We spent a year getting comfortable with the whole move-to-another-state thing.
Now we're keen on living in a house of our own.
So we started looking for a house to buy...
As planned, we spent a year getting settled in. Michael's job seemed stable.
Unfortunately, Kathie's company wasn't doing well and she was only working half-time.
As we entered 2007 we become more serious, but weren't sure we could.
However, it turned out we're such conservative buyers (relative to the way banks lend money anymore)
that Kathie's half-time status wasn't an issue. So in March we started looking in earnest!
First, you need a few websites to start looking:
You can get a good overview by zip code if you select the right magnification at Zillow.
The local MLS is available through many sites, but this one is most useful.
Another MLS search engine that's useful around here: RealEstate.com.
Of course there's the local classified (online) for open houses: The Oregonian (classifieds are at the bottom).
We started down the path of finding a lender that would service our loan rather than selling it off.
It turns out the two I listed above had the best rates, StarOne in CA and First Tech in Hillsboro.
Meanwhile, Kathie compiled a great list of houses in the lower half of our price range.
This turned out to limit us to 1970's era homes, often split-level.
And she met a great real estate agent at an open house - they have dachshunds in common!
With our new agent, we visited the homes that hadn't offered open houses.
It appeared that the market west of Portland proper was dropping slightly from the high last summer.
Many sellers hadn't quite figured that out - we suspected they were in for a surprise.
We ended up falling for a great place in Aloha.
It was modern - built in 1993, very well maintained, in the nicest neighborhood in that area.
We offered low; they countered midway.
On a Sunday we were looking at the counter and wondering what else to do to be sure we had the right place before signing.
So Kathie suggested we go look at homes. And we did - same old places, same answers ("no!")
The last place was the only property we hadn't seen already, not open - just a drive-by.
And at the absolute top of our price range, as luck would have it. ;-)>
From the MLS description and the drive-by, it was potentially better than the home we almost had.
So we called our agent, and Monday morning we walked through it. Bingo!
A great room-type floor plan; a master suite with attached "bonus room".
A neighborhood of nice-to-upscale homes owned by techies, mostly Intel folks.
We dropped the previous place like a hot potato and started a new offer.
So we offered; she countered; we counter-countered; on April 20, she accepted.
A 60-day close, but at our price.
Next big hurdle - the inspection.
We got a real persnickety inspector, and I followed him around and asked lots of questions.
We found that the house is in great shape, but several major systems are at end-of-life: roof and hot water heater.
Not surprising, considering its age. Most importantly, for Oregonians, it's dry - no signs of water/dampness/rot/etc.!
But that means we've got our work cut out for us.
So here are the pictures for which you've been patiently waiting:
Here, Kathie's standing in the living room, looking down the length of the great room.
The fireplace is behind the camera.
The family room is up two steps on the other side of the pony wall immediately in front of the camera.
Our agent sits at the breakfast bar with her back to the camera.
The kitchen is at the far end. The dining room is left of the kitchen through a doorway.
Here Kathie's standing in the family room, turning clockwise:
looking across the breakfast bar to the kitchen
looking through the slider onto the patio
looking down into the living room
looking through the entry hall to the front door
Now Kathie's standing in the entry, the half-bath and stairs off-camera to her right, looking towards the dining room.
Here, Kathie's standing in the dining room:
looking back towards the stairs and entry
looking along the dining room, through the doorway into the kitchen
To complete the ground-level view, here's the patio and some back yard.
Yes, it's a small yard. Less yard work! :-)>
Upstairs, we have:
a bedroom, to become our study
the master suite, from the "bonus room"
an upstairs hallway, from near the guest room
You can see we have much work to do, wrestling the colors around. There's wallpaper to be removed from two rooms.
Almost every wall gets new paint.
And several rooms are poorly lighted, so there's some electrical work to add lights.
And a handful of things to fix, upgrade, replace or install (such as floor insulation).
So after we take possession, we'll spend a month painting and doing all the tasks more convenient in an empty house.
Stay tuned for more updates here!
We closed on schedule Monday, June 19, 2007. And, although the seller asked for a 60-day close,
she still barely squeaked out by 5pm per the contract.
She only left us the garage door opener after our agent ran out to flag her down as she drove off.
I carried my two favorite ladies over the threshhold, which tickled our agent pink.
Then we munched chocolates, toasted with champagne, and wandered around making up our to-do lists.
And now the work begins...
So here's a sequence of "before" pictures. Before we completed prepping for painting, wiring, skylighting, sheetrocking, reroofing, and more painting.
Here's the front of the house. The truck will be parked on the far right.
When you enter the house, you're looking down the hall through the great room into the back yard.
From the entry, looking left, you see the stairs and the dining room.
Passing the stairs, through the dining room, you look back out the front windows.
Through the dining room you enter the great room: first the kitchen, then the family room and living room.
That's all there is downstairs.
From the top of the stairs, to the right there's a hallway that leads to the guest room, which overlooks the front yard.
Straight ahead is the small bonus room, which attaches to the master suite.
Yes, those walls are green.
Finally, from the top of the stairs, to the left is the hall bathroom and then the study, which overlooks the back yard.
Go back down the stairs, through the great room into the (small) back yard -
and from the back fence, see the back of the house (slightly distorted from stitching three images together).
We got a new roof and skylight on July third, although the skylight's not connected to the ceiling yet.
And we lopped off a foot of eaves to make more room for the camper (priorities, you know!)
We're still priming and painting...the electricians come through next week, then the sheetrocker.
By the end of the weekend we'll have enough finished downstairs for a few pictures.
And we're moving little bits-n-pieces every week.
The electricians finished July 10th, and the roofer connected the skylight through on the 13th.
The only paid work left is the sheetrock work, cleaning up after the electricians and skylight...
and the skylight made a world of difference in the stairway and upstairs hallway:
At the moment, we're wrapping up painting, except the upstairs hallway, just because we can defer it.
We're now laying baseboard trim, installing light fixtures, and generally preparing to move in.
Mom & Dad are coming to help out next weekend, including shepherding the carpet cleaners.
More pictures as soon as we touch up paint after the sheetrock is complete!
We're getting excited about the state of the house, and exhausted with the effort. We're ready to be in.
Kathie attempted sponge painting - she's done it before (successfully) for sets at the theater,
but this time it looked like a messy crime scene. We repainted.
Mom and Dad joined us for a weekend of cleaning, painting and general preparation.
Dad's a great painter - only one coat required for the laundry room!
With the assemble-yourself cabinets, fresh paint and new light fixture, it's the nicest room in the house!
This week we're actually moving the small things, one room each evening after work.
We're not done yet, but close enough to move in. And we have to vacate the rental by the 31st.
We've hired the kids next door to move the heavy stuff this weekend...then we'll be in.
The day of the Big Move, both places are pretty torn up.
Here, Kathie and Tansy supervise the movers - the 15 year old, twin wrestlers from next door, Matt and Alex.
And we get our first guests!
Trish and Gene stopped by to see the place, offer a housewarming gift, and dinner.
It's starting to look like a real home, and we're pleased with the result so far.
Soon it will feel like home.
Now, all we have to do is unpack everything, find places for everything,
and complete the last painting, touch ups, and fix ups.
That should take the rest of the year.
Then we can start the yard and exterior work...but that's next spring!
We'll show snaps of some of the more interesting tasks...like fitting the camper in next to the house!
Stay tuned.
Ok, so no camper squeeze-a-thon yet.
Instead, we spent the weekend painting the upstairs hallway, including the stairwell.
That's the last big area to paint, leaving just the upstairs hall bath.
The colors below are misleading, shot at different times of day.
Trust us, it's much improved now. Fresh, rich, clean.
And we finally completed the electrical work by installing the last new light fixtures.
What're those funny little pieces of blue tape? They mark boo-boos until there are enough to justify getting out paint and fixing them.
Hopefully now that most painting is done, we can just fix them - not make new ones.
Maybe next week I'll get the last yard of gravel on the camper pad and we can try fitting the camper in next to the house!
We can finally slow down a bit and decorate and be leisurely creative. Thank goodness!
Updates to this page will come more slowly now ...(8/2007)
Camper squeeze-a-thon! (8/25)
Well, actually, the hard part was getting the camper back on the truck.
With Steven watching, of course it took forever to get lined up right, instead of the usual three tries or so.
But we brought it home and with Kathie guiding, backed it in successfully the first time.
All the hard work and expense - shortening the eave, digging/shovelling/rocking - paid off.
As expected, it's real tight - about 3 inches clearance!
We'll improve the parking pad next spring. For now, it just needs a little more gravel...
Here are the results of our Labor-full Day weekend: a garden shed, a nice clean RV pad, and two cars in our garage!
This is the first time the Spoobaru has overnighted in a garage since leaving California - it's a happy car.
First weekend in October: rain and cool. So, here's the first fire in our fireplace.
Oops, Mike got cocky parking the camper and caught a fence post - here's the replacement. :-(
Yep, that camper's a tight fit.
We finally got a "medicine cabinet" for the master bathroom. Of sorts.
To get something we liked, we cobbled it together ourselves.
Through the spring I slowly dismantled the playhouse in back. Here's before and after.
The yard feels much larger - and more exposed to our neighbors - with it gone. A mixed blessing.
Then we added some plants and replaced two crabapple trees with a cedar in the front yard.
With the planting complete, we extended the planter and put in a paver walkway (with help from a friend)
and put in a new gate further forward, leaving room for the trash cans discreetly beside the house.
This will be a huge improvement next winter - no more squishy, muddy treks to get the trash cans to the street and back!
This September (2008), we re-organized the garage to clear off one wall.
This makes room to get in and out of both cars from both sides.
(Previously, I had to back out onto the driveway before Kathie could get in).
This will be a big improvement next winter...
First, we replaced the 20-year old hot water heater. Yes, probably the original unit from 1987.
Then I took everything down from all three walls, insulated and sheet rocked the side walls around to the garage door...
...built up entirely new shelving all along the south wall and re-made the work bench at the head ...
...and hung shelves all along the north wall.
...and voile', Kathie can get into my car without going out in the rain!
Spring 2009: the backyard re-landscape begins!
First we remove the old pergola, have a deck built - and while they're at it - a ledger for a new, larger pergola.
It's like an extension of the great room.
Next we built the improved pergola. Mom and Dad helped out over Memorial Day weekend.
At this point, we've put a lot of money and even more time into this project.
Then an unusual spring thunderstorm blows down a big piece of one of the backyard trees!
The branch nicely filled most of the yard.
It fell the only place it could without harming the fence (no loss) or the deck and pergola (catastrophe).
We were very lucky.
Unfortunately, the tree had to go. We'll have to adjust the plans a bit.
Next, in preparation to building some walkways, we moved move a gate a little farther out...
so we could move the yard shed a little farther out, improving the view from the deck.
Now you see it, now you don't.
Finally we start the walkways, which will allow us to walk all the way around the house without getting our feet wet in winter.
This is important in western Oregon. It's nice to get firewood, put trash in the cans, and so on - with dry feet.
By now it's June, and the ground is turning from soft clay to rock-hard clay, so we rush to dig.
Fortunately, the weather cooperates and very little pick-axing is required, hooray!
With the walkways in, we can relax for the rest of summer 2009. ;-)>
Well, we do need to prepare a place for the replacement trees...
Late summer 2009: cutting firewood in the Ochocos, we stumbled across what appears to be an old quarry.
The stone looked colorful and interesting, so I brought some home with the firewood.
Kathie approved, so we made another trip just for another ton-and-a-half of rock for
the retaining wall in front of a berm in the corner of the backyard...
About the same time we arranged for the house (exterior) to be painted, most importantly including the pergola over the deck.
After painting we installed the clear polycarb roofing sheets on the pergola, covering the deck and dog run.
Ready for winter rains!
And the local patio furniture store had a great sale, so we have new, appropriate furniture, too.
Aside from transplanting a few stray plants and having the leftover dirt pile hauled away, that's about it for this year.
Rainy season is underway, and it's dark before I leave work.
Next spring, we'll till the soil, complete the planting and grow a lawn from seed.
And install a privacy screen, and a decorative fence around the composter, and a few other small projects.
The end is in sight!
Spring 2010: completing the backyard re-landscaping - seeding a new lawn.
I paid someone to remove the old lawn and till in some compost.
Then I rented a trencher and put in sprinklers and seeded a new lawn.
Here's the result, including a little planter for some blueberry bushes.
Spring 2011: remodel the powder room.
We'd already removed the horribly dated light box over the sink as part of the initial work and painting in 2007.
Now it's time to complete the update: replace the counter top, add wainscotting and install unusual, non-utilitarian fixtures.
Spring 2012: remodel the master bathroom sink area.
We'd already removed the horribly dated light box over the sink as part of the initial work and painting in 2007 in the master bath, too.
Ignoring the hopeless shower and commode, we'll update as best we can: replace the counter top, sink and mirror.
.jpg "New lawn")
.jpg "New lawn - growing!")
.jpg "New lawn - just a week later - growing!")
.jpg "New lawn - two weeks later - grown!")
.jpg "Finished backyard")
.jpg "Finished backyard")
.jpg "Small planter and blueberry bushes")
.jpg "Old cabinet stays but gets repainted")
.jpg "New countertop and sink")
.jpg "Installing wainscotting")
.jpg "New faucet")
.jpg "New mirror")
.jpg "Carefully remove old mirror")
.jpg "Old cabinet stays but gets repainted")
.jpg "New countertop, faucet, mirror, paint")
.jpg "New countertop & faucet")
