Brad and I Gettin'it done!

 Many Thanks to the Great Pepe, Michael, and my mom for all of your help!!!

 

 

 

Ok, If you ever plan to use Hardie Board, Certainteed, or another fiber cement material for a project ...  These are the tools to get! I went through 4 saw blades on my miter-saw / Chop Saw in One week of cutting fiber cement, and kicked up dust like a bomb went off . Not to mention how Pricey blades are!

These shears cut through the material like butter, and there is practically Zero dust from it. Which I remember form my foundry days, contains silica and is really tragic for your lungs. 

Im selling them on Craigslist now that we are done siding. 

Here is a link to some videos that really helped us get a grip on what the hell we were taking on. There is a whole series of these, I recommend watching all of them.

A'dieu o'shingles.

These brave old shingles have been clinging on for over 100 years. Pulling them, I anticipated the possibility of finding a lot of damged and rotted out sheathing underneath. A can of worms I was really only half prepared to handle. But luck had it that the structure of the house is entirely made of 100yr old thick, lustrous redwood in perfect condition! Relief. Gratitude. I feel so proud of my little house!

 If I could, I'd keep it just like this. the redwood is so gorgeous. But I want them to last another 100 years, so Lap Board it is!

This little time lapse makes it look like it was easy or something.
Ha! I will follow up deets on the process. It was arduous, exhausting and incredibly rewarding!

the last 6 months

early July

My mom and Michael came out over the 4th of July weekend and helped me paint the kitchen, assemble cabinets, trim the tree, clear the gutters, and put up lattice along the back fence. They threw on their work clothes exactly 10 minutes after arriving! Amazing troopers!

This is our sad hugs goodbye. They were such a tremendous help!

In these two pics, the notable changes recorded are :
the front windows, the front door (an awesome find on Craigslist for $40, the front steps that were crumbling got new wood planks, and we ripped out the grass lawn ... it was rotten filled with thousands of spiders.

The shingles are a mess, and the paint is chipping off all over. A project that will need to wait until next summer due to time, money and weather.

I have since started on the garden with the help of my dear friend Barbara, pics to come of that progress !

Sign Sign Sign

Now, I can finally put the Pen down and start putting the Tool Belt ON!
eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeek! I'm excited!

Waiting for Godot

I've been in limbo for the last 2 weeks with the closing on this house. It was supposed to close last Thursday. I cleared my schedule at work, moved appointments around, got all dressed up in my Thursday best and waited to be summoned out to Walnut Creek to sign a million documents. My beloved troops anxiously awaited with a bottle of bubbly on the home front, to no avail... turned out my genius loan officer still hadn't submitted half of the renovation loan paperwork to Underwriting, (this is where I imagine some pasty paper-pusher siting in a sterile, brightly lit room making sure that anything that remotely resembles English be changed to convoluted legal jargon at a 6pt print).

So then we thought, ok Friday? ... nooooooo.
Monday? nooooooooooo.
Definitely and finally Tuesday! YES! okay. So I clear my schedule, put on my best Tuesday dress, and in a moment of lavish grandeur, I even put on my fake antique diamond ring that my mum gave me. Brad also kept his work schedule noncommittal with all his clients, gently preparing them for the separation anxiety they get when he leaves their sides to join me as my #1 cheerleader for the big moment...
He's on call. I'm on call. its almost noon and still no word. I call my escrow officer, and she is still waiting for the docs from my favorite lending officer who is of course, MIA.

2pm: I finally get a call from escrow saying she got the docs from my resurrected lender! hoorray!
ohh but wait - genius dated them all for tomorrow!
Fan.tas.tic.
I'm all dressed up with my faux diamond ring and no where to go :(

Now I am rearranging everything again to meet with the notary to sign tomorrow. Naturally it is 5pm and I am still not clear on the when and where yet.
One really cool thing, that I had no idea of, is that the notary who delivers the papers to sign can come meet me anywhere! So I don't have to go to Walnut Creek after all. She is going to bring my papers for me to sign directly to me at work, or at home.(TBD) ... On the down side, I also didn't know that they charge $150 in notary fees and for this glamorous front door service - but seeing how the title company's official office is somewhere in Egypt, I don't have much of a choice, do i? It's all good. Patience is one thing I am occasionally good at. The only real problem I have though is that I am out of fancy dresses, and all the champagne is warm.

YOU CAN'T PUSH THE RIVER

YELLOW?
I don't think I have ever encountered so many highly paid professionals with such incompetence and flawed logic abiding by even more absurdly flawed systems than this banking and housing industry.
(Except of course for Andy, my Realtor ... poor thing ... everyone involved (from the Title company, sellers, and lenders) has been so lazy and misinformed, he has had to do everyone's job for them!)

There is a LOT of leg work to get through the house buying process. I say I am doing this on my own, and it feels very scary and lonely taking this kind of project face on as a "single" woman. Mainly because I always dreamed of doing this with my partner. But I remind myself often:
1.) This isn't my forever-home, this is a really smart and interesting investment opportunity, as well as an elaborate sculpture project! Of course I can handle it alone! I will still make a real home with my lifepartner in the near future, probably somewhere else, off the grid, on a farm.
2.) I am not alone. By any means. I couldn't have done it at all without Andy's professional assistance. But I also couldn't have gotten though it without the patience, support, home cooked meals, advil, attentive ears, cheer-leading, laughter and love from Brad, my dear friends, and My Mom!!!

YOU CAN'T PUSH THE RIVER
This is my baby brother's favorite proverb. And it is one of the wisest.
This house has been a great lesson in allowing for the ebb and flow of life to do its thing. I certainly can't control it. I don't mean to side with destiny by any means. I am a firm believer in free will, self-manifestation... with a dash or two of complete randomness for spice . I think there is a way to navigate within all of these.

There is a fine line between hunting down the thing you really want, and mastering a stillness that even a skittish, feral bird would approach.
Sometimes letting go of my attachment to a very specific goal actually brings me closer to it. For the last few weeks, I have been pretty much holding my breath because of some pretty substantial obstacles that arose.

The bank pulled the plug on my loan.
I had to arrive at a place where, if we couldn't find a way to fix it within limits that I felt comfortable with, I would be fine walking away from it with a smile still on my face (despite 3grand lost on my part). Had I been too fixated on "getting the house", I might have tried to stretch my comfort level to a dangerous reach. I needed to recognize my limits and be willing to walk away from non-ideal terms. I had to be able to let go of it - without giving up. I was still fighting for it, but without attaching my sense of self or sense of happiness to either outcome.

Like a river wearing on a stone - time and patience (and an awesome Realtor on my side), has worn the selling price on this little house into a smooth, rounded and manageable 56K less than they were initially asking for!
I am back in the game! And the result of not pushing the river, but preparing for the bends have all been to my benefit. This is actually the 2nd time I literally LOST the house. Both times resulted in me getting back in for even CHEAPER!

Put your ear up to the wind next Friday, you might hear the sound of jinggling keys !!!
Brad has promised to chef some killer BBQ at the first opportunity for a housewarming party!