This Old House of Ours

[ChuckF]

I'd estimate odds are maybe 1/3 or less that we will actually pull the trigger. One of our principles is that it has to be a place we would choose even if we were not going to be moving out for the renovation. And the costs of ownership can't be TOO disproportionate to renting.

[ChuckF]

Welp. We went and had a look today and are putting in an offer this evening. Lots of interest in this particular place, so who knows if it will be accepted, but it's a step!

[Ari]

This sounds like an important first step in owning your own Supreme Court Justice.

[ChuckF]

Offer is in, we'll know Tuesday if it is accepted. Now the irrational begins. Even if it's accepted - sizeable if - we're really only in to the extent of the diligence money. And yet I will surely spend the interim worrying about where we could put in a mini-split system to replace the weird 1970s in-ceiling radiant heating and lack of central air, etc.

[ChuckF]

We didn't wind up getting that place. We made a higher offer but the seller didn't want to accept my diligence contingency That would have been fine if we were gutting it, but we would have been living there, so that's a no.

BUT, we found a perfectly adequate rental about 2 minutes down the street and are moving on Wednesday. The contractors will start working on the new screen porch and the demo work in the following week. I have spent today moving small boxes to simplify the furniture movers' job. I am most worried about the dogs adapting. There are 4 steps down to the back yard instead of 2, so it will be a little harder for the old girl.

It is amazing how much dumb shit one accumulates. We are throwing lots of things away, and much furniture is going on a 1-way trip. So much crap.

[JoeP]

Originally Posted by ChuckF

but the seller didn't want to accept my diligence contingency .

If they had had nothing to hide, they would have had nothing to be afraid of.

[ChuckF]

That was my thinking too. Or maybe they had a cash offer who could close immediately. The weird old heating system seemed kind of flammable and terrible.

Either way, I am now quite glad that we did NOT go that direction, if only because that house was ~3 hours away from our current home. We have been able to get a huge amount of our moving done over the past 2 days because we can do small car-sized trips back and forth. Makes it much less of a production.

[beyelzu]

Several weeks ago I planted morning glory seeds in a few spots along our short fence between our yard and our neighbor’s.

It was late in the year, but I thought fuck it, it’s California.


I noticed my first flower today.

The vines are still very small, most of the green is other plants

[ChuckF]

Day 3 of the remodel: asbestos floor tile! We had no idea what was underneath the kitchen and bathroom floors, but the odds were pretty good that it would be some original asbestos-containing tile from the 50s. Sure enough. They essentially intact and could be safely encapsulated again, but since there's going to be other demolition work going on, it has to be abated. Fortunately, it's only floor tiles, there's not much of it, and they can get somebody out to abate it early next week for ~$15/sq ft. And when it's time to sell the asbestos disclosure is de-risked.

[viscousmemories]

That's a good price! I want to say we had to pay ~2k to have our kitchen floor abated when we bought this house.

ETA: Actually we only paid $2600 for 250 sqft. so I guess we got a better deal. Sorry!

[beyelzu]

The previous bird died, but now that plant has like 4 birds a blooming.

[beyelzu]

We are decorated for the SEC championship game between Georgia and Bama, and somewhat for Xmas

[LarsMac]

not lookin good at the Half

[beyelzu]

Originally Posted by LarsMac

not lookin good at the Half

Yeah, we didn’t get it done. It was poorly officiated, but we didn’t play good enough. That fumble in our own end and that bullshit 4th and 4 “reception” were too much for us to overcome.

Still, like Larry Munson says “no institution more worthy of loyalty”.

It’s still great to be a Georgia bulldog. Whether we make the playoffs this year or not.

[beyelzu]

We have been doing some gardening.

I got my landscaper to remove a couple of grass bushes that I didn’t love and we are putting in flower beds.

When we bought the house there were a few hanging planters, I’m refreshing them and adding some more.

The single planter pics are before.

I replaced the liners, added dirt, remove dead material and planted a few flower seeds.

I’ve got a few more to refresh and then a few that I bought.

Pics of the flower bed will be in a future update.

[beyelzu]

The pic with little Mo is a before pic. There was another large bush next to the bird of paradise on the other side.

The flower beds have a wildflower mix that I bought off Amazon. It’s got a bunch of different plants, I’m excited to see which ones grow.

The two planters I installed have phacelia or blue tansy on either end and zinnias in the middle.

[ChuckF]

We are moving home tomorrow! The renovation is done, and we have a new kitchen, bathroom, back deck, and screen porch. We are most excited about the kitchen, which was previously dark, wasted space in the form of a big cabinet for the hot water heater, ugly cheap cabinets, and two (2) drawers. The new kitchen has an island, more storage than we know what to do with, and this cool under-cabinet lighting.



It opens out onto a little grill deck, which also connects to a big screen porch that opens via a cool (and extremely expensive) folding door from the living room. So on pleasant days when the A/C isn't running, we can open the folding door and get airflow from the porch without having to have a screen door.



There are still a few little things to do. The railing for the grill deck is being fabricated, they have to build a planter for the front porch, and the fucking cabinet contractor is shitty and has a ton of little pieces of trim and details to finish. God I hate them so much.

On the whole, we had a really good contractor and are very pleased with the project.

The one thing that would make it better is if all of the new furniture we ordered back in March will actually get delivered sometime. Dropped like 14 fucking grand on furniture and there is no actual sign that is exists, just shifting delivery dates. Can't believe we have to move this old nasty furniture back again. But a small price to pay for going home.

[Ari]

The kitchen looks great!

[JoeP]

Originally Posted by ChuckF

The new kitchen has an island, more storage than we know what to do with

Please revisit this comment in a year's time.

[beyelzu]

I got tired of my fuschia seedlings taking forever to grow, so I bought two fuschia (one hybrid, one regular), transferred my seedlings to a different pot, and put the new fuschia in hanging baskets

[ChuckF]

We replaced our ratty old fence that was crumbling in some places. We had one corner of the yard that was weirdly fenced off by a previous owner. It was full of various weeds, trees, rocks, bricks, wire fencing, poles, pieces of rebar etc. It provided some privacy from a neighbor's fairly unattractive yard, so we just let it go. When it was time to replace the fence we decided to have it professionally cleaned up and reclaim it as yard, since the new fence was going to be taller and provide more privacy.

I called the stump grinder guy, who agreed to clean out the area and grind up the roots, and also clean up all the rocks and metal and dispose it for a couple hundred bucks extra. The stump grinder was [b]awesome[/i]. It was remote controlled. Kind of wanted to buy one. We added about 400-450 square feet to the back yard, which is nice, but I am going to have to hit it with Roundup or some equally carcinogenic pesticide to keep the fucking English ivy under control.

Inside the house, I am getting ready to take the cabinet installer to arbitration for their failure to complete the molding and some trim. Kind of looking forward to that one.

We also ordered a shitload of furniture from Pottery Barn and West Elm that appears not to exist. I wrote them a very nice demand letter (as their terms required) and their pussy-ass legal department handed it off to some customer service manager. She was very helpful and finally figured out that we ordered 2 dressers, but the people at the warehouse only scanned 1 of them, so the order looked incomplete. It has been sitting there for 3 months. But it's all good, we're friends now and she's going to give me some money back once we get all the shit delivered.

[beyelzu]

I had an aeonium that was outgrowing its pot, so I planted it in our berm where there was room.

[Ensign Steve]

We're hanging up new vanity lights in the bathroom, and discovered this piece of modern art behind the existing fixture. Obviously our plan now is to hang up a bigger fixture, then paint the wall a new color. Keep the pattern going.

[ShottleBop]

In the past few months, we've replaced a huge (9 ft + wide) leaky double-paned window in the living room (water damage to the wall below) with a sliding glass door, and had the house painted for the first time since my in-laws installed aluminum siding back in the 70s.

[JoeP]

In the past few minutes, I've stuck some velcro onto the inside frame of a window, for an air-conditioning vent window seal. (Houses in Finland don't have built-in A/C, and as a renter I'm not able to install a split-unit machine anyway. And anyway #2 I hope not to have to use it many days of the year.)