I’ve been talking about blogging about our house since two houses ago and now I am finally prioritizing this endeavor. 2018 brought crazy changes to our lives including welcoming our lovely perfect daughter into the world and selling our beloved tiny orange bungalow in the Alberta Arts District. All that and returning to work at my full time job as a mother has made want to think more about what makes me happy and the life I want for my little girl—a fun, happy one that allows her to focus on things she’s passionate about.
I wouldn’t say I’m passionate about blogging, but I’m definitely passionate about my house and my garden and I want others to learn about what I’ve done so they don’t make the same mistake I have. I am constantly digging through websites and searching for tips on things to make the projects I’m doing easier and to make me feel like I actually know what I’m doing. I recently took an intro to carpentry class at the Rebuilding Center, this amazing reuse space in Portland, and I learned that I’m no beginner carpenter.
Maybe it’s a thing women do, or maybe everyone does, but I’m constantly feeling like an amateur and often need to be reminded that I do really know what I’m doing. I’m here to give you all that pep talk and when you really don’t know what you’re doing, give you some tips to troubleshoot or show you how badly you can screw up so you don’t feel alone.
Our new house has some major issues and for the past few months we’ve been burning through money trying to keep it from falling apart. We’ve lived here only a few months and have had to do the following:
Replaced the garage door: The door that was there was not built to fit on the tracks, and it burned out the motor. When our irrigation guy was installing the control panel, he was in the garage and he ended up getting stuck in there and Kyle had to pry it open. Luckily he had a sense of humor about it.
Replaced the washer and dryer: Some things in our house didn’t need to be super high quality, but we didn’t want to go economy on these since they’re expensive no matter what and we knew if we spent a little more money, we’d get a longer lifetime on them and we are so glad we did. The washer and dryer here probably could have been fine, but they were in such bad shape it just didn’t seem worth it so we splurged on new ones.
Replace the dishwasher: The dishwasher wasn’t completely dysfunctional, but it was old and cheap. The plastic on the buttons was worn off and we had a baby/almost toddler and didn’t want to risk shocking her.
Replaced the toilet in the powder room, fixed the plumbing under the kitchen sink, and unclogged the drain from the kitchen sink with a 60’ pneumatic snake (we hired a plumber to do all of these things). Nothing terribly exciting here, just getting our plumbing up to speed. The house had been vacant for months before we moved in so the the plumbing needed some attention. (I also took out the kitchen sink and put it back in. More on that later.)
Redid most of the electrical outlets because they had reversed polarity and fixed the minor electrical problems from the inspection report. We hired an electrician for this too, primarily because my electrical skills are super basic and because we needed the work done efficiently—two working parents plus a baby means that we hire specialists when we know it will take way less time. There are also a few things that I would much rather hire a pro to do. I like doing projects, but I just don’t feel safe doing much electrical work.
Rodent remediation, crawl space entrances sealed and the insulation replaced. Kyle was working out in the garage one day and encountered a rat. We knew in our inspection that there had been some evidence of rodents under the house (none in the house), so this wasn’t shocking, but it was definitely gross. The company did great work and we’ve hired them to come do monthly treatments until we feel like it’s under control. We learned that rodents in Portland are impossible to get rid of—in fact one company followed a rat (who knows how) one night and it traveled 7 miles around town without touching the ground once. They cross wires and jump from trees and hide in roof nooks and yuck yuck yuck yuck.
Rug runner installed and steps painted. There will definitely be more on this project because it’s officially our first project on the house to help with the cosmetics. We rushed getting the stairs carpeted because we had all been slipping, they’re shiny, slippy and a little steep—having a baby made me even more nervous—the straw that broke the camels back was actually me falling and slamming my back and elbow into the stairs. Luckily, I wasn’t holding the little one, just couple of glasses that shattered on impact. We worked with a great company and now we can move up and down the stairs faster and without a fear of falling.
Wisteria and arbor removed. This arbor was installed and the wisteria planted in the mid-1980s when the previous owners bought the house and installed the addition. It was designed by the architect and mostly aided in rotting the front window frames and messing up the rain gutters and siding. It’s gone now and while the front of the house looks a bit bare, we’re much better off.
Four windows replaced. The worst thing to come out of our inspection was that all of the windows on the house (27 of them), were installed incorrectly which led to water damage and the need to replace the framing around Every. Single. One. Luckily we got some money back for it, but not enough to actually cover the cost. Turns out that not only were they installed wrong, but the frames were attached with an adhesive that quadrupled the time it took to pull them off the house. The contractor we hired asked when we might be replacing all the siding on the house, because it would be easier to replace all the siding and the frames than to just replace the frames. SMH. Instead of 27 windows, we fixed the four worst ones and we’ll tackle the rest of the windows some day when we have lots of money.
Sink hole repaired and irrigation system fixed, water was leaking from buried pipes. The water leaking from pipes had caused a cute little sink hole in the front yard. Our amazing irrigation folks fixed it all and set us up with a sweet system. We still have an ugly dirt mess in the front yard, but at least we aren’t leaking water!
Tree removed and trees pruned. There was a weird Boulevard Cypress hiding behind our gorgeous dogwood, no one ever would have noticed it, so we took it out. Apparently it was shading the back side of the dogwood, preventing the tree from being its best self. We hired Kyle’s company to do the work and everything, of course, looks perfect. They also pruned some shrubs and our beautiful old apple and pear trees in the parking strip out front.
Removed the sliding glass door on the bathtub. The day we moved in we had a lot do and had to get as much of it done as possible while the baby was at daycare. The bathroom, with its gorgeous wallpaper, stained linoleum and pink bathtub (sarcasm), also had this dated, glass shower door. I removed it while Kyle got the baby ready for bed that night and left it leaning against the wall in the hallway. My dad helped me calk up the vinyl shower wall and scrape the calk off the tub the next day. He also took the shower door out to the yard and was carrying it to the car to take it to dump when it shattered. I’m so glad it broke outside and not in our hallway.
Hot tub serviced: drained and cleaned. Nuf said. Our hot tub is amazing. And while it’s not something I would have purchased, I’m so damn glad we have it.
I can’t believe how long that list is, and there is SO. MUCH. MORE. TO. DO.
Stay tuned!