A Pitt with a View

Good bye 2011

2012-01-01T15:08:00.001-05:00

Cold weather

2011-11-19T19:49:00.000-05:00

We're only in November and we've already had some snow. This is Scamp's opinion of the snow:

Yes ladies and gentleman, that is the U of M snuggie

A Splash of Orange

2011-11-19T19:41:00.000-05:00

As many of you know, orange is my favorite color, which is why I decided to paint a room that color. It seemed like a good idea at the time, but it was really bright. So we decided to darken it up a shade, and with some curtains, I think it looks much better, don't you?

We've also added a new canvas photo over our bed, courtesy of my BFF over at Rearview Photography.

I'd say we're done with orange accents, but I think we're just beginning...

The Lawn Parts 3, 4, 5......and so on

2011-11-19T19:32:00.000-05:00

It's been quiet on the blog front. You guys are aching for an update. What could possibly be going on at the Pitt? Well there's been a whole lot of nothing over the summer months. You may be sick about us posting about the lawn, and we're sick of writing about the lawn, but nevertheless, this is the news at the Pitt. We've been struggling with grass growth. We've had an unusually hot summer that makes growing grass nearly impossible and growing a weed field very dooable.

Apparently, September is the best time of year to grow grass so we are doing some patchwork. The pictures below are of us continuing to struggle with the lawn. September might be the best growing month, but it's still womp womp for us.

From a distance the lawn looks nice and green!

Up close, it's filled with a bunch of brown spots.

"Reluctantly crouched at the starting line..."

2011-06-26T20:27:00.000-04:00

"...Engines pumping and thumping in time.
The green light flashes, the flags goes up,
Churning and burning, they yern for the cup."

I'm taking the hiatus from a home related posts to write about the triathlon I trained for and competed in today. I signed up a mini sprint triathlon in February, called the Tri Goddess Tri. A friend, who has completed Iron Man Competitions (yes plural), was key in encouraging me to sign up. This is a woman's only event where 50% of the woman were doing their first triathlons. So I paid the fee and started training.

We drove out this morning at 5:15 am. I picked up my number, my chip, baby blue swim cap and stared amazed at the course. From the beach to the transition area (where the bikes are) was about a 200 - 300 yard dash up hill on pavement. I picked my transition place and set up my bike, laid out my towel, shoes and number. I opted to wear tri pants, my sports bra and a tank top for the event. Some wore wet suits, but they weren't necessary. I went down to the water and waited for my wave to start. All I kept thinking is, buoys to the right and turtle to my left (my swim course) and of course, breathe.

My wave started and we were off. There was so many arms hitting me, people swimming on their backs not going in a straight line, water getting splashed all up in my face. Needless to say, I wasn't as prepared for the swimming as I could have been. Really the best way to be prepared is to swim with a large crowd of people. With the arms flying left and right I kept my head mostly above water looking around to make sure I wasn't running into anyone. I came out of the water in 14 minutes (my best time for the swimming a quarter mile) and dashed (walked) to my transition area. I threw on my shoes, got on my bike and headed out to bike the 10.7 miles. This part was 'easy.' Biking takes me back to being a kid and riding around the neighborhood. However, when I was a kid I don't remember my ass hurting quite so much. Finally, after the biking came the dreaded run. It was only a mile and half run, but it felt like a lifetime. I also failed to prepare for a trail run (didn't read the directions carefully enough), so I tripped once, but I made it. I ran through the finish line, teared up a bit, hugged Adrienne and it was done. I had completed a triathlon in 1 hour and 40 minutes. Sure, it was a mini sprint, but, I finished and I didn't die. It was quite a rush to finish, and I feel like I accomplished something. I would definitely do this again next year and will recommend it for other first timers.

Oh yeah - neither Bob nor I remembered to take the camera, so no pics until the official photo's come out.

Linen Closet and New Wall Color

2011-06-25T21:34:00.000-04:00

You may remember from an earlier post that we were redoing Taqwa's room.Part of it became our new linen closet. A good friend and co-worker recommended that I have fun with my bedroom colors. And I thought, what could be more fun than orange, right? I'll let you be the judge of this one.

Linen closet, orange linen closet and orange bedroom.

Introducing Sheeba

2011-06-24T20:16:00.000-04:00


Sheeba

We'd like to introduce the newest member of our family, Sheeba. No she wasn't wondering in the middle of the street half dead, she doesn't have a weird disease that costs a few thousand dollars to fix, no heartworm, no parvo, just a healthy 6.5 year old dog. Sheeba came from Friends of Michigan Animals Rescue. She had been there for over five years. She was first adopted as a puppy and returned to FMAR because she was jumping fences and became protective of her food. She was adopted again a second time and quickly returned because she continued to protect her food. Over the years, the volunteers grew close to her and we knew that someone special would have to adopt her, someone that would keep in touch and continue to let us know how she was doing. I started volunteering with FMAR five years ago and immediately fell in love Sheeba. She was loving, calm, playful, a great walker and a wonderful dog that I couldn't believe hadn't been adopted. Bob and I talked about taking her in all the time, but never took action. In May after lots of deliberation we decided to introduce her to the gang. If she didn't get along with our two then there was no reason for us to continue talking about taking her in. So introductions happened, and it worked. Sheeba is a great fit. She's not protective of her food in the house, she hasn't tried to jump the fence, she's just been wonderful.

The Lawn Part II

2011-05-04T21:35:00.001-04:00

The lawn is finally finished today. It's been a long drawn out process with the rain, but it's signed, sealed and delivered. I'm posting phase II pics today and will show the completed lawn in a later post.


Real woman drive bulldozers.


She was parked in the backyard for over a week waiting for the rain to stop.

You can see the magic begin to happen here. No topsoil yet, but smooth ground.

Final mound of dirt to be sorted out.

New Look

2011-04-25T21:35:00.000-04:00

Some of you may notice a new background for the blog. It's official, we feel like, "The Money Pitt."

The Lawn Part I

2011-04-25T19:27:00.001-04:00

Last year we took the plunge and installed a geothermal heating and cooling system into our house. They tore up our entire yard (heck just take a look at the header of this blog), left us with a gravel pitt and we knew that down the road we would have to invest in grass. We let the geo settle for a year, and now it's time to plant the grass.

But nothing is as easy as throwing down some grass seed. We had to bring in the dozer again to re level the entire back yard, grade away from the house, bury some gutters and the list goes on. Today was the first day of work, and half way through the day, they were rained out. We chose Todd's Services to do the work for us. They came out and did our driveway last year, and Tom has been great in listening to what we need and putting it into action. Although seeing all the heavy machinery out there again is scary, I know that they'll do a great job.

Gary on the Dozer

The backyard before the dozer and post geo

The left side of the house where there used to be an entrance.

This is what a train of dirt looks like,we've got more coming.

Gary dug up some other houses foundation (or so we think)

The mud mound in the yard.

Dryer Vent

2011-04-25T19:12:00.000-04:00

What? You don't vent your dryer through your open garage door?

Garage Door Entrance

2011-04-13T19:57:00.000-04:00

When I came back from China about a week ago, the garage door entrance into my house was now in a different location. The entrance used to be all the way on the right hand corner and entered directly into the house. We decided to move the entrance into the laundry/mud room. The old entrance will become my new pantry. (As huge as this house is, there is no pantry!)

You can still see the entrance door all the way to the right. That is now my pantry door. Where the framing ends on the left is where the new entrance is going to go.

The picture above shows the walls up and the new door. For the first couple of days, I kept trying to use the pantry door to get into the garage. But now it all seems pretty normal.

Garage Door Opener

2011-04-07T19:31:00.000-04:00

What? You don't hold two wires together to open your garage door?

Shitastic!

2011-04-04T21:17:00.000-04:00

Fart jokes and poop jokes are just always funny. I can't help myself but start laughing. So when the drain pipe incident came up, the whole situation was just ridiculously hilarious. As we were taking out the toilet from the drive through bathroom, dad realized that the drain pipe that's supposed to rinse away the poop, well it wasn't doing it's job correctly and we had a few years worth of shit hanging out in there.

It took careful planning to remove the pipe in such a way that any residual poop would drain into our A2 garbage bin (the only container we felt big enough to hold all the shit). It included me tilting the pipe in a certain way, Bob positioning the garbage can and dad trying to seal up the shit as it came out. This would have all worked out perfectly had I been able to stop laughing for even a moment. You see, the A2 garbage can, when opened, smelled like the most foul poop in the world. So Bob was holding it up, gagging, awaiting the river of shit to flow into it, and I was laughing and dad was looking disapprovingly upon us. Well it wasn't working out, so Bob got a smaller bucket and we let the pipe loose. It was pretty anti-climactic, only a small bit of brown pee like substance came out. Apparently, the poop had been in there for quite some time and had caked on.


The pipe I had to tilt

Bob sealing off any potential leak points

Dad sealing it up

The A2 garbage can in defeat

Taqwa's Room

2011-04-04T21:01:00.000-04:00

We've also decided to take the renovation bedroom by bedroom. We have to redo all the drywall tape and fix the ceilings, so Taqwa's room (Taqwa spelled out in glow in the dark stars above the window), was the first to undergo a transformation. We don't have a linen closet, so we decided to take of part of this bedroom and convert it to a linen closet.

Too bad you can't see the glow in the dark stars.

In the picture below you can see where we started to rough in the new closet and the linen closet. On the right hand side to the left of the door, is where the linen closet is going to go. Next to that is the actual bedroom closet

The closets

And here you can see the linen closet and new doorway from the hallway.

And the walls drywalled in and the closet sort of finished.

Pink Panties

2011-04-04T20:40:00.000-04:00

Between, Orlando, Vegas, DC, VA, Houston, Toronto and China, we've been busy traveling this first quarter. Our busy schedule has also included some major home improvement projects. Whereas 2010 was the year of outsourcing at the Pitt, in 2011 my dad is back in full force and that means that we are too. It seems like we don't have a spare moment in life, but well the renovation is back in full swing.

Some of you may remember our "drive through bathroom" (original pictures visible here all the way at the bottom), that was built on the part of the garage, that was always cold and where the pipes burst, that had a drive through window above the toilet - a very intimate place to do your business. Well we decided to redo this whole half of the house, which means tearing out all the walls and bathroom and re-designing the whole space.

Leave it to the Pitt to present us with surprises. As we tore down the walls, we found this within the walls:


Pink Panties

And we found this when we took up the carpeting:

Flintstones Doodles

All very exciting and exactly what we would expect from this place. As the walls came down and the floors came up the garbage just piled higher and higher so we've spent the majority of our time cleaning up the mess.


The bathtub is still in tact.

A view from inside the bathroom, sink still intact.

Pile of trash

Everything cleared out.

The lonesome toilet before we tore it out.

And Finally a Fence

2010-12-04T15:24:00.002-05:00

We've finally gotten to a place with the house where we no longer feel like we're camping. Now when we select home improvement projects, we gravitate towards the ones that show results immediately. We've toyed around with the idea of getting a fence ever since we moved in here. Our two dogs have been very reliable with the boundary, but every now and then they take off after a coyote or some moving bush. And even though they primarily stay in the yard, we can't control what comes into the yard. Also, we swap a lot of dog sitting duties with other folks. It's a always a bit of a pain to leash up the visitor dogs and then take them out. It also doesn't help that Scamp is a bully breed.

While Bob was in Australia, I called a couple of fence company's to give us quotes. We decided on All Arbor Custom Fence. Richard, from All Arbor Fence, was incredibly patient with all our questions, let us change our minds a million times, and in the end he and his team installed our very own awesome fence.

We decided to go with a 5' fence, cedar in the front and chain link along the sides and back.

The posts go in.

The beginnings of the gate.

From the front of the house.


The finished product.

Off the master bedroom

Side View

From the front

One of the 6 gates.

Pepper already enjoying her new found freedom.

With the shiny chain link and the gravel pit style back yard, we kind of look like a state penitentiary. But the shine will wear off in the coming months, and once we get some grass and other plants, it should start to look like home again.

Temperatures are dropping

2010-12-04T13:43:00.000-05:00

As it's been getting colder these two guys have been cuddling closer at night. We don't really mind because happiness is two puppies warming your feet.

It's also time for Scamp's sweater season. Before we send him off to daycare or outside, he sits patiently as we put his Fido Fleece on. The cool kids at daycare may make fun of him but he needs it. This seems to be the most ideal coats for Scamp because of the almost full belly coverage it gives. Although Scamp has fur, he's almost bald on his belly and gets cold very quickly. Sometimes we become lazy and leave the fleece on. He loves to lounge in it.

Trees

2010-12-02T19:44:00.009-05:00

I love trees. I love jewelry with trees, picture frames with trees, and the trees in my backyard. As much as I love the trees, I hate bugs. And at the Pitt we have female box elder trees, which means I get to suffer through these guys, in the late summer and fall. It's disgusting. The entire side of our house will be covered in these little red suckers. They don't bite, the don't hurt the tree, they are just there. And once it starts getting colder, they creep into your house.

This year was exceptionally bad for box elders, so we made a big decision to cut out all the female box elders in our yard. 4 big beautiful trees. Since we were having those cut, we also had an apple and huge Siberian elm cut down as well. The apple tree was in a really bad place, and the elm was in danger of falling on our house.

One of the large box elder trees was very close to our property line and I being the good neighbor decided to talk to the neighbors about the tree. This is how the interaction went:

Orsi proceeds to house with KEEP OUT signs

Neighbor: Are you my neighbor?
Orsi: Yes. I came to talk by about this tree...box elder problem...
Neighbor: I don't care what you do. I hate tree's. I'd cut down every tree in my yard if my wife let me.
Orsi: Ummmm. Great. I really like trees and would miss them if they were gone.

So I guess we don't have to ask the neighbors about future trees and I was happy they were cool with it. So the trees are gone and the yard is pretty bare. With the geo and missing trees, we look pretty rough out there.

Not necessarily home rennovation related...

2010-11-05T23:34:00.000-04:00

There are certain traits about my mother that make drive me insane. Her and my dad came to Ann Arbor to pick up their farm fresh chickens and go to Ikea. (Side note: My mother didn't start visiting me in Ann Arbor until they built an Ikea in Canton.) So I accompanied them to Canton, and at the checkout line, Maria has to go to the food market. She bought every random thing imaginable. On our way out we had, stale bread, Swedish chips, and weird fruit cookies. She took one bite of everything, didn't like anything, and then left it all with me. This makes me crazy. She can't leave the store without buying junk food, that she inevitably leaves with me.

What's worse? As we're walking of Ikea and I'm rolling my eyes, I realized, OMG, I do the exact same thing to Bob. Sigh. I guess the apple doesn't fall far from the tree.

Electrical

2010-11-01T20:55:00.000-04:00

Last year we got a really good deal on insulation, so we went ahead and bought enough to roll out another layer in the attic.We were able to roll it over the bedrooms, hallway and into the formal dining room (AKA baby grand piano room), but the living room, kitchen and weird back room were never done because the electrical was (is) a hot mess. It made more sense to figure out what to do with the wires first, and than roll out the insulation.

Fast forward a year and we were still trying to decide what to do with the electrical. After a couple of big pow wow session, we've had success. I thought no big deal, Bob will climb into the attic, we'll get the wiring in, and bam, we're done.

And then pieces of the wall started to come down.

And the drywall dust came creeping back. As usual nothing is as it appears. There were live wires going to nowhere, dead wires everywhere and random lighting everywhere. Bob and dad were only able to put in the recessed lighting in the living room and sort out some of the wires in kitchen. So what should have been a weekend project, has turned into a couple of weeks projects.

Dad trying to figure out the hot mess.

Bob pretending he knows what he's doing.

Three of the 6 recessed lights in the living room.

Geothermal Finished!

2010-10-20T08:09:00.000-04:00

These past two weeks, DTE has finally finished the electrical work outside. The lines are buried, and we have a brand new fancy electric meter! It's funny they didn't replace the old meter with an electric meter. So the geo is officially done and we should soon be getting charged for it.

The final, final step? Landscaping the backyard after this disaster. Stay tuned.

Fall!

2010-10-19T21:51:00.000-04:00

Ode to my favorite season in pictures:

Dogs running around without heat exhaustion:

A day at the pumpkin patch:

Some fall decor at the Pitt:

Driveway

2010-10-19T21:46:00.001-04:00

As you may remember from the master landscaping plan, Bob and I would really like to have our driveway paved. Not because we had a particular problem with the gravel drive, but because there was a huge dip from the driveway into the garage. The Cavalier's underside always hit the dip, and if I had more than 2 people in the Versa or a loaded car, than it would also hit the bottom. We thought that until we had the money, we were just going to have to suffer (well the cars suffer mostly). Another, less annoying problem, but still pretty annoying, was the bottom of our driveway. See our house seems to be at the bottom of a slight hill in our street. This means we get all the water, you guessed it, at the foot of the driveway. The original gravel was laid in such a way that the water just pooled up at the end. This meant a lot of muddy feet in and out of the house.

So we were talking to Tom over at Todd's Services, you may remember them from our master landscaping plan, about re-leveling the backyard, planting grass etc. for next year, when I off handedly asked if there was anything they could do about the driveway now with new gravel. Would that be a waste of money? or would it help us out in the long run (pavement)? Turned out it was a good idea and reasonably priced. We chose limestone gravel, which when it rains becomes almost cement like.

So in this first picture you can see where the dip is because it extends past the driveway and into the walkway a bit. I don't think the picture shows how bad the dip really was:

And the rest of the driveway:

I know the Versa is dirty. Try living on a dirt road - it's just not worth washing your car.

Introducing our new bed!

2010-10-10T21:05:00.000-04:00

We always said that if we were to get a new bed, it would be a glorious king sized bed. It was one of those things that we talked about, but didn't really expect to get for another couple of years. We had gotten our queen size Sealy bed six years ago. At the time it was extraordinary. A plush pillow top was the selling point for us, but later on became the bane of our sleeping existence. You see we sleep in the middle of our bed and over time, that plush pillow top formed a big dip in the middle of the bed. It became so severe that every time I had to get out of bed, it felt like I was climbing out. Yet the bed was still comfy. Then, earlier this summer I began waking up with back pain. At first it was a night or two a week, but than it became every night. I couldn't sleep more than 5 hours without waking up in pain. X-rays and blood work showed nothing so I moved forward with physical therapy. I dreaded sleeping in the bed at night. So we finally bit the bullet and bought a new bed. I knew that I didn't want anything with coils, or a tempurpedic. So we got a natural latex bed. I was also pretty set on getting a platform bed frame, which is incredibly hard to find. So after a couple of weeks of searching and not finding anything within our price range, we decided on the Ikea Malm bed frame. It's low to the ground, clean lines, and does the job. A king size bed also meant that we had to get new sheets, new comforter and new pillows.

Can you find Mr. Scamp?

Odds and Ends

2010-09-24T22:22:00.000-04:00

Well the geothermal saga is not quite complete. We're still waiting anxiously for DTE to finish their portion of the work. We've still got a mini trench in the backyard waiting on electrical. Other than looking pretty ugly, everything is working. If you're considering geothermal, I cannot stress enough how much your backyard will suck once it's all said and done. I keep joking with Bob that the only reason they give you a 30% tax credit is so that you can do all the landscaping that's required. Haley's warned us about the yard, but you really don't believe it until you see it.

We're getting ready for a Europe trip to a cousin's wedding, so I feel like we're in a bit of a mad rush to get everything together before we leave. What is everything? You know the usual stuff like laundry, cleaning, yard work. With the size of this house, I feel like I start cleaning on Monday, finish by the following Sunday only to start all over again.

We've had a few visitors this past weekend and we headed over to the Big House for a game. Ladies and gentleman, this was my first football game since my freshman year of collage and I missed the one thing I really wanted to see; the half time show. How is it that after four solid years of playing in high school marching band I still have no idea what goes on, on the football field? And it's not for lack of trying (or rather my friends trying to teach me). I guess it just didn't stick. I've included the picture below as proof that I was at the game (and why didn't anyone tell me my underwear was out)?

We're also trying to price out a couple of outdoor projects before this year is over. Our driveway has this huge concrete ramp into it, that the Cavalier always bangs against on its way in and out. We thought our only solution was to tear everything out and re-cement it, but it looks like we may be able to throw some additional gravel down and make the ramp a little less steep.

Also, the lilies need to be replanted before real fall sets in. And the entire front walkway really needs to be weeded. These are both Orsi initiatives, because Bob has minimal interest in the garden.

More from Tantre

2010-08-08T21:16:00.000-04:00

Our farm share's have been awesome. We're into potato season and there's nothing better than potatoes. So today I made some potato leek soup:

And fresh bruchetta with a summer squash cakes:

Next to potato's, tomatoes are the best! We're also getting more beets than we know what to do with. So if you've got beet recipes out there, send them our way.

The Stairs

2010-08-08T21:03:00.000-04:00

Our big indoor project for this year was moving the staircase to the basement, perpendicular to where it is currently situated. The stairs were in the kitchen and it looked more like a bar than a staircase. See picture below.

In addition to the questionable location of the stairs, the construction of the stairs also left a lot to be desired. The height of the steps where completely variable from 6 inches up to 11 inches and the head room left a lot to be desired. By moving the stairs, we've opened up the kitchen, because we clearly needed more space :-)

Bar like railing is gone.

Reminiscence of old stairs

The floor getting filled in.

The new stairs going in.

The new stairs.

Geothermal Part 3

2010-07-12T21:31:00.002-04:00

The geothermal installation is complete, including the various extras (humidifier, zoning, filtration). The first it was installed it was actually quite cool outside, so the system basically didn't run. Then we left for vacation, during which it was apparently very hot here. Our house sitters told us the house stayed cool :) Now that we're back, the house is indeed very cool. Interestingly, the humidity level is high enough (50-55%) that the humidifier never runs. But we expect the winter to be much dryer (we were super itchy last winter because of it).

Anyway, here are some more pictures of the last bits.

Here's the loop field connection to the pump.

Different angle of the same space. Both water heaters are visible on the left, the furnace is in the middle, the humidifier is to the right if the middle, and the pump is on the far right.

The space to the right of the furnace. I'm not sure what the box on the left is (it's either a thermostat connection or the humidifier control of some kind). The box on the right is the zone controller. In the middle you can see the thermostat for the basement zone.

Here's one of the vent controls for the zoning. The circular device opens or closes the line to the vent. A bunch of these are set up to control the flow of air to each zone (so only the parts of the house that need it are cooled or heated).

Update: The box on the left (two pictures up) is for the wireless thermostat (one of our zones has a wireless thermostat because it was easier than running a line there, and we'll be moving walls in there soon anyway, so this was just easier for everyone). If you look very closely, above that box and little closer (half cut off by the top edge of the picture) is the wireless antenna (a small gray box on the duct).

Geothermal Part 2

2010-06-27T13:18:00.006-04:00

The geothermal installation is almost complete. As usual with these things, it went over schedule a little, so the system won't be turned on until tomorrow. But the trenches have been filled back in, and it's mostly a matter of making the final connections and setting up the zoning system.

Here are some more pictures.

Taken from the roof, this shows 4 of the 5 trenches with the loops in them. Each trench is 150 feet long, 3 feet wide, and 6 feet deep.

Here I am standing in a trench.

Artistic. Taken from the back of one of the trenches facing towards the house.

Here is the yard after the trenches have been filled back in. It will take 6 months for the ground to fully settle, after which it will have to be regraded and then we can plant grass in the spring.

DTE gives a reduced electrical rate for geothermal systems, so we'll be getting a separate meter just for that.

Here's the tubes from the loop field coming into the basement (the entry into the house is shallower than the actual field, presumably to make it easier to work with). Also visible is the second electrical panel for the geo equipment.

The geothermal furnace is on the left, and the water heaters are on the right (there's one behind the visible one there). Also installed but not visible here are the humidification system and the electronic air filter.

Geothermal - A Few Pictures are Worth a Thousand Words

2010-06-23T18:47:00.000-04:00

So the time has come to install the geothermal. We chose Haley's Mechanical to do the work. We'll fill you in on all the exciting things to come soon. But for now, these pictures will give you a snapshot into what we are experiencing.

The Mound has disappeared. The calm before the storm.

There has been a lot of adventures. Electrical, cable, down trees. Stay tuned for the nitty gritty!

Landscapping

2010-06-22T22:26:00.000-04:00

As I'm putting together this post about landscapping, we are getting ready to put in Geothermal and basically rip up our entire back yard. So stay tuned for geothermal postings.

Bob and I have been ambitious this year. We've been getting quotes left and right on different things we want done in the yard. Tom from Todd's Services came over and came up with the landscape design above, for the front yard and the immediate back. It looks awesome, and I'm really hoping we can do it this year, but we'll see.

2010 CSA with Tantre Farms - Week 1

2010-06-09T22:25:00.000-04:00

The one thing I've been looking forward to all winter long is our CSA to start up again. What is a CSA? It is Community Supported Agriculture where members of the community support their local farms by purchasing fresh produce from them. A CSA can be set up in a lot of different ways. Bob and I signed on for another year with Tantre Farm over in Chelsea, MI. The ways ours works is every Saturday morning we go the farmers market and pick up a box of seasonal produce. It's already packed and ready for us to go, all we have to do is figure out what everything is and what the heck we (OK I'm) going to make with it. A CSA with Tantre is not for the faint of heart. You get a lot of veggies. I mean veggies coming out of every corner of your fridge veggies. Sometimes even though Bob and I eat a plant based diet, it's hard for us to finish everything. And this year we don't have the rabbits, so the pressure is on.

But with the CSA I really feel like summer has arrived and I can begin to take part in the community again. My winter hermit ways are no more. The cool thing about Tantre is that it is organic and they don't require you to work on the farm. There are a couple of optional "work days" which we'll probably go to this year, but over all we just sit back and watch the magic happen.

I'll do my best to break down our weekly shares for you for a couple of reasons:

To prove that two people can eat this many veggies.
To show that local food is awesome!

Week 1 was pretty exciting because, well it was the first week and I'd been waiting a long time. We've enjoyed:

Radishes, turnips, lots of lettuce, lots of spinach, asparagus, spring onions, garlic scapes, more spinach, random greens, chives, did I mention spinach?

So far it's just been a salad type of week. That's pretty much what we do with the first couple of week's shares.Tonight, I did get creative and make garlic scape pesto and tossed in in with pasta, fresh tomatoes, and asparagus. Nothing exact, just delicious pasta goodness.

Are you wondering how you can get in on this CSA goodness? Head over to Local Harvest, type in your zip code and away you go.

Long Overdue for an Update

2010-06-09T21:57:00.001-04:00

It's been a rough past month at the Pitt. Every weekend in May one or both of us were out of town. And even though some of those trips were for pleasure, you never really appreciate how much you love just being home.

First thing is first, three weeks ago we had the house reappraised. As the date was approaching I became more and more nervous, the house had to appraise for a lot in order for us to get the mortgage that we wanted. All of my worrying was for nothing, the house appraised way above our expectations and we now have 20% equity in our home. Good-bye PMI! So now we have a real 30 year fixed mortgage. Deep sigh of relief.

We would like to take this opportunity to give thanks:

My dad has been instrumental in making this happen for us. Without him there would have been no way for us to buy this house.
Good friends helped us out with much needed furniture. (Going from 750 sq. ft. to 3000 was a big step).
Good friends who stopped by to help with all the little things. They really add up!
Good friends who listened and are still listening to us bitch and moan about this place and continue to offer encouragement.

Bottom line for this post; real mortgage, real house, real grown ups.

Spring!

2010-04-18T12:56:00.001-04:00

Spring has arrived! Although it can't decide whether it's going to be a super warm spring, or a way too cold to be outside spring, but it's here. The trees have buds, dandelions are poking through, a couple of tulips are blooming, the grass is green and incredibly long (especially where the dogs do their business). And the surest sign? My allergies are out of control.

We decided to trim the apple trees this year so I could "harvest the fruit." Urban Foresters came highly recommended, so we called them out. The trees have been dwarfed, and the first signs of flower buds are appearing. In fact, we have so many fruit trees, that in another week, 8 trees in our yard will be in full bloom. And now that the siding is complete, our house will look amazing!.

We are also in the process of getting numerous geothermal estimates to get our heating and cooling taken care of this year. So landscaping the back yard is out for the time being, seeing that most of it will be excavated. The good news is that we will get rid of the giant lump in the middle of the yard with this project.

We are having someone come out and do a "master plan" for our front yard. we love our brick wall, but it's bowing out and really needs to come down. There are a lot of really cool ideas flying around; cobblestone path, double brick accent walls, eliminating the steps, lots of demo and the wine table and chairs that Nikki thought was a great idea since the beginning.

Our other big project for the year is moving the basement stairs over. There may be a good chance that we'll hire out the moving of the stairs and do the demo of the old stairs ourselves. Stay tuned for that.

Of course it wouldn't be spring if the dogs weren't getting sick. Mr. Scamp was the first to take a turn at the vet. As soon as the weather got nicer, he began limping again (he limped last year) and started getting a rash on his belly. This confirmed our suspicion that Scamp is allergic to grass. Yes. We have a dog that is allergic to grass. So we headed over to HSHV to see Stacey and get some x-rays and meds. His x-rays were clear, but since he has a history of limping, we're taking him over to MSU to see an orthopedic vet. He's also back on his seasonal allergy pills.

Not to be outdone, a week later Pepper began throwing up. I didn't think much of it because it's spring and they're eating grass like crazy. But I became concerned when it didn't stop. Now instead of jumping to conclusions and taking her to the vet right away, I tried to see if we could get her back to healthy on our own. We withheld food, and started a bland diet, little bites at a time. We had no success. So back we went to vet. The sad thing is, I called them and they recognized my voice! Sigh. I have become that crazy dog person that is always there. But they were great and got Pepper in right away to be seen. Over the next two days a series of x-rays and barium were taken and it was decided that Pepper needed surgery. By this point she had not held down food for 6 days and had lost 4 pounds. So we let them take her in. Pepper was pretty pathetic on the first night and really worried me, but she's been getting better and better every day and is finally holding down the food.

So the excitement of last week is winding down and the dogs this morning were just chilling in the yard. In the picture below you can see how far they shaved Pepper's belly.

Happy spring to all!

Nothing is ever easy...

2010-04-10T19:48:00.000-04:00

A few years ago, we bought a filtered water dispenser for our fridge. It's slightly bigger than a pitcher, but you still have to fill it with water from the sink. When we bought the dispenser we got a great deal on filters and bought a bunch. Fast forward to last March 2009 when we moved into our house. Everything was packed up for the move. Fast forward to today, we can't find any of the filters. We refuse to buy new ones, because we know we own like 3 of them!! So it seemed like the perfect opportunity to finally hook up the water dispenser on the fridge. Easy, no problem, right?

Well the first sign of trouble was the empty filter cartridge that looked like it was broken on the end. Suspicious? Yes, but it did not stop us from moving forward! The plumbing was done fairly quickly and then we decided to shoot over to Sears to get a new filter. That when we realized we had a problem. The filter had burst inside the fridge and we had to pull it out piece by piece. This was the hard part. On the left you'll see the cartridge housing, on the right the guts. Taking these pieces out almost took 4 hours.

Once they were out, we were excited to hook up the water and experience filtered water at its greatest. Well, not only did we, but our entire kitchen floor enjoy the water. Not only had the filter burst, but much of the plumbing in the back of the fridge. It was time to call in the professionals (Blue Crew). Yet another project at the Pitt that was way harder than it needed to be.

So when I was a wee youth back in Owosso, MI. Elizabeth and I always used to dream of the day when we would have a fridge with a dispenser on the door. Because a fridge with a dispenser was classy.

Well Elizabeth as I look at my fridge with the dispenser now intact, in the Pitt, the first thought that comes to mind is always, classy.

The Deck Part 3: Putting it Back Together

2010-04-04T15:24:00.000-04:00

This actually happened back in November, but Bob's lazy and didn't bother writing about it until now. Bob's excuse is that Orsi already hijacked the blog, so why didn't she update it?

As described previously, the deck was attached to the house (right through the siding) which caused leaking and rotting problems. So we removed some boards against the house, dug new postholes, attached the deck to the new posts, and cut it away from the house. Thus, the deck was now freestanding. The next step was to put in the new sliding door and the siding over the deck. With that done, we could finally put the deck back together.

To put things back together, we put a new board across the end against the house. This was positioned very close to the house. This was a little tricky since there was no way to get a hammer or screwdriver between the house and the board to attach it to the ends of the boards. The solution was simple: we used some short scrap boards to attach to the end of the boards perpendicular to the house, and then attached to the parallel board through those, so the screws were going towards the house instead of away:

The upper part of the deck (shown above) has boards that run parallel to the house, so putting those boards back in was simple (although we ended up replacing one of them). The lower part of the deck has boards at an angle. To avoid pulling the entire deck apart, we made a cut parallel to the house, resulting in several short diagonal pieces that had to be put back. To reattach them, we put short pieces parallel to the house in between the perpendicular pieces. These were positioned halfway out of the ends that were still there, and then the old pieces were replaced. Thus, the ends of the boards where they were cut is supported and nothing is just hanging in the air:

We ended up replacing a couple of these pieces, too. Here's what the deck looks like now (the replaced pieces are clearly visible):

The next steps are to power wash the deck to remove the existing paint and stain it. Also, the railing is in really bad shape, so we'll replace that, too. Ultimately we'd like to replace the deck entirely, but that's going to be a big expensive project, so I expect that to be many years away (we'd be happy if we could get 10 more years out of this deck).

Moving Along

2010-02-17T19:13:00.000-05:00

It's been a bit inactive here at the Pitt. There's been a lot of last minute touch ups to get ready for the reappraisal.

Priming exposed drywall
"Finishing" the back bathroom
Final organization of the storage room
Replacing all the broken tile

My new task is to stage the house in some way. We really don't have enough furniture to go around. We came from 750 square feet into 3,085 and there's just the two of us. We basically live in the master, the living room and the kitchen. These areas are all well furnished. But we've still got three bedrooms, the giant dining room (or baby grand piano room, which is what it'll be), the living area by the kitchen, the storage room and the space goes on and on.

I've secured a couple of beds, which we really needed for the extra bedrooms. The good news here is, the rooms look much more finished and when you visit us, you'll actually have a bed, not futon, to sleep on! The dining room will remain empty. It's actually kind of nice to have the big empty space, it gives the dogs plenty of room to run.

So we're still here, working away, living the life of luxury at the Pitt.

In case you were wondering...

2010-01-25T21:04:00.000-05:00

I am no longer in pain. Moving around seems natural again. In fact with the momentary warm weather, we did some yard work today!

Flooring and Pain in the Master Bedroon

2010-01-17T21:57:00.000-05:00

Pain. So much pain....For the re-appraisal of the Pitt, we needed some cheap flooring in the master to replace the white painted plywood that we've been living on. We were back and forth on whether or not we would actually put in floors, but Lowe's had a sale on laminate wood floors for 58 cents a square foot and we were sold. We bought the underlay at the Habitat for Humanity Restore, and we were ready to go. Dad stopped by on Saturday to put some finishing touches on the house. He thought putting flooring in was a waste of time, but he couldn't resist watching us do it. So while Bob was at Tae Kwon Do, I began the process.

To begin, I rolled out the first row of the underlayment and put up the first row of the laminate. It was tricky figuring out how to anchor the floating floor, but I got the hang of if. Initially, dad hung out in the master putting on the pocket door hardware (yeah!) and giving me advice. By the time Bob came home I already had the groove down and was a third of the way done with the floor.

Since I already knew what I was doing, Bob became my lackey. He got me my pieces laminate, vacuumed cleaned, while I laid the floor and sawed the pieces. (Yes folks, they trust me with power tools!!)
That crouching position you see? That was the position I was in for 12 hours. 12 straight hours with one break for a veggie burger. But I was determined to get the job done. When we reached the difficult areas like the door, Dad stepped in to help.

Notice folks, I am still in the crouching position with like 6 inches of underwear showing. This was late into the evening and it was not pretty. Dad finally left around 7 and we only had a couple of more rows to go. We finished by 9 and I couldn't wait to get in the shower to wash off the saw dust. But it's done. the floor is done, and for what it is, it looks great!

As a reward for a job well done we went out to dinner at Sidetracks at 10:00 pm. We were so pathetic. Bob was falling asleep at the table and I couldn't stop eating everything in sight.

Well this morning I woke up and I could barely move. My thighs and butt hurt so much from crouching, that I may never move again. And let me tell you folks, day to day tasks that you take advantage of like, sitting on the toilet, become really difficult. I can hardly walk stairs, get into my car, or sit and stand up. I'm am a sad human being right now. But my friends, the flooring is complete and I was the one who did it!

This is me crouched over in pain. Somehow with all the exercise from yesterday, my roll is still prevalent. Sigh.

Curtain

2010-01-13T22:12:00.000-05:00

The master closet has a window in it. This is thanks to Bob's suggestion that we should have natural daylight to save on energy costs. The window was installed, it all looked great, except for one tiny thing. There was no window covering. Granted the master closet window faces the backyard, where there are woods, no neighbors, but still, it was always a big creepy if I caught myself without my shirt on in there. So the obvious choice was for me to sew a curtain for the room. I presented this idea to Bob and his response was, "You know honey, this is the master closet, and I think your curtains were fine in our apartments, but we should have something a little nicer in here, don't you think?" Well it was on? Me sew inferior curtains? I don't think so. Granted my last curtain attempt resulted in 4 curtains, all different sizes, but they were adequate and did the job. So I set off to find fabric to make the curtain extravaganza happen.

Step 1: Buy fabric. Bob says, "Shouldn't you call Reenie and see how to do
this right?"

Step 2: Take fabric and measure it to the window.

Step 3: Realize that I should have measured window before purchasing fabric.

Step 4: Return fabric. Bob calls Reenie himself to try to get me help.

Step 5: Buy new fabric in measured amount.

Step 6: Cut out fabric and bicker with Bob that I am not doing this correctly and clearly I need to call in a professional (Reenie) to help with the situation.

Step 7: Iron fabric

Step 8: Set up sewing machine I have not used in 3 years since last curtain making attempt. Bob still convincing me that I need to consult with Reenie.

Step 9: Begin sewing along ironed seams.

Step 10: Have the bobbin (what the heck is that again?) get stuck and a good piece of the material gets ripped.

Step 11: Proceed on. I mean there was plenty of extra material cut, right?

Step 12: Finish curtain and hang it on the window.

Step 13: Realize that the curtain is 5 inches too short. 5 inches!?!?!? How does that happen?

Step 14: Realize that the fabric was wide enough to cut another window panel.

Step 15: Start from beginning and repeat Steps 7 and 9.

Step 16: Finish curtain. Finally. It fits. I swear - because I am a master of sewing. In fact I am a sewing genius.

Step 17: Pack up sewing machine for another 3 years of storage.

Reenie or Mama B, can we please get together for sewing lessons soon?

Siding Complete!

2010-01-02T18:23:00.000-05:00

The siding is finally complete. It took a lot longer than we thought, because dad was MIA for about 4 weeks. Once he was back, the house really started to come together. Everyday the house was looking a bit more put together. Cars driving down the street, would often slow down to get a second look at the Pitt. Friends coming over, will often drive by the house because they can't recognize it. As you can see from the pictures below, we ended up going with a white siding and sandstone trim. Now were' on to putting on the finishing touches before the appraisal; finish flooring in the kitchen, prime a couple of walls, put up fixtures etc.

House Before:

After:

One of our Christmas gifts which we love:

Visitor at the Pitt

2009-12-29T20:59:00.001-05:00

Over the Holiday we had a four legged visitor at the Pitt, Sophie. Sophie is Scamp and Pepper's cousin from Virginia and she happens to be Scamps BFF. Elizabeth got to take some great pictures while she was here:

On a house related note - the siding is done! Stay tuned for pictures.

Deck the Halls

2009-12-27T16:37:00.000-05:00

I vowed that would not get a Christmas tree until we owned our own place. This year we have our own place and have plenty of space for a tree. Those ornaments we got as gifts through the years, finally have a place to be hung. There was lots of buzz, cooking, baking and family. All in all - a good thing.

Baked Goods:

The tree and fixin's:

The Reason for the season (lunch box nativity scene):

The story of Bob's Christmas Gift

Since Bob and I have been together, my mother manages to take every gift idea I have for Bob, and one up me. This is typically not a problem because we benefit by ending up with a nicer thing. This Christmas Maria did not let me down. I bought Bob a U of M Snuggie. This was the perfect gift. Bob is always cold and he doesn't own any Michigan apparel. I excitedly special ordered my purchase and waited for Christmas to arrive. I made no mention of this to Maria (my mom). I was on the phone with her a week before Christmas and asked, "So what did you get Bob?" She replies, "Vell you know Orsika, since Bob is alvays so cold, I got him blanket for couch. It vraps around like robe." Her blanket was indeed leaps and bounds beyond mine. it had zippers, clasps, fuzzy insides. So once again, Maria outdid me.

U of M Snuggie:

Maria Snuggie a like (Doesn't it look like something the pope or Kevin would wear?):

We hope your holidays were relaxing and filled with warm moments! To 2010 and beyond!

A Milestone

2009-12-13T21:05:00.001-05:00

Dear readers, Bob and I achieved a milestone today; we parked both cars in the garage today. This is indeed a glorious day.

Things we are thankful for...

2009-12-12T22:53:00.001-05:00

Thanksgiving went off without a hitch. I mean yes, there were 8 people in a house with 1 full bath, an incredible "mysterious" smell coming from a room, but other than that things were great. It was great to see family and have everybody together. Things that we are thankful for:

Good friends that stop by the night of the family arrival and help us get prepared.
Good friends that help us borrow tables. (We'll return them, I swear!)
Family Bingo. This was our first year playing, and we can highly recommend it. When we were getting ready for the big day, Bob and I kept saying, "So and so will say this, or do this..." Finally, a friend suggested that we create a bingo board with all the different scenarios and mark them off as they happen. The rules? We can't initiate the conversations on the board, and that the board remains a secret until the end of the event. It was great fun, and we would like to thank our families for being so predictable.
A successful turkey with a veg roasting it.
Equal pie to person ratio. (Thank you Nuxoll's for teaching us the way).
Getting all the food on the table within a reasonable time frame.
Big house where everybody got their own room and a chance to spread out.
Great family and great family time.
Seeing the look on Annmarie's face when she first tasted the Ethiopian food.
An almost finished master bedroom and a great dad that helped us get there!

All the helping hands in the kitchen:

The boys helping out:

The food:

The pies:

The niece and nephew:

Moving on....

2009-11-14T20:09:00.000-05:00

As I mentioned, this year Bear and I are hosting Thanksgiving. Yes folks, I am making a turkey. So in addition to the regular construction preparations, we've been re arranging and decorating the inside. I use the term decorating loosely. I successfully convinced my parents to give us their basement furniture, a tan sectional sleeper sofa. My family bought this sofa when we first moved to the USA. We shall call it, "The Freedom Sofa." The freedom sofa is giving us much needed additional seating for the extra family. Now that the bunnies are gone, we've rearranged the entire dining room/living room area to accommodate the extra seating.

Another Passing at the Pitt

2009-11-09T21:07:00.000-05:00

Our little Shaggy has been devastated ever since Wini passed away. His eye wouldn't stop dripping, his back leg just got worse, and he was visibly lonely. We tried pain meds, acupuncture, warm water baths. He passed away during the day while we were at work. We left him in the morning like we usually do, telling him that we loved him very much, but something about today was different. I think that he's in a better place with our Wini and together they are frolicking in a field full of dandelion greens.

We have such fond memories of our Shaggy. He was the little man of the house. So gentle and oblivious to everything that went on around him. He had a one track mind and that was our Wini. Good-bye our little Shaggs. You were loved very much and you'll be missed.

Fun with Insulation

2009-11-08T21:59:00.000-05:00

This year will be the first year Bob and I will be hosting our first Thanksgiving, and the first one at the Pitt. Since we have 6 additional people staying with us for a long weekend, we've been motivated and working extra hard to get everything in place. This morning we had some fun with insulation. You see, we bought all the necessary insulation to adequately insulate the attic, now we just need to get the insulation into the attic. There are three separate attic entrances in the house. One is in a bedroom where there is scripture quoted on the wall. Today we finally moved the insulation into the attic through that room. The best part about transporting insulation? The masks!

MUAHAHAHAHA. Am I scary?

"We're taking all precautions necessary to avoid H1N1"

In addition to the insulation we finally moved the tub into the storage room. Thanks Aunt Sue and Uncle Ron for the furniture dolly!

Phase II: House Wrap

2009-11-08T21:48:00.000-05:00

It is incredible how much better the house looks with house wrap on. Gone is the plywood and gross old brown siding, and in is the new wonderful Dow Chemcial housing wrap. The best part, it's made in Canada. We are one step closer to not looking like the most ghetto house on the block.

We've enjoyed a warm fall, which has been a big help in getting the siding started and going. Since my niece is visiting for the next couple of weeks, dad won't be available as much as he has been, so production is slowing down. But once the first row of siding is up, the rest is easy. Stay tuned for Phase 3.

The Plywood Palace, Siding, Phase 1

2009-10-18T22:14:00.000-04:00

We've been busy at the Pitt. We began the outside of the house and thought, a couple of weeks and BAAM we'd have siding. As you may know, things are not always how we think they should be at the Pitt. There were a billion repairs to do in the wall itself. And we had to build the wall for the new bay window in the kitchen!!

So we begin with pictures of the plywood palace. Our neighbors must be getting super excited that we are a step closer the real siding:

We also had to tear down the front steps. They weren't level and water was flowing toward the house. So while I'm at work Bob calls me and says, "We just rented a jackhammer." I'm not going to lie, I was worried. Bob, Dad and the Jackhammer. Who would win?

Dad 1. Steps 0. Bob 0.

Phase II: House Wrap

A Passing at the Pitt

2009-10-02T21:54:00.001-04:00

It's been a tough couple of days on the Pitt. Our sweetest Wini girl passed away on Thursday.

Wednesday night we noticed she wasn't eating (she was fine that morning). This is bad, because rabbits need to eat pretty much constantly. We took her to the nearest exotic animal emergency hospital (exotic? yeah, we know) which was all the way in Novi. She had gut stasis (again), a condition where she basically stops digesting. They medicated her and kept her overnight. By morning she was doing much better, so we transferred her to our regular vet for observation the rest of the day. She was doing better, but in the afternoon she took a turn for the worse and never recovered.

We miss her so much. And we know Shaggy misses her terribly. Wini gave us so much: she was our first pet together (and the only one that's been at all of the places we've lived together), she led to Orsi's nickname (Bun), she convinced Orsi's parents to get a pet (their dog Virgonc), she got us Shaggy and so much more.

So in loving memory of our Wini, here are some photo highlights from the last 6 years:

Front Door and Curtains!

2009-09-24T21:46:00.000-04:00

It seems like Michigan fall is settling in. It's beginning to get darker sooner, so many of our pictures are being taken in the dark. It's cooler out. Sweatshirt weather has set in, football games have begun (GO BLUE!), and we've finally picked out some siding. The siding is the last big outdoor project we have left. So while Dad and Bob talk about G channels, and J channels, and integrated J channels and all that other exciting siding stuff, I've been focusing on interior design.

So here's a couple of side projects that we've been working on. The front door has finally been painted. The color is Sundried Tomato by the folks over at Sherwin Williams on the outside, and white on the inside.

My other obsession has been finding the perfect curtains for the master bedroom. It's been a long hunt, but I've finally found ones I love at Cost Plus!

No curtain rods yet just Bob. So what do you guys think? Isn't it totally Ors (and Bob if he had an opinion)?

And it Looks Better!

2009-09-18T23:23:00.000-04:00

So it looks better already (see just a temporary set back).

Our new door wall!

Dining room back to normal.

Our new bay window in the kitchen!

It has to look worse before it looks better. Right?

2009-09-14T21:20:00.000-04:00

So we have jumped, head first, into replacing the sliding door and window off of the kitchen. This project has become a serious endeavor. Replacing rotting 2 x 4's, 2 x 6's and every other possible wood types that are in the wall. Foam board is in bad shape, insulation is in bad shape - the whole thing in bad shape.

And somehow, when it seemed like we were making so much progress, we took a big leap back (well not really - but that's what it looks like)

Our new sliding door - with a great plywood appearance

The deck from the outside:

Ahh the window (Where's Scamp?):

More of the deck. The sliding door from the outside:

Just keep reminding myself, it will look a lot worse before it looks better.

The Deck Part 2: Detaching from the house and then some

2009-09-07T13:38:00.000-04:00

Orsi's dad attached the deck to the new posts and cut the deck away from the house:

We wanted to pry the long, wide boards attached to the house away, but there's no room to pry. So we cut away the metal brackets:

Those sparks are hot! With the bracket cut loose, we removed the piece of wood, making room to pry the boards off:

We removed the large bolts and pried away. Some segments were stuck pretty good, and some practically fell off. This is why you don't attach the deck to the house! Here are some of the boards we pulled off:

While we were at it, we removed most of the rotted siding as well. Some of the foam board underneath will probably also have to go:

The next step will be to replace the window and sliding door over the deck. Then we can redo the siding. Then we can close the deck back up.

The Money Pit

2009-09-07T13:17:00.000-04:00

When we tell people about our house, more than half the time we get a response along the lines, "Have you seen the Money Pit?" Somehow, neither of us had ever seen this 1986 movie. Well, it's not that mysterious, actually. Orsi was in communism and movies were just not a big part of Bob's family at that time.

Anyway, once we learned of the movie, Orsi didn't want to see it - she was afraid it would jinx us. As if our house needed any help in that department. So Bob added it to the netflix queue, and several months later, it finally percolated to the top.

We watched it. We were highly amused.

We have to say, our house is simply not that bad. As far as we know so far. On the flip side, Bob is also not Tom Hanks. We guess we'll have to take the good with the bad.

Before and After: The Master Bedroom

2009-09-05T22:44:00.000-04:00

While the deck is slowly but surely being removed from the house, the master bedroom is also underway. If you will, let's take a trip down memory lane:

This is the second time Bob and I looked at this place and decided that, yes we are buying it. Note the hole in wall to the left of door wall with only a piece of carpet nailed to the outside shielding ti from the elements. Note the walk in closet with mirror doors.

Look at nasty door wall and windows. Yes my friends, those are pink blinds and old gross carpet.

Here we are in progress. We moved the wall out for the master closet to make it a nice big walk in:

We have made great strides in the master. And although I don't see us affording the flooring we want this year, take a look at what moving some walls around, replacing plywood, new windows and a fresh coat of paint will do:

No more hole where the AC unit used to be. Good bye double mirrored doors, hello pocket door leading into master closet. The closet from the inside (filled with our construction stuff):

And now the brand new door wall and windows:

As you can see below, we do have some touch ups we need to do, but nothing that we can't handle.

Before and After: The Bathroom

2009-09-05T22:31:00.000-04:00

We have finally reached a point where we can start showing before and afters. I mean real ones. Not like the angels on the wall, now you see them now you don't.

This past week we finished, for real finished the bathroom. I feel like pictures say a thousand words. So here's the before:

Here's the in progress:

And the final product:

Do you see the detail in the tile? The counter top? The lack of wall paper and added beautiful floral pics?

Deck Part 1, Section 2

2009-09-05T21:17:00.000-04:00

What the cutest pups in the world were doing as Bob worked on the deck and I supervised.

The Deck Part 1: Digging Post Holes

2009-09-01T18:30:00.000-04:00

There were two decks on the house: the main one off the kitchen, and a small one off the master bedroom. The small one was in really bad shape, so we demoed it a while ago (we plan to replace it eventually, but it's not high priority right now). The large one we're hoping to keep mostly as is -- the railings need a little repair, but otherwise it's in good shape.

Except for one thing. It is common to attach one side of a deck to the foundation, and have the other side rest on posts. But this deck is too high to attach to the foundation, so some previous owner decided to attach it to the house, through the siding and everything.

That dark horizontal strip in the upper left is the bottom of the siding, which is about where the foundation ends. The bolt in the far upper-left is where the deck is attached.

This is bad. Besides not being as strong as it should be (wood!=concrete), the hole in the siding is causing a very small leak in the basement (and who knows what damage under that siding). So our solution is to put posts in along the house, and have the deck fully supported on the posts. So it will be up against the house (exactly as it is now), but not actually attached to the house. The procedure is basically to put in posts, attach the deck to the posts, and then detach the deck from the house (and then make whatever repairs are necessary to the house).

So I needed to dig some post holes. First thing we did was remove the decking closest to the house. Now, normally one would get a post hole digging machine (essentially a giant screw attached to a lawn mower motor), but we had to work between the joists, which are only 16" apart, and thus there was no space. So I had to do it by hand. We only needed 5 holes, 42" deep -- how bad can it be? Long story short, my hands are very sore. (Each hole took about 3 hours from start to finished post.)

See how much fun I'm having?

Here I am pouring a bucket of concrete into a hole I just dug. (Orsi helped with this part.) That's right, I'm digging holes, filling them back up, and then we'll cover it all so no one ever knows how hard I worked.

At least the dogs kept me company.

While we've got the decking off, we'll also replace the window and sliding door that are over the deck. We'll also have to get the new siding in before we can close things up (siding is the next major project).

And then there was none

2009-08-22T21:17:00.000-04:00

When we moved into the Pitt, there were a lot of strange things in the house. To name a few:

Glow in the dark quote from the bible
Glow in the dark names on walls
Rice
Rice Noodles
Soy Sauce
Flood lights (INSIDE the house)

One of the strangest things were these two ceramic Asian angels that were super glued - yes SUPER GLUED - to the wall. See below.

I have wanted to remove these angels for a very long time. But since they were super glued on I was afraid that I was going to take the drywall with it. So they've been up there, adding character to our home.

We had some good friends visit us last weekend - and boy did they come in handy. James claimed that all he needed was a putty knife and hammer.

So within minutes, my two angels were none. And NO, we did not save them. They went out with the trash on Monday, because that is where they belong.

Thanks for the help guys! Every little bit along the way helps!

New Windows!!

2009-07-17T22:25:00.000-04:00

Things have been moving along at the Pitt. Dad's back from the old country, Bob's taken vacation, the weather is cooling. Perfect time for windows.

We were not ignorant to the fact that the windows, along with everything else in the house would be a lot of hard work. It's not just a matter of popping the old windows out and putting in the new ones - it would never be that easy at the Pitt. Instead, we take out the old window, take moment to express our disgust for how terribly unmaintained this house is, and then start re-building the infrastructure underneath. This may come as a shock, but everything under the windows is rotting, on its way to rotting, or we are totally surprised that it is still supporting the house. But no worries, we have Superman, my dad and The Boy Wonder, Bob, to take care of the situation. (Hopefully dad doesn't up the grand kid count for these).

The first window we started on was the one right next to the garage, in the kitchen. After multiple trips to the Home Depot (can these guys please give us a discount for mentioning their name so many times??) some replacing of old two by fours and foam, the window was in. It only took 11 hours. At this rate, we are replacing these suckers at one window a day. Slow and steady wins the race I guess.

So far there have been 4 successful installs. The kitchen window over the sink was 1 foot too wide - so we're back to the Depot to reorder (womp, womp). This is actually a blessing in disguise. After we ordered the window, our good friend suggested we put a bay window in so I could have vases and such on the window sill. The idea was brilliant, but we didn't want to re-order. Since we now have to reorder, we're going to get a bay window.

There have been a couple of nights where we've had no windows, but no worries, dad found a solution:

Also, replacing the windows has forced us to start stripping the siding. Although we no longer have the giant dumpster in the front lawn, we still manage to be the ghettoest house on the block. The neighbors have been doing very slow drive-byes. I guess you would too if the house looked like this.

Stay tuned for "after" pictures.

What's next after windows? Siding. And we're thinking white. What do you think?

Ramblings

2009-06-28T19:57:00.000-04:00

Things have been pretty quiet at the Pitt. Dad's been on vacation and other than some small things that nobody else will notice, not much has been going on. Bob successfully sealed the bathroom tiles, I have successfully baked and cooked in the oven and we hosted our first official gathering of friends.

My birthday was earlier this month and my parents surprised me with a patio set. A patio set that they hid in my basement and expected that I would never find before my birthday (which i did). The patio set is super huge and sits a bunch of people. I heart it. See below:

And a picture of my first pie of the season using local rhubarb and strawberries:

We also had a basement adventure. Actually, Bob and my dad had a basement adventure. As they were wiring the stove they found a box in the rafters of the basement. The box looked seemingly innocent:

Clock Radio Telephone. What could be wrong with that? Upon closer inspection the box was filled with old VHS tapes. Pornographic VHS tapes. How do we know this? Well they are labeled, "Star Virgin", "19 an Ready", "Meatball" - we're just taking an educated guess. We are a little bit petrified that they were recorded in the house. Sigh. I guess this is one of the pluses of the Pitt - it's always filled with surprises.

Finally, bathroom counters.

2009-06-09T22:57:00.001-04:00

The day has finally come at the Pitt where one can eliminate, shower and wash their hands all in the same room. Our friends over at the installer place stopped by to install our Corian countertops with sinks. It was good that dad was on hand because he had to go back to home depot 4 times to get the right plumbing lines to hook all the water up. But it works. We can finally see a teeny tiny light at the end of the tunnel. Here are the changes:

Curved shower rod, installed hooks on door, door painted, door knob.

Light fixtures (Yes.The middle bulb went out as soon as we installed it. Menards is really far, so it'll be a while before we replace them.) Mirrors, not yet hung, but in the room! Countertop, sink & facuets.

Another view of the counters with the floor tile:

These things are still left:

tile backsplash
grout sealing
hardware on cabinets
hanging mirrors
attaching light switch plates
final caulking

What do you think so far?

Kitchen!!

2009-06-09T22:33:00.001-04:00

So the idea of installing the perfectly good stove has been placed in my head by my mother. Since my dad is doing all the work, I feel that it is unfair to pressure him into doing any one thing. I mean we did share what the kitchen facilities looked like before, but I have the electric skillet, everything was OK. Apparently, mom nagged dad enough that he finally gave in. He cut out the old stove, counter top and all (we are not planning to remove the existing counter anytime soon) and we ran into problem #1.

You see the existing range was a gas range and this is the gas line protruding 6" out of the wall. The new electric stove will not fit into this space with the gas line sticking out. Dad looks at me and says, "I don't do gas. You're going to have to call someone to do this." I call someone, they come out for 5 minutes & cut this line down. Another $55. Sigh.

Problem #2:

The electrical to support the oven does not exist. We had to buy the 6-3 wire and wire it into the fuse box. And by we, I mean my dad and Bob. Dad did most of the work, Bob pitched in here and there. The results are marvelous, and have encouraged me to make some appliance changes in the kitchen.

See how pretty it all is together? Yes. That is a double oven that you see! Some of the classics are still around:

Picture of dad with incredible amount of food on the microwave
Orsi's Olive Oil
Cereal Dispenser from work
Tea kettle

Things that don't work yet:

Dishwasher. Yeah it's dirty, but apparently it also sucks!
The water dispenser in the fridge
The window on the right hand side
The lazy susan

Things that are still incredibly disgusting:

The exhaust hood fan used without a grease filter for YEARS!. It's only vented to somewhere in the attic, so it's really not that useful anyway.

Landscaping...

2009-06-01T21:19:00.000-04:00

So Bear and I are not the gardening, lawn mowing type of people. In fact, we have outsourced our lawn mowing, which makes our marriage a happier union. How do we maintain the exterior of The Pitt? I have a co-worker and friend that loves gardening; loves it so much that she has volunteered to come over and garden. Garden the 2 acre Pitt. She made an appearance this weekend with her Subaru and a Pickaxe. We had to remove the bushes right next to the house so we can install the new windows, replace the rotting framing, and change the siding. I didn't like the way they looked anyway, so I'm not to upset about it.

So you can truly appreciate the amount of work we put in, check out the before picture:

See all the bushes? This weekend they are GONE! FOREVER!

Step One: The Subaru

Step Two: Pull

Step Three: Pickaxe

Step Four: No more bushes!!

We weren't the only ones exhausted in this process. These guys ate dinner and went right to bed:

Looks Can be Deceiving

2009-06-01T20:47:00.000-04:00

As many of you know I love to cook, bake, and generally spend a good amount of time in the kitchen. So what's the kitchen like in The Pitt? Well it leaves a lot to be desired. Let's focus on the appliances:

This is where looks can be deceiving. The dishwasher? Not hooked up. Now many have pointed out to me that the dishwasher is probably one of the cleanest places in the house. I mean, it's only used for washing, right? I just don't trust it. It looks OK on the inside, but take a look at the range below. Would you trust anything that came from a house where the range looked like this?

They were using this to cook food on people. FOOD! FOOD THAT WAS MEANT FOR HUMAN CONSUMPTION!!! OF COURSE I DON'T TRUST THE DISHWASHER!! I have to admit that I have been considering it. Did you see the clean dishes above the dishwasher? We do a lot of dish washing and it's getting old.

I don't have an oven, so baking is out. Although I did briefly experiment with crock pot baking, I decided that waiting for the real oven may be worth it. Let me introduce you to my kitchen cooking tools:

The Cuisinart Electric Skillet. This is the BEST thing ever if you don't have a real kitchen. It's an extra burner - the only one I have right now that really works. I make a lot of potatoes here. Roasted potatoes, onion potatoes, slightly boiled potatoes, potatoes and cauliflower. This is my #1 recommended cooking appliance for those of you without a kitchen.

The hot plate. UL approved. This means that my house shouldn't blow up if I use it properly. It also means that it takes this thing 45 MINUTES TO BOIL WATER!! Those sweet potatoes? They've been on there for 1 hour. SWEET POTATOES?!?!? Sigh. I try to avoid the hotplate as much as possible, or if necessary I'll pre-heat for 30 minutes.

The good news is that if we can successfully cut out the nasty range, remove cabinetry from underneath, run the correct 6-3 wire to the kitchen, and situate the oven - I may have one sooner than later. Maybe the Kitchen Aids will make an appearance again!

Let there be a Toilet

2009-05-30T11:00:00.000-04:00

Today is truly a happy day. My friends, today I have a toilet in the same room as the shower. This means that in the middle of the night, or right before bed, I will no longer have to travel four miles to the other side of the house to do my business. The days of contemplating squatting in the shower are over, and peeing before showering in the morning is once again a reality all because of this glorious toilet.

Toilet Before Installation

See how pretty it is? See how it shines? Yes. I know. It's the most beautiful thing we've ever seen too.

Living in the Pitt

2009-05-28T19:07:00.000-04:00

We usually get one reaction when people walk through the front door of the Pitt,

"Wow," big pause. "Wow."

Now this wow means usually one of two things. "Wow. This place has got a lot of potential," or "Wow. What were you guys thinking?" People have openly expressed that it stresses them out to walk through our house. They have no idea where they would start, because there is so much to do. As they sit in one of our couches their eyes never settle, they are constantly looking around at yet another thing that needs to be done. These are the people that suggest we paint a wall or fully decorate a room to make the "situation better." It never fails that these guys try to focus on the positive things in the house, "You guys have a really nice washer & dryer, " or my favorite so far, "That's a really nice faucet." And those are the two new things in the house that we bought. The problem is, everything we've done to the house so far cannot be seen from the inside. The roof, plumbing, electrical is all invisible, but makes the quality of our life so much better. And everything we've tried to do on the inside (the bathroom) has been a bit of a disaster.

The people that really love the house spend a lot time making suggestions about what we can turn the basement into; bowling alley, shuffle board, shooting range, or swimming pool. They think the windows are great, the layout is awesome, and the property is beautiful.

So what is it really like living in the Pitt? It's totally normal to us. Yeah, I have to walk to the other side of the house to go to the bathroom in the middle of the night, the hotplate takes 40 minutes to boil water and I can't safely walk around without shoes on, but it's OK. The Wii works, I have hot water, and even better I don't run out of hot water if I'm the second to shower, I don't feel cramped, the dogs have a long hallway to chase a ball in, the rabbits have a huge condo, someone else is mowing my lawn, things magically happen while I'm at work - I can't complain. Let us assure you. We really love the Pitt, we know it's going to take a while to get it to a place where everyone walks in and says "wow" in the good way, but the important thing is, is that we see that "wow" now.

Bathroom fiasco, etc,

2009-05-23T15:55:00.000-04:00

Things have been going pretty well overall. We ordered a vanity and counter top for the guest bathroom. That order was going to take a month, so in the meantime, we did a few other things. We installed the new washer and dryer we bought when we first got the house; they work great. We also did the part of the roof over the garage (since we had the materials, we decided to do that now rather than wait for the fall; I took a day off work to help get it done). We also finished the peaks and valleys, so the roof is 100% done now. Tile has been installed on the floor of the bathroom, but not the walls (we wanted the vanity and counter top in first so we could tile around them).

So the vanity and counter top arrived. The vanity is great shape; we're happy with that. The counter top, on the other hand, had at least 3 major problems. First, it was the wrong size. It should have been an inch deeper. (Note, the people at the store did the sizing for us to fit the vanity, so not our fault). We could potentially work around this by putting a block of wood between the backsplash and the wall and painting or tiling it. Second, the left edge should have been unfinished so it would go flush against the wall, but it was finished and thus slightly rounded, so it didn't go in properly. That is unfixable. Finally, the left side backsplash (a separate piece) was the wrong height, and the edges were finished when they shouldn't have been, so there was no way to join it with the countertop.

This all may actually have worked out for the best, though. The counter top just didn't look very good, especially considering how much it cost. The color combined with the matte finish came out pretty cheap-looking. So for the replacement, we'll be getting a Corian counter instead. It's a bit more expensive, but hopefully we'll be happier with it.

Finally, there was a sale on Anderson windows, so we ordered replacement windows for the whole house (probably won't arrive for a month). Windows are expensive; it'll be almost $11k. But the house desperately needs them, and it will allow us to fix the rotted framing under many of the existing windows. With that stuff fixed, we may even start painting.

Moving In

2009-05-03T10:58:00.000-04:00

Since we got the place, we'd been moving stuff over so as to avoid a huge effort at the last minute. This was fairly successful, as we have a ton of stuff that we really should get rid of (but are too lazy to go through -- and with all this space, why bother :) But there were still a lot of things that couldn't go until the very end (e.g., furniture, dishes, food, clothing, etc.) So we got help from some friends (both physically and vehicularly), and got it all in as of Wednesday night (the first night we spent in the house). Frankly, it's amazing how much crap we have.

But let's back up for a minute. Our immediate goal since getting the house was to get it "move-in ready." We did the roof, but we also needed a working bathroom. To recap, the original plan was to keep the fully-functional (if somewhat nasty) guest bath (for the next year) and demo the master bath. However, in the process of demoing the master bath, a lot of rotting was discovered, and in order to fix it, we had to demo both (they share a wall).

So we found a tub/shower, tile, toilet, vanity, countertop, exhaust fan and fixtures -- everything you need for a basic bathroom. Unfortunately, the countertop and vanity wouldn't arrive in time for move-in (in fact, it'll be a couple weeks yet), and the plumbing needed to be replaced (we switched from plastic to copper). The plumbing took longer than expected, resulting in a working shower/tub at the last minute -- but no toilet (there wasn't time to put the tile down), and still no sinks. But father in-law was able to jerry-rig the toilet in the bathroom off the kitchen (which is currently doubling as a tool and materials storage area). For a sink, we had to replace the kitchen faucet because the hot water knob was broken.

View from the corner. Note the missing drywall above the shower.

View from the door. Sink hookups visible. Like our towel rack?

Jerry's toilet in the storage area.

So the move-in situation was: tub/shower in guest bath, toilet in kitchen bath (on the opposite side of the house), and sink in the kitchen. As if all of this wasn't enough "fun," it turns out that the bathtub faucet that we picked out has an "anti-scald" feature -- basically, there's an internal knob that determines how hot it can get at the hottest setting. This was not adjusted when it was installed, so our first shower was...very lukewarm. Orsi's dad talked her through how to fix that over the phone :)

For now, we have a number of tasks. Bob basically finished cleaning up the shingles outside (finally), while Orsi's been organizing the kitchen and clothes. We also washed a couple carpets and floors, and put a small Ikea island in the kitchen. We have the fridge plugged in in a temporary location, but we can't install our other kitchen appliances until we replace the countertop (we're thinking of going cheapest possible for now, e.g., pre-cut formica). And we have to clean out the basement room that the previous residents vented the dryer to before Orsi's dad will install the new one (which will require working in that room). It's actually pretty amazing how much better the place looks with a little cleaning (and we do mean a little).

Pets are settling in. The dogs love the ginormous backyard.

The yard is blooming.

The Roof

2009-04-19T19:05:00.000-04:00

So Bob's dad and uncle came to help with the roof. They arrived Saturday afternoon, and we got right to work. That morning we had a 20 cubic yard dumpster delivered for the huge amount of trash we were about to generate. Redoing the roof involved several steps. First, we laid a tarp on the ground to catch nails so they don’t end up in the lawn mower. Then, we’d clear the old shingles off a section (with a shovel; there are special shovels, but why make it easy on ourselves?) and toss them down onto the tarp. This step was primarily done by Bob's dad and uncle. Then we had to lower the edge of the roof 3/4 of an inch. See, the edge is supposed to stick out a bit to prevent water from just going down the side of the house, but some previous owner had done it wrong. Additionally, most of the plywood along the edge was water damaged. So we had to take it all off anyway. We decided to take this opportunity to put in the insulation along the edge (with vents, which also weren’t in the original roof), since that would be a lot easier to do from the outside once the plywood is off. Orsi’s dad and Bob ended up running all over town to find the right insulation and get plywood. We're still suffering from sticker shock. During the plywood phase, Orsi’s dad put his foot through the ceiling in the corner bedroom. This started a trend with Bob's uncle that would continue the rest of the week :) So we finished the shortest edge of the roof that evening. Bob's dad and uncle had never been so tired. At least, not until the next day :)

Sunday called for rain starting in the afternoon turning to snow overnight, but we pushed ahead. We cleared off the entire back of the house, and replaced the plywood in the long center section. The plywood over the garage part of the house (including the room behind the garage) was too thin (technically legal, but not stable). The internal support beams weren’t done right, either, so we had to reinforce them. Bob's dad and uncle also tried to haul the shingles up to the roof: they each got one up (of 120) and called it quits :) Throughout the day, Orsi and Bob took wheelbarrow loads of shingles to the dumpster. And Bob's uncle went through the roof in two more places. Long story short, when it started raining too hard, that part of the roof was just completely open, and the gap from the lowering the plywood on the center section hadn’t been filled yet. The center section we were less worried about – what’s a little more water damage in the house? The open part we covered with tarps and hoped for the best. If they thought they were tired the day before, they were pretty much dead now. And they had an entire week to go :)

The next day it was still snowing, and it was much too slippery to be up on the roof. We thought this might be good; it should be a lighter work day indoors, so they’d have a chance to recover. The best part (for Bob) was that he had to go on a business trip the whole week – see ya suckers! Apparently, it was not a lighter day. They ripped the remaining tile out of the bathroom, moved the remaining garbage in the garage to the dumpster (Orsi and Bob had done some of that Saturday morning already). They also ripped out the shelving unit in the family room, and ripped finishing nails out of old baseboards we intended to reuse (apparently those are expensive to buy new). All said and done, Monday was harder than Sunday (but maybe that’s partly because Monday came after Sunday).

On Tuesday, they were back on the roof. It was slippery, so they were tethered to avoid falling. They shoveled the roof off, but the center section still leaked a bit. The tarped section, on the other hand, had no problems at all. They put new plywood up over the open section, and they tried to bring up more shingles. Bob's dad and uncle had devised plans involving ladders and ropes, but Orsi’s dad said it wasn’t worth it. Between the three of them, they got four more bundles up, and decided that we needed to hire some help. Orsi had already looked into getting a friend of a friend who had been laid off to help, so she gave him a call. He gave a very good price, and it turns out he had a lot of roofing experience (it’s how he put himself through college). So not only did he carry up the shingles over the next few days, but he shingled half the roof, too. Orsi’s dad said it was the best investment we ever made. By the time Bob got home on Friday night, half the roof was completely finished, and the front center section was cleared and had the paper down and shingle bundles evenly distributed over it. The only part that hasn’t been touched is over the garage, which will need all the plywood replaced as well. But this is lower priority since a leak in the garage is not a big deal.

During the week, Bob's uncle went through the roof in two more places. And Bob's dad introduced himself to the neighbors, telling them he didn’t want them to think he was just a construction worker. Orsi said she didn’t think anyone would make that mistake :)

On Saturday, Bob's dad and uncle decided they couldn’t really work anymore. But we pulled out some bushes with Bob's dad’s SUV. We had to stop when we tried to pull out a small tree and broke the strap (but the tree did come out!).

Over the next week, Orsi's dad managed to pretty much finish the rest of the roof except for the garage (saving that for the fall), and that the toilet and shower/tub will get put in the guest bathroom this week. We’re starting to run out of time to get that house in livable condition (we have to move in less than two weeks). By then we’ll need a working bathroom and kitchen, and a laundry room would be nice (we’ve had the washer and dryer for a couple weeks now). It should be interesting.

Getting Started

2009-04-12T19:23:00.000-04:00

The first thing we did was head to Home Depot and Lowes to get stuff. What stuff? Well, lots of little things (broom, garbage bags, etc.) and then the roofing supplies. I applied for a Home Depot card and immediately maxed it out (I had to put the rest on another card).

We also went to a homebuilder’s show that happened to be going on that day. We got lots of information on things ranging from fencing to geothermal to tubular skylights. Big George’s was also having an appliance sale there, so we got a new washer and dryer (the place didn’t come with one). So in one day we racked up a lot of bills. Way it goes, I guess.

Orsi’s dad wanted to start on the roof, but the weather was bad, so we decided to start on the master bedroom instead. The plan was to move the closet wall (the existing placement made the room bigger, but the extra space was unusable). We also needed to fix the ceiling (it was done incorrectly) and rip out the bathroom.

One week in, things were coming along nicely. He was essentially doing demo work during the day and we were doing cleanup at night. Then he got to the bathroom. It turns out that there was no plastic lining under the shower in the master or the guest bathroom (which share a wall) and no moisture resistant drywall, which means that parts of the floor and wall were rotted. It was so bad, it wasn’t safe to walk on certain parts of the floor. Bottom line, both bathrooms needed to be ripped out together. On top of this, the vanity in the guest bath was built into the wall, so there was no way to get at the wall without destroying that, too. So we won’t have a finished bathroom when we move in, but Orsi’s dad promises that there will be a functioning sink, toilet, and shower. The good news is, we get to move the wall between the bathrooms a little, so there will be more room for Orsi’s claw-foot tub in the master. We’ve purchased a shower/tub (one-piece acrylic, no gelcoat – that’s hard to find!) and a toilet for the guest bathroom, but we still need to get tile, a vanity, and a fan.

Lots of other minor things have been touched as well. Orsi and I ripped out about half of the overgrown plants and brush around the house and cleaned up the backyard. We also vacuumed the guest bedrooms that we won’t redoing for a while. Orsi’s dad also removed the random (live!) wires hanging from the ceiling in the basement. And we got all of the appliances from Orsi’s parents in the house (but not yet hooked up). The garage door has been fixed, and the utilities are all turned on. See, there’s been progress…:)

My dad and uncle came last week to help with the roof, but that’s another (comical) entry.

Closing

2009-04-02T18:57:00.001-04:00

Closing on a foreclosure? Hard. Closing during the housing crisis? Hard. Closing on a foreclosure during the housing crisis? Really hard.

The first lender we worked with was our credit union. This started out really well: they had the best interest rate. When we were in the office getting paperwork, we mentioned that the roof needed work. The guy stops and says something like, “Well, if it comes up in the appraisal, the underwriter is going to require that you put funds in escrow to fix that.” In fact, it’s much worse than it sounds. The underwriter would require us to get a quote from a certified builder to fix it, then require that we put 1.5x that into escrow, then require us to fix it within a certain amount of time (e.g., 60 days) using our own separate funds, and then after it passed inspection, they would give us the escrow funds back. That’s right, we’d have to have 2.5x the money on hand to fix whatever problems came up in the appraisal. Yikes. But apparently that's the way things are these days.

But an appraisal is not an inspection, so chances are nothing would come up, he said. So the appraiser came, and the report was scathing. Every little crack was cited, and used to claim that there might be foundational damage (Orsi’s father had previously said the foundation was in excellent condition). The house was then valued at barely more than what we offered. Things were not looking good. When we heard back from the underwriter, they wanted a structural engineer to go through the place, and a mold inspector, and would only give us a loan for much less than what we offered. In the meantime, the selling bank wanted to close within a few weeks or else they were putting the house back on the market. Things were not looking good.

While we were waiting to hear back from the underwriter, we went ahead and got an inspection, which confirmed that the foundation was in excellent shape. The inspector still wanted to discourage us from buying the house given the amount of work it would be (he had done a similar thing with his wife, and said he would never do it again). But we have something he didn’t have: Orsi’s dad :)

We also got in contact with another lender. The new lender looked at the appraisal and couldn’t believe the underwriter would accept it. “Besides the numerous spelling mistakes, they cited cosmetic things that shouldn’t be taken into account, and compared to completely different kinds of homes.” This guy said he could get us to closing in a week using something called a “portfolio loan.” The way this works is, you get the funds to buy the house at a slightly higher interest rate, with no appraisal required. Then you get up to a year to fix the house up, at which point an appraisal occurs and the loan is rolled into a standard mortgage. The key is being able to fix up the house within the allotted time so nothing comes up on the appraisal.

So after our original lender ended in disaster, we immediately switched to the new lender, and were able to close on the house with a week to spare. As soon as we got the keys, we went to the house with Orsi’s dad, and all he could say was how overwhelming the amount of work was. And so it begins.

Growing up

2009-02-01T10:06:00.000-05:00

Bob having finally graduated from school and getting a job, we immediately started house hunting. Actually, Orsi has been looking at listings online and hitting up open houses for a year. 28 houses or so later, we finally narrowed our choices down to two.

The first house we put an offer on was a 3 bedroom/3 bath, 1800 sq ft. two-story on a quarter acre. The owners are an interior designer and a builder, and it shows. On the one hand, the place had a gourmet kitchen, which was very nice. And the bathrooms were awesome. On the other hand, we didn't like the decorating (Greek columns everywhere), and we wanted to replace all the carpeting upstairs with hardwood (Orsi has allergies, and we have lots of pets). And we'd have to put up a fence. So, even though the place was in great condition, we were going to have to put a significant amount of money into it anyway. And they weren't willing to budge on the price (which was already much more expensive than the other places in the neighborhood).

Still, we saw some other places that were "fixer uppers" that were only a little less expensive, and would require a lot more work. This was discouraging, and Bob was leaning towards just paying for the Greek house.

But then Orsi brought up a foreclosure that they had looked at earlier. At the time, Bob didn't take it very seriously. It needed a lot of work, and Bob doesn't have the skills (or patience) for that kind of thing, and he knows it. But Orsi's dad is a contractor, and offered to help us fix up anything we might buy, and after much discussion, Bob actually got pretty excited about it. The place is 3000 sq ft. ranch, 2.5 bathrooms, full, partially finished basement, on 2 acres. And it was cheap (well, the taxes aren't, but still). We could take the money we saved and turn the house into exactly what we wanted. And at the price, we could almost turn around and sell it immediately for a profit. (Of course, we're planning on staying for a long time).

These pictures show the front and several angles of the backyard. About half of the back is wooded.

So we put the offer in, it was accepted, and we expect to close by the end of February. Our lease doesn't end until March 31, so we'll have some overlap in which to get things into shape, specifically a bedroom and bathroom. Orsi's parents also just redid their kitchen, so we're going to take their old appliances and cabinets.

So when we say it needs some work, what exactly are we talking about? Here are some pictures that illustrate some of the issues:

Garage door broken.

Kitchen floor damaged. Island not attached, and appliances missing or in bad shape.

Hole in master bedroom wall (intended for A/C unit).

Bathrooms need a lot of work, too.

Here's a sample of some of the work that needs to be done:

Roof+gutters
Insulation
Windows
Bathrooms
Kitchen
Floors
Fence
Siding
A/C (we're considering a geothermal system)

So, basically everything. Of course, we don't have to do it all at once. With Orsi's dad, we'll only have to pay for materials for most projects, which will help a lot. We're going to try to get into the house again before closing so we can make some more concrete plans so we can hit the ground running.