Category Archives: General

House Part II: Before & After

House painting: before and after

… and here it is. I honestly don’t know if I like the color yet – but I’ve had multiple people tell me that they do. It’s growing on me. I went one shade lighther than the standard “sage” house color… this is “Frosty Pine” (how that translates to the different brands of paint and tints, I have no idea.) It’s “frosty” I guess! One thing for sure: it makes the roof look a lot lighter, and even better. And it’s not just the lighting in the picture – the roof was the first thing I noticed when I stepped back from the house.

We still need to paint the trim (white), but hey! There IS trim on the house now! AND trim on the windows (except the bathroom – which is going to be a bit of a challenge). Chris’s stepdad did all of the trim, and his mom helped with the inside trim. It was so wonderful to have them here for the weekend.

We went to work Friday afternoon, and finished the “grunt work” of scraping/sanding on Saturday morning. Finished priming on Saturday, and the first coat of paint on Sunday. Chris and I finished painting while the others trimmed the inside on Monday, and we were done around 4. (We still have to paint the garage though!)

The gutters are back up now. That was a puzzle game. If anyone reading this is planning on removing/cleaning/putting back gutters, MARK THEM WITH A PERMANENT MARKER! Because no, all gutters are not created equal. None of the pieces are the same size, and with our simple house and simple gutters we thought putting them back together would be easy. It took more than an hour today moving the ladder back and forth, replacing one piece with another. The pieces aren’t where they used to be, but we got them to fit. Whew.

Now I have a list of small, medium, large, and hired projects to be completed. On-the-market goal is June 9. Later than I was hoping, but we’re finally starting to make visible progress.

Ready, Set, Go!

niko.jpg

I like the way this picture came out – especially the eyes. Niko is a good photography subject, and she’s always willing when I get in the mood to see what I can make my digital camera do. My favorite setting as of recent is profile, zoomed into 4x (maximum before digital), in Macro mode, forced flash. They don’t *all* turn out like this photo – but the backlighting caused the washout. I like.

Chris’s mom and stepdad came up today to measure. They are going to help us with painting the house – which we have scheduled for Memorial Day weekend (Helpers wanted! Free food and beer!). I am going to the cities next weekend for my niece’s baptism, and I’ll come back with their pressure washer. Chris’s stepdad seems to think that the pressure washer will take care of the outside – a quick once-over if needed with a power sander to smooth out the edges where the paint doesn’t come off. (Most of the paint will come off. It’s in bad shape.)

Apparently, we should be able to get done painting over the three-day weekend. And *maybe* even get to the outside window trim. Wow, that would be lovely.

So, before that – we have the bedroom to paint (tomorrow’s project). Living room and kitchen to paint; kitchen cupboards to clean. Trim around the base in the kitchen. Electricity upgrade. Cheap-o window treatments (I found blinds for $5 each at the dollar store, and $3 for the cheap rolling blinds – perfect!). Pack up/store stuff we don’t need. Have the Home Stager come through and give her opinions. Plant some shrubs in the front yard, fix up grass, plant pretty flowers. Call Realtor, have appraised, sell house.

Sell house.

Anyone wanna buy a house?

Happy Earth Day?

Here’s what my new neighbors are doing to celebrate Earth Day:

Let’s all cut down trees for Earth Day!

That was a nice, healthy tree. Maybe they’re just making room for all of the new trees they’re planning to plant today?

What a boring day.

Puck

There’s just something odd about this day. It’s the first really nice spring day we’ve had: it’s 60º and very calm. Puck even camped out in the back yard for a half an hour – something he never does (he much prefers the couch inside).

I have a lot of work to do. Lots of miscellaneous website work… some stuff for the food co-op (including writing my job description -???- for the next manager)… and countless home repairs. But nothing is urgent – in fact, I could probably put off everything for a week or two, and nobody would notice.

I’m unbelievably bored. I just made a long “to do” list because I was so bored. But I don’t want to *do* anything on the list – because I can just do it tomorrow, or this weekend. Or next week, even.

I decided that this is my body’s way of making me relax before “spring fever” settles in and I start running in overdrive, trying to get everything done.

Sigh. Back to staring at my to do list and the stack of papers on my desk, thinking about tomorrow when I’ll eventually get to them.

The Big Decision

Kallie love chickpeas!

(Just a random picture. I had a can of chickpeas out on the counter last night to curry… and Kallie decided to help herself. Too cute not to take a picture.)

Well… I think we’ve finally made *the decision*. We are moving. This year.

Our price range is set, and I was pre-approved for anything in that range, with 10% down. The 10% down is going to be the hard part – I need to sell my house before we have that cash in hand, obviously. The trickier part is that given today’s market (and what we’re able to afford within our specifications) we’re mostly looking at foreclosed houses. And banks don’t take contingent offers. So there’s a chance we could find something perfect, not be able to make an offer on it, and then lose it to another buyer.

There is A LOT to do before I can put my house on the market. And my schedule isn’t letting up any to give me extra time; plus the weather still isn’t quite right for home improvements. If you’re into house painting (outside), garage painting, grass repair, planting bushes and flowers (apparently, yellow flowers invoke a “buy me now!” mood?), and window trim (outside and in)… you are very welcome to be our house guests for as long as you’d like to stay and help.

So, we’re looking in the Princeton and Isanti areas. I visited a few houses last week… haven’t found anything wonderful yet, but I’ve been looking through a rather large list of houses that meet our criteria online. There are a few things in Wisconsin too – so that’s a possibility. Mostly, we’re hoping 1 hour our less driving time to the Twin Cities, where my baby niece and Chris’s baby nephew live. (Oh, and the rest of our family).

Our criteria: (MINIMUM) 3 bedroom, 2 bathroom, 3 acres, 1600 square feet finished. Of course, a smaller house on 20 acres would win over a larger house on 3 acres, provided most other conditions were right. We’re now looking at this more of a “move up” closer to what we’d eventually like — because at this point, we simply can’t afford the giant Victorian house in perfect condition on 50 acres that we want. A move closer to the twin cities will allow us to see family more, and hopefully be a positive step in our careers.

The food co-op’s board meeting is tomorrow night, and I’m going to tell the board that we are searching for houses out of the area. Ideally, I’d like to see a whole month (if not more) overlap between my leaving and a new manager taking over. I am really going to miss working there – it’s been an invaluable position, and I’ll be sad to leave. But, life goes on.