T-minus 22 days

Percy reminded me I haven't posted anything in many days.  She would like you to know how the house is coming along.  We move in 22 days.  Good thing I got a new tent this year and we have a big back yard.  

I'm not entirely sure where we were last time I posted but here is the view from the front door now.  Dad showed up and promptly removed the too narrow second entry door.  So now the fridge and range we bought will actually fit inside the house when they arrive on the 23rd.  Hopefully we will be ready for them by then.  

I wasn't sure Percy could play nice with Dad's dogs so she got to hang out inside for a little bit.  Until I realized it might be more hazardous than outside.  There used to be a furnace where that giant hole in the floor is now.  It's normally covered up by a grate.  

But Dad and Chad needed to get down in the crawl space and level the foundation.  Lots of head shaking at what has been done in the past.  Like reading just the middle part of a mystery novel.  See the new shiny boiler furnace thingy?  It makes the house toasty.  But have to hot wire it because there are no walls to install the thermostat on yet.  

We also finally got all the flooring up.  Finally.  And sent the dumpster away.  Very heavy.  Only one real hiccup.  There's a couple rotten boards in the kitchen.  Including one under a wall.  Hmmmm....

The little dogs are exhausted after the long drive north.  Or maybe it was destroying the big dog bed that exhausted them.  Or just getting up and down the three deck stairs....who knows.  

This is where I have spent more time than I want to think about.  Almost done.  Clean or not.  Next up....fridge.  

The wonderful man bought me a small greenhouse and set it up.  Which is good because Dad brought me some plants.  Like a lime tree.  And tomatoes.  Mmmmm....

Every day is an adventure and a celebration.  And a couple loads of laundry.  Good times.  

I'm trying to decide if I want a 'garden window' at the kitchen sink.  These herbs jumped into my bucket when I went to the store.  Visual aids.  

Dad got to do the honor of removing the last layers of flooring upstairs.  This is the prize - original linoleum.  

And then...Chad climbed up on the roof.  Not to jump off, but to throw chunks of rotten concrete off the top.  Dad and I got to herd the dogs out of the way of the falling concrete.  

And then there was a hole in the roof.  Not normally a cause for celebration, but we were excited.  

The chimney slowly being disassembled, one layer at a time.  

Only one brick would not come off in one piece.  So many layers of paint and who knows what.  

The dogs....slept on....and on...and on....except when they were barking.

And then, the chimney was gone.  Guess who got to carry almost all the 50+lb bricks down to the front yard on the too steep stairs?  My forearms still ache.  Two days later.  

I was afraid for a moment that he was going to get beamed up....

We were delirious and covered in soot by the end.  And very celebratory.  And now my shower is dirty.  

My bricks.  All 22 of them.  We did some experimental yard decorating with them yesterday....I'll let you know what we decide.  

Major accomplishments inside meant a little time for outside work.  Dad and I started the dismantle of the raised chive bed.  Percy was immediately inside it.  We can't move it yet because the power hasn't gone underground yet.  Dad divided the chive into three still giant clumps for me.  

The man rototilled the giant garden space for me.  Supervised first by one dog....

...and then another.  Just to make sure he was doing it right.  Which is nice, it freed me up to do other stuff, like move plants and start the next round of peas and beans.  

Slowly but surely Peejay is learning how to climb that tree.  Stay tuned for the next update....maybe insulation and wall covering....who knows!

Almost Done with Demo

The fun with demo continues.  We are on day 10 today.  Some parts go quickly, like the carpets in this room, and others not so quickly, like the carpet tack board thingys that I learned how to use a flat blade shovel to remove.  Eventually you realize it's time to go get food and sleep because you have lost your sense of reason.  For instance, I realized I should have just moved the seed starts instead of working around them.  That was my clue that day.  Other days have been less obvious.  

Somehow the act of just hanging out in the yard and on the porch is exhausting for the dogs.  They no longer harass us when we sit down to stare at the tv.  They snore loudly and can barely be awakened to go outside before we go upstairs to sleep.  

We continue to discover all kinds of evidence of past interesting construction decisions.  Often these are electrical.  Which makes us really happy that the electrician is coming on Monday to rewire the entire house.  Even he commented on the wiring.  

Most of the past 10 days I have battled with this room.  It will become the room where I put my piano and my sewing machine.  It fought the demo process the entire way.  Most of the sheetrock came off in pieces smaller than my fist.  Except for a giant chunk of the ceiling.  Which fought back by dropping some crap in my eye.  Possibly literally.  There were some serious mouse nests in the insulation.  

When I finished that room I got to suit up as my other persona, the insulation removal queen.  Insulation sucks to work with.  It's glass.  Which means it itches like crazy when it gets into your skin.  Which it does.  Even with my special white suit.  

While I was battling my room, Chad had his own special room across the hall.  Different range of problems there.  This room will become an office.  There was no insulation in the exterior walls.  And the short wall there?  Yeah, it wasn't really a wall.  No connection beyond superficial to the ceiling.  But it had lots of electrical special choices represented.  And three layers of wall coverings.  So we were moving at about the same speed.  And it was disheartening.  

We made it upstairs about five days later than planned.  And found some treasures in the crawl space above the arctic entry.  He examined all the paint and stuff and most of it went out to the dumpster.  

Every now and then we find a reminder of the era that the house was constructed during and we hypothesize about how some plywood from the local air force base ended up as subflooring.  

And then I would go back downstairs and do some more battle with my room.  

And so would Chad.  Every little bit helps.  That's my mantra.  Along with some sailor swearing.  Mostly Chad stared in disbelief.  

Last weekend we got a little hand up.  Three boys in their 20s can do a lot of destruction while you are away for a half hour getting pizza.  The local pizza place has been around for 50 years.  Which is saying a lot for here.  And it's delicious.  Glad the boys brought their own beer.  

It took us most of the next 5 days to get it to this state upstairs.  We're now on our third dumpster.  We still have some flooring to pull up and a little more demo in places like the arctic entry.    Did I mention the discovery of eight layers of flooring upstairs?  We have about half pulled out so far.   

Little spaces like closets can really be fun.  Especially when you realize that they were added after some of the layers of flooring or walls or who knows.  This is the closet under the stairs in my special room.  I might have karate kicked the plywood on this wall.  It was gratifying.  

At some point the privacy in the bathroom during demo goes way down.  Don't worry, he's just washing his hands.  

The bathroom gets a partial facelift now and some more later.  My current mission is to find an 18 x 36 window to replace the special existing one.  It's not a standard size (none of ours are) but we can't really change this one.  

We sleep like dead rocks every night.  It's mentally exhausting to keep reformulating the plan.  I'm looking forward to the electrician work so I can start to think about the yard.  I think I will start with the front.  It's tiny.  And there's no electrical or fence work to wait on.  

In the Beginning...

Lots of beginnings lately; the start of the sunny season, which means tons of biking and running and seed planting.  To keep myself sane I carve out some yoga and meditation time.  Somehow there are no biking pictures, I think I am just so busy riding and being elated at being on my bike and flying down the trails that it doesn't even occur to me to take pictures.  But the biggest beginning, the one that rules our lives for the next 60 days and lingers for at least a year.....the HOUSE.  Oh yeah, and the ginormous back yard.  Where Percy is only free when someone is actively watching her.  Don't let that back fence deceive you, it may as well be made of paper. I fear a stiff breeze blowing it over.   

I took two days off work to help the man.  I do all the paperwork and fun stuff with the bank and he gets to rule the remodel.  His biggest project to date.  We're taking it back to the studs.  Where there are studs.  Other places are back to whatever is there instead of studs.  He's about to open up the most interesting wall in the house.   

Everything in this kitchen is now in the dump.  Including the ceiling and the kitchen sink.  It all goes.  To say what we found was amazing is an understatement.  

Everything.  Including the kitchen sink.  We were on to the second dumpster on the second day.  

See his amazement?  He can't believe what's behind some of these walls.  Layers of walls.  Like three layers.  

I have my own room of wonder across the hall from his.  Ever swing a demo hammer at a wall and have it bounce off?  Repeatedly?  I can still feel it in my collar bones.  Also, I'm short.  I can't actually reach the top of the walls without a ladder.  Which proves to have interesting results.  The newer drywall sucks.  It comes off in pieces the size of your fist.  Or smaller.  The older stuff is a couple square feet at a time.  

The floors also had three layers of coverings in places.  Rugs are actually two layers, the rug and the pad.  Over tiles and ... we'er still waiting to see what's under these.  We're hoping to get up the second floor tonight.  Racing to get ready for the electrician.  Which means somehow we have to make a range hood and bathroom fan appear this week.  Do you know what the selections are like for those in this town?  Neither did I.  Until now.  And shipping to Alaska....I'm pretty sure I have complained about that before.  

And this is how we all feel at the end of every day.  They are so happy to have a yard to play in.  And we love the new brewery down the street.  But they really need a bike rack.  

Kona Highlights

Sometime between the wedding and the new year we ran off to Hawaii.  Not because we have money oozing from our pores and an excess of leave or anything.  But because I have friends who live on a tiny island in the middle of the ocean.  Like half way between Australia and Hawaii.  8 degrees north.  They don't leave the island often.  Like once a year.  While I strongly desire to go visit them, it's more expensive than going to Hawaii and they have limited passes to allow visitors.  Which I now realize sounds like they are imprisoned.  Which they are not. 

Somewhere in the planning of the this trip I learned that the man had never actually been to Hawaii.  Which part of my brain understands.  And part can. not. quite. comprehend.  I love taking a picture whenever I leave Alaska, to remind me of some of the many reasons I live here.  Look at those mountains!

This is not Alaska.  It's one of the many reasons that I love to visit Hawaii.  Our beaches do not look like this and you do not visit them wearing shorts and flip flops.  

These are some very cool people.  Note the baby.  She is very young and the reason they were off island.  To skip a lot of the details - they had to fly home to her family, on the east coast, to have the baby.  Its a long journey and they stopped off in Hawaii for a couple days to adjust/recover before continuing on to their tropical home.  It was lovely, lovely, lovely to see them.  I hope to see them again before their sweet girl can drive.

After they flew away, we fled to the big island.  I have not properly explored the big island.  I had a little taste when I took a cruise there a couple years ago.  The main theme is lava.  

Ah, palm trees.  So different to anything else.  I still remember the first time I saw them, in California, when I was a kid.  It was like being in a movie.  It's a relaxing sight, every time.  

Since we were short on time for this initial exploration visit, we rented a car and drove around.  Not a lot of planning went on.  We were a little planned out after the wedding and the move, etc.  So we just went places that looked interesting and saw cool stuff.  Like a pond by the beach with Hawaiian ducks.  Or geese.  Probably I should actually know the difference. 

At that particular beach we got to see evidence of classic American stupidity.  Or at least I assume the majority of these humans are American.  Or as I like to think of them - Merikin.  There's a turtle at the edge of the water and a rocked off area with lots of signs telling you to back the f**k off and give them room to do their thing.  The animal was cool.  The humans - very not.  

And then....the giant hole in the ground.  Even that has to be fenced off.  Definitely worthy of national park status.  Access to the other side of the volcano where the lava was flowing into town and destroying stuff was sensibly restricted to locals.  So we settled for the cool exhibits and camping nearby.

Which meant that we could walk the half mile back on the trail once the sun went down.  Now that was even cooler.  

More cool lava stuff - lava tubes.  Think caves.  Where lava is the walls and floors.  I never really understood how many different kinds of lava there are.  It totally makes sense when the science side of my brain actually kicks in.  And the plants!  Amazing.  

We didn't have time to properly explore the observatories and stare at the stars, but we did take the time to drive near the top of the volcanoes.  Surprised how lush and flatish it was.  I understand a little better how there is agriculture here.  Mountains are all different shapes.  Pretty sure my art teacher tried to tell me that in 5th grade.  I'm a little slow sometimes.  

We only had two nights - so of course we caught the sunset by the ocean.  But then were terrified by the crowds at the campground - absolutely no room there, so we had to flee and find a B&B.  We got seriously lucky.  This is the view from the deck.  We stayed in the old coffee plantation processing room.  probably will be back there again if I have any say in the matter.  Local fruits and nuts and coffee galore.  Delicious and amazing.  Listened to frogs all night and birds all morning.  

Until it was time to flee to the airport again.  Can't wait to go back and see more.  Thanks for the breather Hawaii.