didn't exactly steam clean the carpets for the new owners, rather he left his food in the fridge and drug razor next to the bed.

Then I demolished some outdoor structures that look horrible and unsafe and spent some time on the yard. This was still in August.

Then the real work got started. I fixed some ceiling and wall cracks, and then Em and I painted the entire house. Funny how it only took two sentences to describe, but two weeks to accomplish. We had carpet installed and added a gas fireplace.

Before:


After:


We tiled the kitchen counter and my mom scrubbed the grim from the cabinets and touched up the finish. I tiled the main bathroom (floor, tub, and countertop) and Em painted the vanity and added new hardware.

Main Bath Before:


Main Bath After:


We loved the bamboo in our Mist house, so my parents, Em and I added bamboo flooring to the dining room, kitchen, and breakfast area.

Kitchen Before:


Kitchen After:


There are, of course, more rooms and pics not to be included. Your welcome.

Ohh, my thoughts on working on houses. So far the worst day of working on house....out in the driving rain with one foot in a 3 foot deep trench full of mud was marginally better then the average day at the office. So for the most part, it is good.

Sooo....we are not done yet. I am still working on the Master Bath, more of the same there. And then, with the help of my father, we are tacking the dirty job of trying to add a foundation to a small "mom-in-law" unit on the property....then, we'll sell the SOB....we hope.

Quick Update

I bet everyone is anxious to know how the house is coming along (ummmm, yeah), so this entry will be mostly photos. Also, we haven't done anything else to really talk about. Work and home improvements. I guess it has been quite a long time, so I should at least preface the entry with a few bits of information. J&J came home, so we no longer have our flat-nosed, black, little side kick, and we have thus, moved into our house. Timing turned out pretty good even though John came back a few days early. The carpets got in just in time and the kitchen was almost done and fully functional. As of now, we still have lots of boxes to unpack and organizing to do, but we are warm, cozy and happy with our progress so far.

Not exactly sure where we left off, but the drain pipe eventually got done, and recently Keith installed a much needed sump pump in the back yard, which worked like a charm a week ago when we had 24 straight hours of rain. Here we are looking way too happy to be out in the weather fighting with drain pipe.


Painting the spare bedroom a very neutral color. This is what I spent most of my time doing - getting ready to paint and painting. I'm not fast, but I'm mostly happy with how things turned out.


Mid-stage of the shower. Keith spent lots of time in here, with a lot of time in particular spent working on the built-in shelf.


Kitchen counters done, and replacing the yellow sink with a white one.


My first stint at tiling.


Removing the popcorn ceiling. A messy job, but a surprisingly easy one. Thank you Melody!


We went with bamboo in the living room as well, after an excruciating decision-making hour spent at the discount carpet store.


Bamboo floor done. We like it!


The entryway.


The living room complete except for the couch we have yet to buy. The white area rug you see is a Merino wool carpet we got for a steal at that discount carpet store - the remnant wasn't enough to cover the whole room, so we had them turn it into an area rug. Now we can take it with us. It is so soft, but it is white, so it will be a challenge to keep it looking like this!


The living room before.


Master bathroom is almost done. We need to fix the window and change out that awful light, but at least we can shower in it!


Remember what it used to look like?

Keith installed our new wood stove in a day. We love wood heat, and it sure beats the existing ceiling heat.


The kitchen is mostly done. I have yet to figure out what to do with the cabinets. We don't want to spend the money on new ones (too late now anyway with the tile already in), but would like to modify these so that they look a bit more modern. We are toying around with a few ideas, but are in no hurry as everything is functional. Any ideas? Here's the before shot.


Another view including our new table.


Looking the other direction. Don't forget the before shot!


Enough house pictures. How about some pug pictures? We'll miss this little guy! He provided hours of entertainment for us!
Always looking for a lap.


No comment.


Again, no comment.


Cute kids and a strategically placed dog.


I hope you all had a great Thanksgiving. I had a fabulous week off and spent it in southern Utah recreating in the desert with my family. Keith spent it in Coos Bay for the traditional Coos Bay Thanksgiving activities. Pictures and narrative for both will be up soon.

House Rennovation Update

That has to be the title, since that is ALL we seem to do anymore. I'm not getting bitter, but I am getting a bit worn out. We are starting to feel the crunch, as we'll have to give J&J their house back when they get home in early November, and we will then need a place of our own to live in. So we have resigned the month of October to getting the place move-in-able. It will be a tough month, but it will be very rewarding to have it all done.

We did start last month with at least two fun activities....
We went down to Coos Bay to help Melody and Dwayne celebrate their 40th anniversary. Being from about as informal of a family as my own, it was pretty low key, filled with activities such as tearing off a roof, walking on the beach, getting back rubs from Melody (wait...wasn't it her anniversary?), and then a full day of fun spent south of Florence at Honeyman State Park where we had a scorcher of a day and got some good swimming and BBQ'ing in.

Go to our Flickr website to see more fun 'oldies' like this one:


They haven't changed a bit!


Then we had an anniversary of our own. Three years under our belts! It was funny getting dressed to go out to dinner, I realized it was the first time in a long time where I wasn't putting on either scrubs or my old work jeans and ratty old t-shirts. Kind of sad, but true.


So, onto the house. This will be really fascinating stuff, so hold onto your seats! There are always at least four different projects going on at once. No real new updates on the foundation. It's staying level, and Keith has got it pretty well secured. There are still jacks sticking out here and there, but that project got put on hold a bit so that we could get started on the ditch. We are digging a trench around the entire house and installing a french drain so that (hopefully) the house will not move anymore. In other words, this is how we hope to fix the fundamental problem that created all this work. And it has been a really fun project (interject sarcasm).

And I must disclose, that this is where I play the "I am working full time" card and let Keith do all the dirty work. First step was to deface the beautiful RV pad the previous owners had installed. In order to dig a ditch you have to get the concrete out of the way, so Keith spent the better part of a day bent over in a less than favorable position for the lower back, sawing through concrete.


Then he spent half a day with a jackhammer breaking up all the concrete and another day lifting all that broken concrete up out of there and into the trailer. Yep. Glad I had to work that day. Next machine to rent was the Ditch Witch. This "tiny" little thing would dig us a 3 foot trench all the way around the house in "four hours max" said the guy at Beehive Rental. Nine hours later we took our weary bodies home with the job completed.

The Ditch Witch.


It worked pretty well, but things that made it hard were stumps and chunks of concrete two feet down that would get in the way, and some very rocky soil under the driveway.


A look at the aftermath.


This was only about a week ago, and it was a gorgeous, sunny day when we did it. The very next day it rained like crazy - the first real rain of the fall, turning all these nice piles of dry dirt into mud. And if you know Eugene, you know that it is a clay-based soil. If you know clay, you can imagine how miserable it is to move around. You step on it and you are instantly an inch taller. You shovel it, and all but a teaspoon stays on your shovel. We didn't want to leave these piles around, so we (mostly Keith...remember,....I have to go to work!) set to the task of moving earth. The late fall rains turned a two hour job into a two day one. But it got done like things do when you keep at it, and we are now finally laying the drain pipe into the trench. Of course the Ditch Witch did not do a perfect job of getting all the dirt out, so we (Keith) have to spend a lot of time digging out more wet dirt/clay from the skinny trench to get to the right depth. I do help. Really I do, I just split my time between helping outside, and prepping walls inside for painting.

Look at our beautiful back yard. This is where all the dirt is getting moved to.


I spent a couple hours today spreading it out. We have hopes to get some seed planted soon so that maybe we'll get some grass before winter really sets in. Gracie might just have to turn into a full-time indoor dog this year. After getting the ditch to the right depth, we place a liner, then the pipe, fill it with a little gravel, get the right slope using a transit, then stabilize it all with more gravel. We are two-thirds of the way around the house as of today.

Moving inside....we have officially completed one room! The office is done. We laid bamboo floor without too much difficulty and painted it a fun color to match one of our paintings we bought in Indonesia. That's it. That's all we did to it, but it sure took a while to actually get it all said and done.


Now we can finally move some stuff in here and clear out a little space in the dining room which is jam packed tight with boxes.


Here's a look at the living room. If you remember from earlier photos, there used to be a fireplace here. Keith ripped that out (couldn't fix the settling problem around it) and then built this new wall.


And in the master bathroom, progress on the shower. After doing our shower in Lebanon Keith swore he'd never tile another shower floor again. Well, he changed his mind and has been making nice progress on getting the shower ready for tiling.
The hardibacker is all in now, but I figured you didn't need to see another picture of it here.


What do the dogs do all day? Well after getting reported to Animal Control (and getting a ticket!)by our neighbor (long story there) we have to keep both (especially Gracie) on a short leash. Wiley has to stay tied up anyway as he is a Houdini and can disappear on you in a second. He is getting used to the routine though, and spent the better part of yesterday watching the neighborhood go by from his perch (he likes to be on high things).


And Gracie literally spent eight hours yesterday doing this.


We decided we are going to get her a squirrel for Christmas.

Summer Fun and Work

We have settled in nicely to Jenn and John's place while they are off gallivanting in Europe. After some adjustment Wiley and Gracie have settled into their routine of ignoring each other but also constantly aware of the other's presence. Shortly after settling in, we took off for a week vacation to Gig Harbor to hang out with my family. Both my brothers and their significant others were coming as well which is a rare thing as we have spread out nicely (Oregon, Utah and Colorado) and are all pretty busy. So mom was excited to say the least.

We started off our visit realizing the tides were low. Being from landlocked Utah, Paul and Heidi were quite interested in going out to do some clamming. We went to a public beach close to some waterfront property that my parents own, and wandered down the beach towards their section of land. Along the way, we mucked through the sand,


Found funny creatures,






and dug for funny creatures with funny names (geoducks). We quickly realized that the beach we were on was not good for the traditional butter clam-digging that my brothers and I grew up doing. But it was rich in geoducks, so we gave it a go despite the fact that we didn't have a license. We had to be very discreet and when we got to my parents' stretch of land, had to stash the ones we got into the woods fearing the boat patrols. Geoducks are really big clams with even bigger necks that burrow way down into the sand and therefore can be hard to get when all you have is a shovel and your bare hands.




We were able to get one that first day, and after Keith fried it up in some butter and garlic until it tasted like candy, Paul insisted that we go back the next day for more. So we did. Day two was spent digging up many more of those not-so-pretty creatures. Of course we went overboard and after all of the hard prep work and cooking back at home, we were all pretty much sick at the thought of more. Ah well, the process was sure entertaining.

Heidi is quite proud of her tenderizing efforts. The rest in the photo don't look nearly as thrilled.


Speaking of geoducks, they are planning a geoduck farm right there on the water at my parents' property edge. Dad is not very excited.


The next major item on the agenda was to complete a project Carl started a while back. Actually it started a few years back when dad was visiting Paul in Utah and picked up three missile boxes (boxes that house missiles) at a ridiculous surplus store by Paul's house. He carted those three huge things all the way back to Gig Harbor, and there they have sat, just waiting to be used. Then a storm came and ruined the float that sits out in the water at my parents' lake property. Finally, a use for the missile boxes. Use them to make a new float! Who wouldn't have thought of that? So the goal while all the kids were home was to complete the float. Before we got there, dad diligently packed each box tight with styrofoam (don't ask where he gets his styrofoam). Then we transported them out to the lake.


Then they had to think for a while about what to do next.


Closer to the water...


Always under the watchful eye of The Supervisor. It doesn't matter how old we get, some things never change.


Guiding it into place...and directing dad to something....probably his coffee.


Well done guys!


My good friend Amy and her darling boy, Jacob, came out one of the days to watch the antics and get some nice R&R lake time.




Other activities at the ranch included highly skilled games of badminton, blackberry syrup making, lots of good eating, and of course some Boggle.




Thanks for having us up, and thanks everyone for making the trip! It was great as always to all be together!


Back in Eugene....
We're moving right along on our house. Keith just finished getting in leveled. Now he just has to re-support it. I take for granted all the things Keith is able to figure out and accomplish. I mean seriously, he just leveled our house! I wouldn't even dream of trying to attempt that. And he did it with car jacks! What does it look like to level a house? I'm glad you asked.




Of course the bulk of the work happens in the hot, spider-webby, insulation-covered crawlspace. This is what Keith looks like when he goes down there. He comes up quite a bit sweatier and probably a few pounds lighter. My excuse for not going down and helping? Oh don't worry, I have plenty.


The dogs are always very interested to know where he is going....


Meanwhile, I tore out the master bathroom. Here is an almost-complete before picture. You get the general idea. Yellow. And a yellow tinted window (which I can't get a picture of because the room is so small) to further accent the yellow.


We used our 10% Home Depot coupon yesterday. Most of it was spent on tile. To tile this house and one Keith is working on in the Corvallis area. Have you ever tried to pick out tile for two kitchens and three bathrooms in one shopping trip? More exhausting than ripping a bathroom out, I swear. We walked out of there with three carts fully loaded and lots of sympathetic glances that said, "Thank God it's not me that has to do all that work!".

We do try for fun once in a while too. We ventured out on our first(!) backpacking trip of the year....so sad, we had plans to do so many more. Where has the summer gone? We set out to do the Erma Bell hike up by Waldo Lake that was recommended by a friend. However, we took the wrong car (we won't talk about whose fault that was), and couldn't get to the trailhead in our silly little Honda, so we had to settle for a different hike. It was all right. Most of it was through a burned area, but it was close to the lake, which is truly a stunning lake with crystal clear water, so we got a couple nice swims in. We had Wiley the Pug with us as well, and we didn't know how many backpacking or camping trips he had been on, so we took things a little easy given his propensity to overheat. We found a beautiful camping spot kind of early on, so we decided to stick with the "keeping it easy" theme and set up camp and had a nice relaxing evening around camp. Wiley was hilarious at night. Not so used to tents so a bit restless, and the moon was full, so he spent a good couple hours sitting up at the foot of the tent staring out the window at the moon. Completely mesmerized.

Our camp looking out towards the lake.


Camp from the other direction (lake is behind me). Not bad, eh?


Whew. Long entry with lots of photos. Until next time!