The Scourge of the Neighborhood

You know that neighbor with the overgrown yard, peeling paint, and crumbling front porch? The one that's a total eyesore and is dragging down property values? 

Well, hello! That's us. While we've been busy prettifying the insides of our so-very-humble abode, the outsides have been a bit neglected. 

It's not entirely our fault, since the former owner never laid eyes on the place or took care of it. And I'll ask for a little leeway since we did just move in, in January. But now it's May, and everything is in bloom, including our lovely dandelions, which we are growing for market. You didn't think we were just letting random weeds grow in the yard, did you?

Here's where I post some embarrassing pictures of our yard:

Those two fir trees on the left are just the worst - half dead, and I'm pretty sure the 25+ years of dog pee that they've experienced hasn't helped anything. The birch (white trunks), while pretty, has a trunk that is leaning into our roof and needs to go. And that tree in the foreground? It's dead. Yep. We figured that out after it refused to blossom this spring.

Our side yard is just as awful, if not worse:

The fence is from the 90s, part of it blew down in a recent storm (where you can see the neighbors trashy - pun intended - temporary "fencing"), and we have a disgusting mixture of old gravel and random weeds growing out of the ground. But you know what this is? A blank slate! I'm imagining a sitting area, strawberry beds, and a fire pit...

I found an arborist doing work at the house next door, and scheduled them for the following week. For $400.00 they cut down no less than 7 trees in our yard and hauled them away. For another $75.00 they came back and dug up the stumps. Worth every penny.

the arborists at work and a glimpse of our crappy backyard.

The front of our house now looks so much better...you can actually see the house now! 

Before

After

See that crazy storm cloud in the "After" picture? Mike had to hurry and get our roof patched up - it's been leaking in the garage. We're planning on replacing the entire roof, but probably it'll happen later this summer. In the meantime, my super handy husband took care of it himself:

A house is definitely a labor of love. It's never-ending, and while rewarding, it's also exhausting. I'm happier than ever that we bought a small house. Less to maintain, less to clean, less place to store useless "stuff." Less is more, for sure.

While we'll continue our daily mini-projects and figure out how to haul away all our yard debris, it's time to take a break. We're excited for this upcoming summer, and we've got lots of hikes and local vacations planned, starting this weekend. More to come!

Every Day I'm Hustlin'

OK, so we're not hustlin' as hard as Rick Ross, but making that "To Do" list on the last post really made us accountable for our actions. I highly suggest stating publicly (or on Facebook, because that's practically the same thing) what you're going to do, because wow, is it motivating. 

I'm still learning how to do new things with the remodel, and on this particular day, it was electrical wiring of our outlets. My boss, who is an electrician, told me it'd be simple - just pull out the old outlet and look at how things are wired, then just pull out the wires and plug them into the new receptacle the same way. Sounds easy enough...

I pulled out the outlets (after turning off the breaker - that is the most important step!), and there were yucky cobwebs in some, the wires require some muscle to get out and push in, and there would be any number of wires, from 3 to 7, that might be connected to any particular outlet. I managed, with a lot of help from Mike, to figure out how to do it, but it took me about 2 hours to finish six receptacles. I also electrocuted myself because I forgot to test the outlet before touching it, and it was wired to a different breaker. I am officially the worst electrician ever.

My electrical outlet progress and Mike installing the trim.

Mike worked on the trim all afternoon, and got the living room mostly completed (minus wood putty and paint). It got difficult around the bullnose corners, but we'll figure that out another day. For now, it's enough that we're making progress.

I also got some seeds started for our "garden" this summer. Our yard looks like...well, it looks like the yard of a house that's been a rental for 25 years. So it needs a lot of back-breaking work. Since we're already toiling away on the interior, with a guest bathroom, roof, and siding to finish this summer, we're putting off the yard until next spring (which, if climate change continues on this path, may be even earlier next year). This year, I'm growing food in pots, which will give me an opportunity to work on my atrocious gardening skills. 

you can see my successful regrown green onions at the end of the sill.

I repurposed some old egg cartons for the seeds and planted lettuces, mâche, yellow strawberries, eggplants, and little Mexican cucumbers. Everything is specifically for this climate and ordered from Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds. We'll see what sprouts and what I can keep alive! If all goes well, I'll be able to transplant these babies into pots in a few weeks.

In preparation for our DIY landscaping, we've been checking out garden centers around town. This one, Tumalo Garden Market, was so unbelievably cute! They had greenhouse kits, beehives, tons of fruit trees, and even a mini "canyon" you could walk through, to get ideas for your yard.

this place was like a garden amusement center - loved it!

I'm hoping we'll keep up the hustlin' into this upcoming week. But today, we're headed to the movies! Fast and Furious 7...and I'm bringing a box of tissues.

A New Tradition

On April 10th, we were reminded that it had been one year since we first set foot in Bend. I was so excited about our new hometown that I took this picture and posted it:

April 10, 2014

We decided to start a new tradition for our new town, and we went back down to Drake Park and took the exact same picture:

April 10, 2015

While it was a bit overcast, and the pond looks a little murky without all that gorgeous blue sky reflected in it, it was still a crisp spring day, and a great way to mark the passage of one sporadically frenzied, life-changing year. And thus, a new tradition is born!

We've definitely been doing a lot more wandering since it's been warm lately. It's just so refreshing and beautiful outside. Everyone seems to have fruit trees, and the streets are popping with color.

our plum tree in full bloom

We took Morty out for a little spin, down some farm roads, with no particular destination in mind. The sun was shining, we passed sheep and cows, horses and goats, a few llamas, and finally ended up at Tumalo Reservoir. You can just barely see the Cascade mountains peeking out in the background. They're still completely snow covered, but this year our snow pack was only about 30% as deep as normal. This means it will melt off too quickly - the trout and salmon will suffer, because the rivers won't be as cold, which equals less oxygen. A hot, dry summer is in the forecast.

Morty at Tumalo Reservoir

Note to self - shooting into the sun sucks.

It's getting harder and harder to stay inside and finish fixing up the house, but like homework, it hangs over our heads every day. Some days, I just unpack a box or two (we're close to done, only about 10 boxes left) and consider that "remodeling." It does help, though! This day, we got two art boxes unpacked and hung up some of our Audrey Kawasaki favorites on the living room wall.

maybe the art will distract from the fact the trim's not done...

And while the kitchen cabinets are still a pain to open since I didn't put the handles on yet, the kitchen is fully functional and I've been cooking up a storm! I made butter poached, local wild caught rockfish with saffron sauce, a deconstructed pastichio (it's sort of a Greek eggplant lasagna), consommé, and completely-from-scratch-pierogis. I also made stuff Mike could eat, like chili. Ha! 

not all cooking goes right! eggplant explosion on the grill.

Life has been quieter these last couple weeks, as we've gotten into a groove of just living here in Bend. It's a nice thing to enjoy, since looking down the summer pipeline, we've got a lot of plans. Time to get motivated to finish our list! While there's tons more to do, if we could only get this stuff done, we could relax for a bit. Let's see if writing it here helps us get it done before the next post (wishful thinking...).

Things to Do:

finish replacing all electric receptacles

finish trim

hook up kitchen and bathroom exhaust fans

reframe all windows and kitchen sliding glass door

hook up hallway pendant light

hook up office light

install bathroom door

paint office

finish unpacking/storing away all boxes

Our First Visitor!

Having a visitor was one of the best things to happen to our house, because we now have a mostly completed guest...bed. I hesitate to say the bedroom itself is done, because it's still pretty bare. We didn't get to put up any art or decor yet, and we still need window treatments. But the window is framed out, and believe me, that was a pretty big accomplishment.

we did gouge the paint a bit while putting up that window...add that to the punch list.

The first day in town, it was too warm to go snowboarding, so we took a walk along the river, and saw a group of deer having breakfast! This is one thing that Mike and I miss from our old rental. There are a lot more deer on the west side of town, because there's less fencing between properties. Fences suck!

We christened the new kitchen and I taught Mike's niece to cook a few things. We made steak, teriyaki salmon, baked potatoes, brussels sprouts with pancetta, and a creamy mushroom sauce (with our foraged chanterelles from last fall).

cooking in the new kitchen!

caramelizing the brussels sprouts with pancetta

It got up to 73 degrees here in Bend! So the next day, we headed to Tumalo Falls, where we discovered that the road was closed. What would normally be a half mile hike to the falls, ended up being an 8 mile hike, but at least it was a gorgeous day. 

Still a tiny bit of snow on the ground.

Since we weren't planning on a long hike, we didn't bring water or snacks with us. But we made it there and back without too much trouble, and it was nice to know that we're not entirely out of shape - we weren't even sore the next day.

Tumalo Falls

After our visitor left, we got sort of lazy around the house. I mean, it's livable, although a little chaotic and haphazard. So after about 10 days of not remodeling a thing, we got back into the groove. 

Our new resolution is to do one remodel activity every day, even if it's a small thing. This way, we'll keep moving forward, even if it's sloooowly.

Got a door handle put on...still need to fill those nail holes in the trim, though!

Mike putting on the kitchen receptacle covers. No chore is too small!

Sometimes it seems endless, but we're just going to keep chugging along, and little by little, we'll get it done! 

We're Really Not This Messy

When I was little, I used to hate when my mom made us clean the house for guests, "But they're our friends! They'll like us no matter how the house looks!" 

Now that I'm older, I totally get it. It's not about whether or not your friends/family will still love you, it's about pretending you don't actually wallow in your bedsheets for 2 weeks, let your cats climb on the dining room table, and have a constant competition with your garbage can to see exactly how much trash it can hold. It's about showing you know how you're supposed to be living - somewhere in between sanitary conditions and Martha-Stewart-organized, and hopefully a little closer to the latter.

Since we have exactly T-minus 8 hours until Mike's niece arrives tonight, we've been on high alert, hyper aware of how our home appears to the objective eye. I organized the chaos in the office so we could cram all our other boxes in there, basically making the office the "under the rug" area. Don't open that door.

And we got all crazy in the guest bedroom, trimming out the window, finishing most of the baseboards on the floor, and setting up the new bed.

Nail guns are one of my favorites! I also learned they are
responsible for 150,000 emergency room visits a year!

We hustled in the kitchen - Mike got the shelves up, patched, sanded and stained them, and I unpacked our dishes. He even put up the kitchen hood! Here's a shot in progress:

before staining, with the kitchen hood partially up

completed shelves and installed hood - we still need to remove
the protective plastic. The hood is actually stainless steel.

close up of the kitchen shelves

I think by the end of the day today, we'll have a kitchen sink and dishwasher, and I'm crossing my fingers....hopefully a stove! If not, at least we'll have our grill, a waffle maker, and a crock pot to feed Mike's niece with. Mike also pulled a late night countertop sealing session:

step by step, we're getting stuff done...

Our master bath vanity, pendant lights, and mirrors were installed (thanks, Mike!), and although I'm second guessing my mirror choice and we're looking for a large rectangular one now, this will suffice for the time being. I also finished painting the ceiling in the shower area and could finally properly place the shower light. It really made a difference; the shower feels super glamorous when you're in it, and I can't stop staring at my 2" hexagon tiles. 

vanity shot on the left, shower view on the right

The glass in the shower area hasn't been installed yet (or even priced out), but to be honest, the shower is so huge that the water doesn't even hit the back wall, much less the area where the glass would be. This is awesome for two reasons - no rush to get the glass, and when we finally do get the glass - it won't get too many water spots. 

I think the thing we're most excited about with our niece's visit, is not that she's got us motivated to finish up some lingering projects; it's that we have an excuse to go out and do stuff for the next few days! We made a whole list of hikes to go on, waterfalls to see, things to show her...we can't wait to get out and do something other than remodeling. Fun starts now!

Into the Dust Pit and Back Out the Other Side

It is more difficult than you would think, living in a house that's going through a full-out remodel. If you have the means, I would highly recommend moving out of your home, if you ever take this on in the future. Our house is constantly dusty; anything you wash gets dirty within minutes, and we don't have a working kitchen or even a kitchen sink. I have a whole new level of appreciation for deep sinks with a proper faucet and garbage disposal.

We just made it through a week of grinding the countertops, which created an atmosphere in the house close to what I imagine working in a quarry feels like. Despite our best efforts to tarp off the kitchen and blanket our belongings, our entire house and our very own lungs got coated in a thick layer of concrete dust. 

Our kitchen looks ghostly with all the plastic and tarps up!

We had to live only in the master bedroom (due to all the dust), and I sort of wish we had drugged the cats for those few days, since all 6 of us were cooped up in the room together. It was impossible to use the toaster oven, and we did carry out and fast food, sitting on the floor of our bedroom, eating off a cardboard box. I kept reminding myself it was like camping, but without the beauty of nature, it's hard to keep a positive attitude.

But after a few days, we made it through the grinding and polishing, and then we moved on to tile, which was considerably less dirty. I picked this beautiful ice white glass subway tile, which makes the kitchen look incredibly clean. The picture below doesn't quite do it justice, but when the whole kitchen is done, I hope to get a better shot!

Mike celebrating after day 1 of tile.

The empty horizontal spaces are where the open kitchen shelving will go. I don't remember if I mentioned it before, but because we found mold and had to ditch the old kitchen cabinets, that left us with an extra cost we didn't anticipate in the remodel. The solution? We only purchased lower cabinets, and on top, we're putting open kitchen shelving. It works perfectly for us for several reasons: we love the open airy feel, it updates the traditional style of this 90s kitchen, the kitchen feels bigger, and our everyday dishes are all white, which makes them ideal for displaying!

Adin from Artisan Tile laying the last tile on the back wall.

Adin knocked out the tiles in 3 days, and then it was on to building the shelves. Mike found a blog online where this girl built her own shelves, and he decided to go ahead and make ours!

The frames for the shelves and a glimpse of the unsealed counters.

After all the kitchen insanity, and because the office looks like the picture below, we really felt a serious need to organize and clean.

One day, hopefully not too far in the future, this will be my office.

In a way, chaos in your house reflects the chaos in your life and mind. There is a real level of peace I get from not only organizing my belongings, but paring them down. One $99 closet organizer and an afternoon will buy you this sort of inner calm:

This is everything we've been wearing the last couple months!

Sure, there's like 2 more boxes and 3 more bags of clothes, but I was pretty happy to find that we've pared down quite a bit from our previous lives, and we picked out even more things we can donate. I think I jettisoned about half my closet once I quit corporate office life. I still have my collection of LBD (little black dresses) over there on the left, though. There's a level of practicality that speaks to keeping those around.

We're hoping to get out of the house more this coming week - we miss our nightly walks and just exploring around Oregon. Not only do our lungs need some fresh air, but spring is here, whether we're ready or not! Usually, the last frost is in May here in Bend, and I'm a little bit concerned for our plum tree. Should it freeze again, the blossoms will fall off and we won't get any fruit this year. Sad face (for potential lost plums and climate change).

Enjoying the beautiful plum blossoms while we can...

Mike's niece is coming up on Tuesday and we are so excited to show her around our little town. More to come!

Chicago, LA, and Home Again

We wrapped up our super busy February with a move into our not-quite-completed home:

we hired professional movers this time to save our backs!

It's a little awkward to live in a home with no stove/kitchen sink/dishwasher/master bedroom/washer-dryer. We can't actually unpack things, because some walls still need to be painted, we don't have interior doors or trim, we're still missing light fixtures, closet doors/systems, and the kitchen is still under construction (counters need grinding, walls need tile). But it's such a relief to be in a home we own, with no worries about the landlord finding out about our (four!) cats, and knowing we can change anything we want.

the current state of the living room

Our current "kitchen" - toaster oven, coffee pot, and hot water dispenser.

It's not all under construction...the flooring is in, and our toilet is awesome.

Princess approves of the new floors!

our fancy toilet, with the heated seat and "nightlight."

We moved the kitties into the home, then 4 days later, took off for Chicago for Wedding Reception Round 2. It was actually really nice to see people I hadn't seen in a long while, and catch up with old friends. I was so busy with friends and family, I didn't even take any pictures!

And then we were off to LA, where we ate our way through the first few days. We had been daydreaming about the food - so we cruised around, alternating running into restaurants and eating in the car. 

Cook's tortas! It's on Atlantic and you should really go.

Donut Friend in Highland Park - I got mine with dulce de leche, bananas and whipped cream.

Ceviche at Guisado's in Echo Park.

Mole tacos and Bistek en salsa roja at Guisado's.

the charcuterie platter at Bestia, where we also saw Gordon Ramsay!

We stayed in a super creepy mansion in Echo Park's historical Victorian neighborhood. The homes are all from the late 1800s and are very well restored and maintained. However, that doesn't detract from the scary factor. This is a pic of the home from the outside:

I was pretty nervous every time we came home late, convinced I'd see a ghostly apparition standing at the top of the stairs, or around the corner....or at the side of my bed. But it did have a nice view:

  

The view from the 3rd story balcony

Honestly the location was ideal for our jaunts around town. We could be back in our old 'hood in 10 minutes. In fact, it was so close to downtown, that one morning Mike ran out and brought me back breakfast in bed!

the coddled egg from Eggslut in Grand Central Market - breakfast is served!

Our LA Wedding Reception Round 3 was just as wonderful as the Chicago one - but imagine having everyone you love in one room, with like 45 seconds to talk to each one. It's overwhelming! I wish I could spend a whole day with each one of our friends and family...and even that wouldn't be enough. I think another trip to Chicago and LA is in order for this year.

But while we're home, we're chipping away at the house projects, one by one. Today, we finally got the carpet installed in the master bedroom, and I'm finishing up the paint so we can move in. Completed "after" pic of the master bedroom coming up soon!

Adding a little drama to the master bedroom with the dark accent wall!