Pushing the Paws Button

In honor of my birthday, Jesse agreed to a brief renovation detente. It's not that I don't want our house to get done - more like I wanted to feel calm and relaxed when I get home from work for a little while, which is difficult when you come home to sawdust nation.

So in lieu of demolition he began working on our much needed filing cabinet. He was just going to buy one the other day but decided that he had something particular in mind and just couldn't find that at any of the stores he went to. So the purchasing idea was scrapped and he instead purchased the materials to build one. He's worked with veneer at many of the cabinet shops he's worked in and had some extra anigre that he'd been saving - so an anigre filing cabinet it was.

It took a little longer than expected but about four days after the project was begun, it was finished! Here are the final pictures:




As a little girl, I loved getting into and staying in very small places. I'd beg my parents to sleep in my toy box or behind my dresser, my sisters would stuff me into our cat's little wicker house, and I lived in a bedroom that was 5'x9'.
As soon as I saw the half-finished cabinet I excitedly said, "I have to get in it!" People would marvel at the tiny spaces I used to be able to contort my body to fit into, and it turns out I still can. Jesse seemed impressed...

On a completely unrelated note, a women with whom I used to work keeps a food blog - her and her husband are wonderful (and serious) cooks. I've heard them talking/blogging about Brandt Beef for a long time. They're a 'local' ranch that is really good about treating their animals well, not pumping them full of crazy meds, feeding them a completely vegetarian diet, and generally being good, kind ranchers. And their beef apparently tasted like heaven. I had to try it.
This past Saturday, I got myself out of bed around 7am to get myself to the PB farmers market to try some Brandt Beef. I purchased a few ribeyes, some potatoes that had been picked not three hours before my purchasing them, and some adorable little carrots. Jesse was skeptical about the beef and the price I had paid for it. That is, until he tried it. I think I saw a tear coming from his eye. It was seriously good. Below is our meal - served of course on our borrowed living room table.

Cheers!

Oh, in case you're wondering - the renovation detente should be over by next Monday. This Friday we're headed to Joshua Tree for a day of climbing then down to Palm Springs for two nights. Saturday morning we're waking up bright and early for a 3-hour jeep tour of the San Andreas Fault then after a nap during the hottest hours (Palm Springs' highs will be over 100 degrees this weekend) we're headed up the Mount San Jacinto tram to the top o' the mountain for a hike around the high, and hopefully cooler, elevations. From up there we should be able to see many of the climbing areas that we usually take very different routes to get to but are situated pretty close together as the crow flies. Saturday evening will be for reading and drinking by the pool and Sunday we'll wake up and head back into Joshua Tree for some more climbing until it gets too hot.
Phew! I'm tired just writing about our 'vacation!'

Zoom Zoom

Most of you know my little white Plymouth Neon - I've had it since March 2001 and it's been a good little car. BUT...it's been leaking oil for years - so much so that recently I've been putting many quarts into the engine between oil changes. AND I haven't had air conditioning since I left New York back in 2005 (not that I would use it often...it's just that sometimes it gets really really hot here.)

Anyway, the times they are a changin and it was time for a new car. AND thanks to the stimulus package, if you purchase a NEW car in 2009, you will receive all of the sales taxes and associated fees back as a tax credit! So I bought a new car. I fell in love with it when I saw it.

2009 Chevrolet Cobalt
4-door sedan
slate blue exterior
manual transmission
cruise control
power windows/locks
alarm system (the kind where you can't start the car unless you have my keys)
On-Star
XM radio
37mpg highway (fuel efficiency package)

AND they gave me $1200 for my Neon. I think I could have sold it to a private party and gotten $1500...but then I would have had to deal with selling it to a private party.

So here it is:
And here's what the back of it looks like at night
My little center console:
Gauges:
And On-Star on the rear view - it has it's own phone that I just talk to and tell it the number I want it to dial with pre-paid minutes and I can tell the On-Star folks where I want to go and they'll send turn by turn directions to my radio display! And it all works even if there's no cell phone signal so if something happens while we're out in the wilderness climbing or something, we can get help! AND (best of all) if I lock myself out of my car, they'll let me back in!!! All I have to do is call them. Too bad I didn't have it Wednesday night when I locked my keys in my car out in El Cajon...

So that's it. I'll post more pictures for Liz and my dad but only if they send me the pictures of Sawyer, Dylan and I from last weekend.
(In case you hadn't heard, I flew in to Rochester and surprised Liz for Mother's Day last weekend...it was fantastic!!!!)

Hallway complete, for now

So, since the last post things have been buttoned up a little. The header was installed, the joists were hung, a new light switch was installed, the ceiling light was moved, and the mess was cleaned up. During this time we got our new cellular shades, seen here.

also visible around the shades is the drywall patching, still awaiting paint.



here is the hole my foot made in the ceiling. watch your step, plaster is not that strong. Funny how little jobs have a way of spontaneously making themselves bigger. Also visible is the new 4x8 header, a new section of wall below it, and some joists which are about to receive their hangers.




before and after... new wall where the old doorway way, new opening where the heater was. Also, blind header which I think helps to modernize and open up the space. These were not possible, I think, when the house was built because joist hangers had not yet shown up on the scene and the joists had to actually sit on top of something. Technology is a wonderful thing.

In the second photo, the short section of wall on the left represents the border with the new kitchen, and the pony wall the holds the bar will take off from there.

the meat of it

permits finally in hand, we began to actually get some structural modifications going. Here is the living room as it currently exists. The small door leading into the hallway is about to radically change.
Existing heater. Needs to go. Step one in this whole process was to shut off the gas and go down under the house to disconnect and cap the gas lines which previously lead to this heater. I also had to go up into the attic to remove the ducts leading up and out.


When we were working on the windows in this room earlier, we learned the hard way that dust control was necessary. This method, building a little plastic tent, seemed like a better way to go that covering everything in the house with plastic. Behind the plastic you can see the temporary wall I built to hold up the ceiling joists.
The old walls in the house were made in some style I am not familiar with. I know about the old school plaster and lath, and I know about gypsum wallboard, but this seems to be some sort of hybrid, transitional form, with a perforated wallboard in 16" wide strips being attached to the studs and coated with plaster. Maybe this was common, I don't know that much about the history of construction.
Corinne helping pull nails from the old studs. We were careful to remove these carefully and many will be re-used.
clean up partly completed.This is a patch being put in place where the old heater used to be. For now it's just OSB, but soon we'll be taking out a section of flooring in another area which will be used for a (hopefully) seamless patch.
Lonely lightswitch hanging in space. I hit my head on this thing I don't know how many times.
Bed time.

And we're back!

Ahh, internet! It's very much like air - you don't know how much you need it until one day it's not there.

As I type, Jesse is next to me doing homework. He's currently annoyed that his chemistry homework is too elementary - repetition of the ideal gas law over and over and over again - how many different ways can you express PV=nRT? We're finding out!

Once again it is late and I'm tired. I'll try to spare you talk of the miniature fantasy horses and get to what's important. Pictures!

First up is the toilet paper holder I was gushing about the other day:I noticed while I was driving the other day that a fancy shmancy home store was going out of business. I didn't know that it was fancy shmancy because I'd never had occassion to go in there before we did this whole purchasing a house thing. Anyway, J and I went back the next day to check it out and even at blowout prices, we still couldn't afford anything - EXCEPT this used storage shelf from their warehouse area :)
As I mentioned before, my friend Emi finally needed her furniture back (but she let us keep borrowing the coffee table!!!) so we were seriously in need of some storage for kitchen items. This worked perfectly:
I also re-potted a few of my plants into these pots that I've been pining over from Crate and Barrel. I still need to find matching water catcher things to go under them but I think they're super pretty. J picked me up some potting soil and a little trowel to help me in my efforts.
You think it would be easy to install a utility sink - well, we did anyway. It turns out that our drain to the sewer was plugged with a weird plug which plugged into another plug which plugged into another plug and etc. I'm still not exactly sure what I'm talking about but what I do know is that I came out while J was working on it and found him taking a blow torch to the pipe/wall. It scared me enough to run back inside but apparently it worked. It seriously pays to have a super-intelligent, not afraid to get dirty, cute working Jesse on your team when you buy a house. Here's the finished utility sink:
Garage-with-Emi's-stuff-moved-out-and-utility-sink-installed:
Jesse's Project Grass. I can't talk about it. It's a source of friction.
Even Cheeba doesn't like the grass:
Okay, that was just a bad angle (and the reason my parents call her 'Bob Marley.') She's actually on Team Jesse when it comes to the grass.

BLUEPRINTS! Page one (with a side of Cheeba - Jesse added her.) Jesse did all of these drawings:
BLUEPRINTS!!! page two. Jesse also did all of these drawings:
BLUEPRINTS!!! page three. Jesse did the bottom right drawing.

I know you can't really see this but it says Davidson/McDaniels Remodel.
I think that's awesome.

The approval stamp that we worked so hard (and paid so much) for:
We've started sketching out Phase I of the demolition. Yes, we're going to move the heater and gas line first.
Close-up of the sketched out demo:

That's all for now! Soon you'll be able to see Jesse and I starring in our very own video over on our Realtor's website. I'll get you the link when Ibanez posts it. Jeremy, Jenn, Addie, and Ibanez all came over for a house update, homemade calzones and to shoot the video the other day - twas lovely - except when Addie really liked eating the cat brush - I think I need to baby-proof a little better before she comes over next time.

Until next time.


PS - Jesse's dad hates that Jesse looks like he's from Cameron (i.e. missing half of his teeth) on the picture to the right so I'm working on a replacement - new picture soon!

So sad

Still no internet at home...
:(

Hopefully the magic fixing men will come over tonight like they promised. If they do, I'll post so many pictures you'll need a vacation from the blog after looking at all of them!

Lift off!

We have permits!

Jesse went down to the Development Services office after a disconcerting phone call this morning (something about us needing to do changes and we had to resubmit everything...) and just called with the news!

Somehow he managed to fix everything! Well - he always does.

The only sad thing is that I don't have pictures of our plans to show you all because our internet it still not functioning at home (I'm taking a lunch break at work right now.) I can't wait to post them - Jesse and the plan guy did a fantastic job on them -- and they're BLUE - real blueprints!!!

Another thing that is a favorite of mine that I can't show you a picture of right now is our new toilet paper holder. Jesse special ordered it in a brushed nickel finish to match the rest of our bathroom. He installed it before I got home yesterday (it recesses into the wall) and looks amazing! I was getting a back-ache twisting around behind me every time I needed toilet paper and once again J swooped in and fixed everything.

I also realized that we didn't even notice that a month in the house had gone by (we closed on the 26th and our first night in the house was the 27th of March.) It's been quite the ride so far. In some ways it feels like so much longer than a month and in other ways it feels like we just got there.

Here's to one month down and a gajillion to go.