saturday highlights

Charlie showed some crabs who was boss:


Don got thrown in the pool (and then he lost his glasses and made Bobby go diving for them).


Lee had no idea what was about to happen to him:


Greg and Scott lost a bet, and Zach and Mikey collected in a rather painful fashion:


Mikey showed off his trademark sad face (this is the look he gives you when he needs you to drive him home at 2 in the morning from Power Plant Live because he is drunk and didn't arrange a ride home -- not that I would know or anything):


And Nathan for some reason didn't appreciate the guys' gesture of thanks for organizing the whole shindig:


Full set is here.

one thing has gone right this week

The new dumpster arrived this morning! As usual, we can't say enough good things about our friends over at Benjer; they are so, so helpful. All we do is explain what we want to the driver and it's done. Easy.

He showed up at about 9 AM this morning, with our new dumpster, which he dropped off temporarily in the street in front of the house (the "clang" is what alerted us to his presence). Then Don went out to explain the situation, and I headed to the upstairs landing window to take stealth pictures. The driver picked up our old, mostly full dumpster:


And dropped it off in front of the neighbor's house for safekeeping while the rest of the maneuvering went on (I'm sure they were thrilled):


Out with the old, in with the new:


It wound up right where Don wanted it for demolition day. He's quite pleased, which may explain why it looks like he's marching in a parade in this photo:

now i can say it

So the big, bad thing that I couldn't talk about before is now officially on safe-to-say territory. This week, Don was forced to resign from his job. As of today, he is no longer working for his previous employer -- or for anybody, actually.

It's a mixed blessing. He was pretty unhappy at that job, and he absolutely hated the commute (no sympathy from me, though -- remember my two-hour-each-way commute that he used to insist wasn't so bad? Karma!). We have enough money in the "F Fund" -- and tangent here: this is something everyone should have. You should have a separate savings account that is totally untouchable, one that has enough money in it to approximately equal one person in the household's salary for a period of time, usually between three and six months. It's so, so crucial. Ours is called the "F Fund" -- for when all you can say is "Oh, f---!" (We also keep separate savings accounts for a Christmas budget, a repair fund, and our regular savings. Eventually we'll have a vacation fund in there too, but for now that money just gets sucked into the house.)

Anyway. We have enough money in the F Fund to keep us the way we've been going (paying double to the home equity loan, putting about four hundred dollars a month into savings, etc.) for two months, and for four months if we cut out the extra payments and things. So Don has the rest of the summer to look for a new job, hopefully one that's more to his liking (he's hoping for something in the finance industry, since that's what he wants to do) and that's closer to home. He'll be able to spend some time working on the house while he's job hunting, which is a bonus.

It was pretty stressful during the week, while we were talking the whole thing over and struggling with the decision, and then while I was waiting for Don to finish agonizing over the possibility of having to do new things (he's not a huge fan of drastic changes, so he dithered for a while). But there was really only one option to take, and now that it's done we're really looking forward to moving on to more positive things.

Deep breaths. Here comes life.

negatives and positives

The HVAC guy didn't show up yesterday, either. But we finally got a call from him. The deal is that the company we went with is actually a two-man operation. One guy does sales and service, and one guy (our pointy-shouldered friend) does installation. Unfortunately, it just so happens that this week, Mr. Sales-and-Service is on vacation, and Installation Guy has had to pick up the slack. He said he's been working ten hour days just trying to keep up with the service calls. We're not thrilled, but whatever. We're going to be out of the house most of the weekend anyway. He said he'll be back on our job on Monday (Mr. S&S gets back from vacation on Friday) and will have us "up and running" on Wednesday. Sure thing.

Life's not all bad, though. I brought in a bunch of basil for my coworker (he's a trained chef!), and the whole office smells like a garden. Also, I got this book in the mail a couple of days ago; I'm looking forward to taking a little bit of time for myself and reading it.

And, of course, the most awesome news right now is that Lindley is getting this adorable kitten!


Pretty much the cutest thing EVER. I think we're meeting up on Sunday to go on a kitty supply purchasing run.

no news isn't particularly good news

I just don't have a lot to say today. There's no update on the HVAC, as apparently the guy did not show up yesterday. He's scheduled to be finished with the first floor tomorrow; if he doesn't finish I may in fact cry.

There's some other stuff going on which I can't talk about yet, but suffice it to say it's definitely not positive and it's really making it hard to maintain motivation to do virtually anything. Not good. I feel like I'm just sort of wading through some sort of swamp, barely holding ground and not moving forward. I could really, really use a few days off to just relax, go to the farmer's market, plant some lettuce (this gardening thing is getting out of control, I blame Danielle), read some trashy romance novels, make some jewelry, etcetera. Of course, any time off I do wind up taking will be filled with doing laundry, packing up the office, pulling any remaining nails out of the walls on the first floor, moving wood and tools around, doing dishes, blah blah blah. Our real vacation is in late August, but I need something now.

really i just like the phrase 'back-stoop basil'

We have holes in our subfloor, huzzah! We came home last night to find that the HVAC guy had cut vent holes in all the appropriate places on the first floor, and had left a great deal of flex tubing and other various HVAC supplies in the basement (as good a place to put them as any, since that's where the first unit's going).

In other news, my back-stoop basil has gotten HUGE. In like a week! Holy crap! When I came home last night, Don said, "What have you been doing to that stuff?" I was like, "Nothing! And sometimes I still forget to water it!" It's insane. And also delicious. I had some of it on a tomato salad the other day, it was fantastic. The other great thing about it is that it's incredibly fragrant; all you have to do is practically wave your hand near it and you'll smell like lovely, tangy basil for the next four hours. Mmmm.

We're looking forward to the annual Lambda Chi summer crab feast this weekend; it should be good times, and a nice break from the house. And, in theory, by the end of the week, being in the house should be a lot less intolerable since we'll have AIR CONDITIONING!!! It's been miserable for the last few days -- heat indexes over 100, with humidity in the 90% range. And we all know how well I deal with that stuff.

behind already

We didn't get the mudroom demo'd this weekend. Nor did we get anything else done, actually. But the HVAC guy should be at the house today, cutting holes in the first floor for vents. And patting the cat -- she loves him, for some reason.

operation big house

Don has come up with a schedule for the rest of the summer. In theory, this schedule will make it so that the upstairs subfloors are done by the beginning of September, although I believe some of that depends on how much Don and his dad are willing to work during the week in August. So here's "Operation Big House" (apparently that's what the family used to call our house in Don's childhood, and he still calls it that). Creative spelling has been corrected by yours truly.

Operation Big House (7/5/07)

July 7: Finish mudroom demo / Fix downstairs bathroom waterlines / Clean up downstairs wood and tools

July 8-12: Pack upstairs / Move boxes into storage

July 9-12: HVAC Downstairs installation

July 13: Dumpster change out

July 14: Clean the downstairs (rest of plaster/nails/etc) / Tarp downstairs ceiling and windows / Move downstairs / Tarp downstairs “walls” / Run downstairs temp electric

July 15: Clean out attic / Buy trash cans for makeshift dumpster chute

July 16-20: Remove landing window / Build temporary stairway landing / Assemble dumpster chute

July 20: Remove upstairs doors / Remove upstairs blinds / Turn off upstairs water / Turn off upstairs electric

July 21: Demo Day 2 (which many of you should now have the evite for! If you don't have it and you want it, let me know.)

July 22: Install new attic trapdoor ladder / Clean the upstairs (rest of plaster/nails/etc)

July 23 or 30: HVAC Upstairs installation begins

Beginning August: Window installation

cat paparazzi

We have stray -- or not -- cats that like to come hang out in our backyard. They're insolent creatures, and one of them actually has taken to napping on top of Don's car, just to prove that they're better than us. It's very hard to actually get a photo of them. Although they're not at all afraid of us, once we get close enough to them they will run away (although not far -- Don spent a good ten minutes chasing the orange one round and round the dumpster, as it would run around the corner of it and then sit back down and wait for him to find it and then repeat the process).

This particular one pictured below (in a very bad, paparazzi-esque photo, all I could get) is extraordinarily fat and wears a red collar, so we're pretty sure its not actually a stray. I don't particularly mind having them running around -- everybody knows I'm totally a cat person -- but Don gets practically apoplectic when he sees them.

Probably because it's his car they sleep on.

all kinds of news

The biggest news is that the new and improved Anapurna website is up. And, unlike the old site, you can actually successfully use it to buy things from us! Yay! Go check it out.

Other stuff going on, that I thought I'd get down before it drifted away in the massive cloud of to-do lists and scheduling I often find myself in:

Don got a call from the HVAC guy (who, incidentally, has the pointiest shoulder blades I have ever seen on a human being). Said guy is going to come over tomorrow night with a contract for us to sign -- with the original price they quoted us (yay!). He's really truly officially going to start work on Monday. It's like a dream come true! Air conditioning!

We're getting our nearly-full dumpster switched out for an empty one on the 13th. Benjer must love us, we rent so many damn dumpsters. This will be the third this year.

Demolition day, as you all know, is on July 21st. Don't forget to tell me if you want to come.

Windows will be installed sometime after that, hopefully in early August. All the paperwork has been signed for the financial stuff on that one, now we're just waiting through their lead time. Plus, we're getting the demolition done, which will make things easier for them (since they're doing all the framing for us -- they don't have to worry about the demo part).

At some point -- I am guessing next weekend -- we will officially Move Downstairs. I haven't made a lot of progress on cleaning out the office. This must change.

Don says that he'd like to have the upstairs subfloors done and all the final framing in place by the time school starts (August 29th). Considering that we're going on vacation for a week within that timeframe, it's a tight schedule. We'll see how it goes. I'm a little concerned about the plumbing for the new master bathroom, but Don seems to think it's "NBD".

finding history

This weekend, Don and his dad cleared out the big crawlspace under the kitchen, in preparation for the HVAC guys (who need to go in there to put a few ducts in). I was at the bead show the whole time, but Don made sure to save everything for me to photograph when I got home. We found some amazing family history -- everything from Don's dad's childhood homemade "go-kart" (pictured below) to the old family sauerkraut-making pot, plus some great old soda bottles ("Sun Spot: Bottled Sunshine"). There were also like six lawnmowers under there -- it was like a museum of lawn care, going from an ancient rotary mower all the way up to a more recent powered one. Anyway, if you're interested, photos are in the "stuff we found in our house set" on flickr.

save the date: demo day 2

Demolition day for the second floor is officially Saturday, July 21st. If you want to come help out, please give me your email address by the end of this week so that we can send you the Evite (how cute are we, sending out evites to a demolition party).

This is an all day thing, though nobody is forcing anyone to stay for the whole day. We're going to completely gut the second floor down to the studs, and we'd like to get the pool deck down too if people aren't too tired. We'll provide donuts and coffee in the morning, cold bottles of water throughout the day, something (most likely pizza) for lunch, and work gloves if you haven't got them (also I'm the queen of first aid, so if you hurt yourself I'm there to tend your boo-boos). If you've got your own crowbar and work gloves (and/or other demolition-useful tools like reciprocating saws), bring 'em! All this information will be in the Evite, plus anything else we come up with.

If you're not comfortable putting your email address in a comment here, please email me at jamailac at gmail dot com.

property values

Just heard from Don's parents that a house on their street -- ten blocks away from us -- has sold for $375,000. And it was just over half the size of our house, on a smaller lot (although recently rehabbed, if it's the one I'm thinking of -- and they did a nice job). That's good news -- it means our house will be worth quite a bit when we're done with the renovations, and it's worth the money we're putting in.

The breakdown so far:
Our house is about 2200 square feet, on one third of an acre of land. It's got three bedrooms, and by the time we're done renovating it'll have either three full baths or two full and one three-quarter bath (depending on who wins that argument), an open floorplan with a main floor family room in addition to the living room, and a moderately "gourmet" kitchen.

We paid $220,000 for it in January of 2006 (it was listed as a four-bedroom, which affected the pricing somewhat then and will affect pricing later by its absence but not absurdly so), and have so far spent (or committed to spending) just over $50,000 on a new roof, new windows, and central HVAC. The cost of the rest of the work we're doing, both structural and finishing, is comparatively negligible, since we're doing it all ourselves and don't need contractors. [Example: we've completely changed the floorplan of the first floor, both removing and adding walls, replaced all the floor joists, and installed a level subfloor for about $1200 -- just the cost of supplies.] This isn't to say that, for instance, the entire house's supply of drywall isn't going to be ridiculously expensive -- but comparatively speaking, DIY is always cheaper. If you know what you're doing. Hospital bills can add up, if you don't.

We plan to live in this house for at least the next ten years or so. But if we don't, at least we'll be able to afford to sell it. Mind you, I'm not endorsing real estate inflation. I'm just grateful that we managed to get in early enough that we could get the house for a reasonable price. As a fixer-upper, it was (rightly) discounted some. But I've seen fixer-uppers now selling for finished prices, which sucks. If you're in the market to buy, be mindful of neighborhood property values and trends, and make sure you're really getting what you're paying for. It can still be done in the market now, it just takes some research.

my herbs, let me show you them

Here are the herbs I planted last weekend. They're still alive!


I know, I can't believe it either.

Closeups of basil and thyme are here and here. I'm not so good at macro photography yet.

lindley's studio photography is getting better and better

We went out for dinner last night and did some shopping at the Annapolis mall. Plans are in place for excursions to the National Arboretum (photography), Patapsco State Park (photography), the Thomas Point Shoal Lighthouse (photography), and Tyson's Corner (lots of shopping).

Not to mention the beach in August (relaxation!). Friends are the best.

frustradiation

Thanks for your suggestions about the radiators, folks, but I'm still stuck. I called Housewerks -- where I plan to go and spend a great deal of money once I have some studio space to work in -- but they don't take radiators unless they're of the interesting variety: decorative, or interestingly shaped, or what have you. Which makes sense, really. I spent some time on the phone with them, and learned that they don't want our windows, either -- hopefully the housebloggers will want them at some point -- but that if we wanted to get rid of our doors they'd probably take them. Of course, we're keeping our doors, because they're cool -- which is, after all, the same reason they'd take them!

So then I called United Iron and Metal, who do take radiators (and don't have a website). But they pay $100 per gross ton, and you have to drop them off. Heavy as they are, and as many as we have, there's no way we've got a ton's worth of them, and for under a hundred bucks there is no freaking way we're moving the bastards again.

So I'm stuck. Alex mentioned that radiators can be worth between $200 and $400, but so far it's looking like we're going to have to call a hauling company to just take them away for free (if that). Maybe I'll post something on Craigslist. Sigh.

radiators

I'm looking for a place to recycle these babies. Hopefully for money!

sunday brunch

Hey, local types -- I'm headed to Intergem on Sunday, and my peeps and I would like to go out for a Sunday brunch beforehand. Do any of you northern folks (or anyone else, for that matter) have any tips on a great place to go in Timonium or Towson for brunch? The kicker -- it's got to be totally nonsmoking.

monday morning weekend recap: other people are more productive than me

We weren't as productive as Don had hoped this weekend, but we definitely accomplished some stuff. On Saturday we lounged around, feeling guilty the whole time that we weren't getting anything done but enjoying ourselves anyway. Sunday, I woke Don up at 8 AM (I'd been up for a while already but I let him sleep a little more) and we headed outside. We ripped off the very last part of the back deck -- you can sort of see it in this picture from last summer during the Great Possum Debacle. We threw out the broken grill and broken dryer that the previous owners had left, heaving them into the dumpster with great joy.

While Don worked on tearing out the deck, I cleaned out the mudroom. I think Don had hoped to start the demolition in there, but we just didn't get to it. But everything that was in there is gone, generally to places where it actually belongs, which is good. So it's ready for whenever we do get to the demo (next weekend? Anyone want to come over and help?).

All that was done by about 11:30 in the morning, so we headed out for brunch at the diner and then went to Home Depot, where we picked up a "professional" four-gallon backpack sprayer and some weed-killer concentrate and some herbs and potting stuff. While Don mowed the backyard and then strapped himself into the sprayer and ventured off into the jungle, I planted some basil, thyme, and rosemary and set them out on the little concrete landing off the back door. We'll see how this growing experiment goes.

As we all know, I'm not very good with plants. I have watering issues. But Lindley came up with the notion of leaving a filled watering can right next to the plants, and putting the plants next to the back door where I'll always see them when I come in and out of the house. Hopefully, since I'll see them I'll remember to water them, and since the water will be right there I won't neglect it out of laziness. Cross your fingers -- herbaceous lives are at stake.

On a side note, Ariana apparently has a lot more to show for her weekend than I do -- and check out her kitchen! White cabinets with glass uppers and black countertops like that are EXACTLY what I want, and I am taking this opportunity to point out to Don that Ariana and Jeff's kitchen doesn't look "foofy country" at all just because it has white cabinets. I'm just saying.

the hypothetical laundry room

In addition to cleaning out the back bedroom, the other project we need to get done before the HVAC guys start their install is the laundry room.


Our laundry room is actually the back entrance to the house, the one we use (we never use the front door). As you can see, it's in pretty bad shape. We took out the washer and dryer that were there when we moved in -- the dryer's broken, so it's bound for the dumpster, and we sold the washer on Craigslist for 45 bucks. Now we need to rip out the dry-rotted floor, take down the paneling and the drop ceiling, go down into the crawlspace below and fix the plumbing (that's the pipe that froze this past winter -- it goes to the laundry room, the downstairs bathroom, and the outside hose faucet), and then put in a sealed subfloor of some sort and any new plumbing.

Eventually we'll put in a new washer and dryer, but we definitely have to get it prepped and ready for the HVAC guys. We were hoping to work on this this weekend, but we're unsure of scheduling and things right now, unfortunately. We'll see!

not exactly big trouble in little china

Don called the county inspector man last night. What a turnaround! After we got the ticket, as I told Danielle, the guy practically hung up on Don, he was so uninterested in giving us any information whatsoever. That was after we managed to get hold of him in the first place after calling for three days -- he told Don to stop "calling him all the time"! Anyway. This time, he answered right away, and was positively garrulous.

So apparently, somebody originally called him and said we weren't mowing our lawn. Fair enough -- we weren't, because we hadn't gotten to it yet. He gave us the ticket, we mowed the lawn, done. Except then our wonderful neighbor -- whichever one it is -- called him back, and said "Oh, we don't like their ivy, either." So, grumbling, he came back out, took a look around, and left his card yesterday. Unlike the neighbors, he realized the obvious -- that we're doing some massive renovation, and doing the best we can. Last weekend we sprayed the jungle at the back, as well as the side of the driveway and a couple of other bad places, with a broadleaf vine killer, which should take care of a lot of the stuff. It takes two to six weeks to kill things, but the vines on the shed are definitely wilting, and we're going to spray again this weekend. Don told the man all of this, and he said he sort of figured that was the case, and since it was pretty obvious what we were doing the county is perfectly happy to work with us. And he is apparently not particularly pleased with our petty neighbors, either. He definitely seems to agree with us that if they had a problem, they should have said something to us first -- the county doesn't enforce any of those damn codes unless somebody complains, and he's got other, more pressing work to do.

So there.

trouble! right here in river city

This was on the door when I got home.

i hate summer

I am not a fan of summer. I should clarify -- I'm a huge fan of Summer, the blogger! But I hate summer, the season. Ever since I was very small, I've been extraordinarily sensitive to heatstroke. Put me outside in the heat -- let alone in the sun! -- and I wilt like a dead flower. I get nauseous, I pass out, blah blah blah. It just sucks. I can remember years of being taken home from summer camp early or missing out on everything because I had to lay in the nurse's office with wet washcloths on my head and neck. That still happens, without the camp part.

And for some reason, I moved to the Baltimore/D.C. area. Where, I'm told, people used to get hazard pay for being posted, because the climate is so bad! What was I thinking?

So summer, for me, is basically just three months of being really, really sick. It's not very fun. Last year, in the middle of the summer, my doctor ordered me to lock myself in the air-conditioned part of the house (the upstairs rooms) and work from home for two weeks -- she was afraid I wouldn't survive the commute during a particularly bad heat wave.

Last weekend, we went out to try to do some clearing in the yard. Turned out that the day was somewhat humid. I was out for less than ten minutes, and both of my hands swelled up to twice their size. I couldn't close either hand into a fist, and we both thought we might have to cut off my engagement ring -- my finger was turning purple. After ten minutes in ice-cold water, I managed to get some of the swelling down and the ring off.

I haven't been outside but to run to and from my car since.

I hate summer.

blooming

hydrangea
Originally uploaded by jamailac

All I know about hydrangeas is that they are the ph test strips of the natural world, and they bloom different colors according the acidity of your soil. Our soil is apparently whatever acidity makes blue, because that's what our hydrangea bush blooms.

The only other thing I know about hydrangeas is that they are apparently indestructible. This bush is located right next to where we put the dumpster every year, and it's had plaster thrown into it, boards dropped on it, and all manner of terrible things happening around it, and it still blooms gorgeously every year. I certainly don't water it or pay attention to it, so it's doing this all on its own. Go little hydrangea, go!

a project and a deadline

It's official. The HVAC crew will be at the house on July 9th. They've been very accomodating, and they're going to be installing our system in two stages. Since we're getting a two-zone system with two units (one in the attic and one in the basement), it's possible for them to install it one floor at a time. So on July 9th, they'll be installing the HVAC for the first floor. It should take them about four days. After that, we'll move downstairs and gut the upstairs (be warned, helper-people!). Once that's done they'll come back to install the upstairs system.

So, by July 9th, we have to be ready for them to come. Which means we've got to be ready to move downstairs, basically. So I've got a project:


Clean this room. That's our back bedroom, which will someday be the calm, relaxing, zen-like guest bedroom (which my mother has been anticipating since Don and I moved in together). Right now, it's serving as both our temporary office (read: where we spend the majority of our time, attached to our computers by steel umbilical cords like the desperate Internet addicts we are) and storage for everything that "goes upstairs".

As you may recall, all of our downstairs stuff is in "storage" -- aka the garage -- while we renovate. Most of the stuff pictured above is destined for the same fate; it's boxes of craft supplies, or knickknacks, or whatever. Our dining room chairs are just out of sight in the closet on the left, too. It's all got to be lugged out the garage eventually.

Then there's the stuff that's got to stay, to get moved downstairs to the new temporary office (the dining room). All of my jewelry-making supplies, all of the Anapurna inventory, shipping supplies, and various other business materials. All of my writing stuff -- and anyone else who writes for a living will tell you that it somehow generates a huge mess. Papers, binders, files, blah blah blah. Our desks are staying, of course, and our computers. There's also some stuff laying around in the giant mess that's meant to go up on eBay, some stuff we found in the house that we don't really want but someone else might. I've given up on actually listing it myself -- I'm going to take it to an eBay auction place and have them do it. So all of that has to get pulled out and boxed up. And don't forget the office supplies! Those have to get organized somehow.

This should be fun. If anyone's got organizational tips for giant messes like mine, feel free to share.

too much to hope for

The HVAC man is supposed to come over tonight to start taking all the relevant measurements and putting together a work plan. I'm not holding out a lot of hope that a) he'll show up or b) things will go as planned. He was supposed to come on Monday, and got stuck at a job site in DC and couldn't make it. We originally got an estimate from him quite a while ago -- sometime last year -- so we'll have to hear what the final price is going to be (one MILLION dollars). We know he's running two to three weeks out, and ours is (of course) a fairly big job, so we're not going to have air conditioning for a while yet no matter what. And that's not even counting the unexpected issues that could come up: what if he needs us to clear out the attic before he can start work? What if it turns out that the kitchen will be more of a problem to run vents to than previously indicated? What if the cat poops in the basement again, right where the new HVAC unit is supposed to go?

It's much easier to be a pessimist about this sort of thing. That way, when something goes unexpectedly right, you get a pleasant surprise! And the rest of the time, you can simply swan about being proven right all the time. Who hates that? Nobody, that's who.

on gentrification

Danielle and I went out for dinner last night, to "Baltimore's first pizzeria", Matthew's, over by Patterson Park. Boy, has that area changed. When I first moved out to Baltimore as a neurotic and angsty eighteen-year-old, I spent some time in Highlandtown, across from the park, because that's where the BSFS clubhouse is. I had to be walked to my car at night; it wasn't a good idea to go exploring; litter was everywhere -- and you sure never went to the park.

But I took the opportunity last night to wander around a little bit (and managed to get caught out in a massive thunderstorm, spending about ten minutes cowering under a large tree and finally making a run for it to the restaurant -- where they told me I looked like a drowned rat and gave me a towel). The park is gorgeous. It's well-kept, clean, and full of yuppies walking their dogs. You can tell that when you live in that neighborhood, you stay there -- you can really spend time and hang out in your own neighborhood. How neat is that?

Watching urban neighborhoods change like that is fascinating for me. I grew up in Washington, and anyone who's ever been down to see the Fremont Troll in Seattle knows all about urban gentrification: the artists move in because housing is cheap and they're poor, and then the yuppies come and buy out the artists because their presence has made the area super-trendy. It's such a documented phenomenon that cities are now encouraging starving artists to come move to specific areas in the hopes that they'll revitalize the market there -- it's happening in Station North in Baltimore right now, and elsewhere (there's a report here, developed for Louisiana, about using tax incentives to promote arts-related property development [it's a PDF]). What goes on behind the scenes of urban renewal is a lot more complex than people who just want granite countertops and rooftop decks realize.

But, on the off chance that all you really want is the info on how to get into the great neighborhood that Patterson Park has turned into, check out the Patterson Park Community Development Corporation. They're having an open house on the 17th for six of the houses that are currently for sale.

proud possessors of hypothetical windows

Hooray! We have officially purchased windows. Or at least, we've signed a contract saying we're going to.

Apparently, the fact that we want to put in four bay windows makes this job a big deal. I had no idea. When we decided on putting the bays in, it seemed pretty straightforward. We knew we wanted one in our master bedroom, and the back bedroom's identical to the master, so it made sense to put one in there as well. And the dining room is practically screaming for one, and so then why not put one across the way in the family room? What can I say, we like symmetry. And all of the rooms we're putting them in will really benefit from them, so it seemed like a no-brainer. But apparently bay windows are a huge deal. Most people seem to only put one in, if any. I don't see why. If you're going to re-do the damn house, you might as well do it in a way that will make you happy.

Anyway. We're also putting in a round window at the base of the stairs, to replace the unwieldy square one that's there now, and we're putting in a huge picture window with double-hung windows on either side in the living room, which will do a lot to bring light into that room. Most of the rest of the windows are just replacing the old ones.

The best part? Every new window will have a sill wide enough for the cat to sit on, so she'll finally be able to spend all of her time staring out the window. Well worth the money.

in brief

HVAC guy couldn't make it last night, as he got stuck on a job site. Rescheduled for Friday. Another window place coming tonight; we have high hopes.

My night elf druid is almost level 64.

That's about it for now.

what's the deal with that?

I don't understand why contractors, when asked to give you a quote, will give you their price and then give you another, cheaper price but only if you sign RIGHT NOW. If you can afford to give me a price that's fifteen thousand dollars cheaper if I sign right away, doesn't that mean that if I wait and get quotes from other companies like a sensible consumer or even just take a day or two to think about it, you're going to overcharge me by fifteen thousand dollars? How is that supposed to make me want to work with your company?

The whole reason contractors come out to give quotes is to give a quote, right? So how is this unreasonable pricing helping them? Just by bullying people who aren't committed to doing their research? Is that really the best way to make money in the contracting industry? How depressing.

Needless to say, we didn't buy windows on Friday night. I wonder if there's any way we can just sort of let these people know at the beginning of the interview that we'd love to hear their sales pitch and learn about their product but they don't need to bother with the dishonest pricing since we're just asking them to give us a quote and there's no way we're signing something right away. Argh!

breaking news

I have pinkeye.

Don't touch me.

this was unexpected

We got a ticket yesterday. A freaking ticket, because apparently there is a Baltimore County law that says your grass "and weeds" can't be higher than three inches tall. And we all know how good Don and I are about keeping up with the yard. So there's evidently a law which says we can't let our house look as hovel-ish as we want. Who knew?

Anyway, if we don't get the lawn mowed and the weeds trimmed (!) by the 13th, they're going to start charging us $200 a day.

Which is a lot of money.

I'm really hoping they only mean the front, because there's no way we're going to be able to deal with the jungle in the back by the thirteenth. We weren't planning on touching it this year at all, since we're focusing on the inside. It's got to just be the front, right? Don said he saw somebody sitting in a car in front of the house yesterday before I got home (which is when I found the ticket on the door). So if they're just driving by the front of the house they can't see the horror that is the backyard, right? I mean, is some Baltimore County suit guy really coming onto our property and clambering around on the pool deck to measure our weeds?

Ugh.

a waiting game

Window people are coming on Friday evening to talk to us about stuff. They offer financing and they're having a great sale, so provided we can work out what we want with them in terms of actual stuff and timing, we're just going to go whole hog and replace all the windows in the house, including the ones which have been boarded over or filled with styrofoam (you think I'm joking, but I'm not!). We're also hoping to put in four (!) bay windows: in the master bedroom, the guest bedroom, the dining room, and the family room. Bay windows are large and heavy, another good reason for having the window people do the installation instead of us (in addition to not having to face the prospect of it taking MONTHS of weekend work).

The HVAC guy should be coming over on Monday to take measurements and work out the duct placement and maybe even give us a final price. He told Don that he's currently running about two or three weeks out, which isn't so bad. I can live three weeks more without air conditioning (although I'll probably whine about it).

In the meantime, we are going to play a lot of World of Warcraft, try and get our homework done (why did I think grad school was a good idea?), and maybe tackle the laundry room/mudroom at the back of the house. Just think -- maybe soon I'll be able to do my own laundry in my own house! It's the little things that keep me going.

what blogger happy hours look like

Totally anonymous, lots of beer.

When's the next one, guys?

this post is more than one sentence long

I suppose you might actually like to know what's going on around here, aside from my various wittily-captioned photos and LOLcat obsession. The big news is that the first floor subfloor is officially done, and we're moving on to wiring. Or rather, we thought we were moving on to wiring.

We went out and bought some good books on wiring and electrical work (yes, Dad, including one that is about the NEC code). Don spent most of Saturday reading and then making an electrical plan (which he says I can post once he has redone it so it doesn't look like our house is inside a funhouse mirror). You may recall that last weekend, he and his dad cleaned out the basement and did the first of the new wiring, putting in far more lights than anyone actually needs in a basement (at Don's insistence). Once that was done, we could really plan out how we wanted the electrical to work in the first floor. It's really nice to be able to consider things like where we want our Christmas tree to go, and be able to make sure that there's a plug there for the lights. So we made our plan, and Don started placing boxes for electrical outlets in preparation for wiring.

The problem? Well, we realized that we can't actually wire until the HVAC and window contractors have come through, as they'll be changing our spaces. And since we have yet to be able to get hold of either the HVAC guy or the window company (WHY won't anyone call us back?), we are at an impasse. Frustrating, but it gives us some time to recover from the massive construction effort (and for me to get over the bout of poison ivy which, despite everyone's best intentions, I've managed to contract) and to start clearing out the clutter upstairs in preparation for the move downstairs once all this is over with.

There's a positive side to everything. But I would really like to have air conditioning soon.

it's a bird! it's a plane! no! it's electricity!

We have a light switch.


And -- get this -- it turns on some lights. I'm serious.

ugh

It is 93 degrees. In the shade.

I have nothing to say today.

we are going to have to do something

The backyard is eating the poolhouse.

a lolcat of my very own

Never seen a lolcat before? Try here.

the difference

Posting about the roses earlier reminded me of something. I took photos of the same rosebush at about this time last year, with the old camera. Check out the difference between the old and new cameras! The photo from the old camera is here, and the photo from the new camera is here.

Yay new camera!

a little outdoor space

This is our side yard. I almost never mention it (because really, the front and back yards are enough to tax anyone's imagination), but it exists, and it's really quite large. If I were able to just poop money whenever I wanted or something, I'd build a sunroom off the side of the house here, as it's really ideal for it -- lots of space and lovely quality of light. Alas, I don't have the financial -- or intestinal -- fortitude for that, so it just stays the way it is.


The best thing about the side yard, though, is that around this time of year it starts to smell really, really good -- because the roses are in bloom!


Whether or not we're going to be able to keep the roses when we finally "do the yard", as we've taken to saying, is still up in the air. They are so tangled and wound around the chain link fence that separates the side yard from the back yard that there may be issues, as that fence absolutely has to go. We're planning on hiring landscapers whenever the mythical yard-doing actually occurs, so they may have some tips for saving the roses. We'll see.

restoration is hard

In order to put in the new joists and subfloor in the hallway, we had to remove the first step of the stairs. Fine, right? Well, because we are restoring the stairs instead of renovating, it meant that we had to be really, really careful, and save everything we removed. So here's what's on the floor of the screen porch right now:


As for how we're getting up the stairs right now...


We jump.

the last picture i will ever take with this camera

Preciousssss....

shout out to the dumpster dudes

Today I just wanted to give a "shout out" to our dumpster supplier, Benjer Inc. We've been renting dumpsters from them for two years now (what that says about the pace of our project we won't discuss), and they are always super nice, super friendly, and super available. This most recent dumpster -- our second this year -- was delivered when we weren't home, and the driver accidentally put it down a little too far over into the driveway; we called them, and the next day we came home to a perfectly positioned dumpster. They are great, we love them. I think I mentioned these guys at about this time last year, but it's definitely that time of year for a lot of people. So if you're in Baltimore looking to rent a dumpster (please don't tell me why, I don't need to know), we definitely recommend Benjer (even if they did discontinue my favorite dumpster, the "Biggie Benjer").

real estate roundup: may 2007

Every so often, I put together a list of homes currently for sale in our neighborhood. If you're looking to buy a house in the Baltimore area, our little area is a great place to look. Since almost nobody knows about it, it's still really undervalued compared to the rest of the area's market, especially because it's in a prime location: within just a few minutes of downtown, with easy access to all of the major roads (including interstates 95, 695, 195, and 395, the Baltimore-Washington Parkway, and Route 1). It's seriously family friendly, safe, and has a friendly neighborhood vibe. Most of the houses tend to be bungalows; all have decent-sized yards, and generally speaking they tend to be well-maintained, though most could use some cosmetic updates (what they like to call "putting your own stamp on it" on HGTV). Just because we chose to gut our house doesn't mean that the houses around here need it -- ours was perfectly livable, we're just weird.

Anyway, here's the real estate roundup of homes currently for sale that you ought to check out.

If one of you people doesn't buy this house, frankly, I may never speak to you again. This is just a few blocks from us, and simply put, it's amazing. The great room addition at the back is phenomenal (I have a weakness for windows, what can I say) and the kitchen is spacious and updated. Hardwood floors, a phenomenal master suite, and a freaking fish pond! Seriously. Buy that house. It's even got a big backyard with a patio for entertaining. Which means you can invite me over!

This house is about seven blocks away from ours, and towards the back of the community; a nice location. It looks like it's in great shape -- the only work you'd have to do would be painting and personalizing. To be honest, I think it's a little overpriced for the size -- but real estate is always negotiable! Depending on how long houses have been on the market, sellers may be willing to take a lower price. And I have to say I think the curb appeal on this house is just adorable.

This fabulous cottage isn't actually in our little square of gridded neighborhood -- it's across Annapolis Road. But just look at it! This is a real case of undervaluing (although, to be fair, it's only got one bathroom and I haven't seen a home inspection or anything). But it's got half an acre, a pool, some nice landscaping, and what looks like decent space. This would be a fantastic house for people who want to make minor improvements indoors and enjoy their outdoor space.

This one's literally two blocks from us -- you could walk over and visit any time! Or, you know, vice versa. This place was built in 1922, but it appears to have been renovated fairly recently, and it's in great shape. It doesn't have a huge lot (comparatively speaking -- it's got 0.11 acres, which isn't nothing!), but it does have over 2500 square feet of interior space, with four bedrooms. So you've got the space you need. This place is actually bigger than our house (we have 2200 square feet, although we do have a bigger lot). It looks really nice from the outside, definite curb appeal. The inside, what little the pictures show, appears to be pretty nice as well, definitely well-maintained. They mention an aboveground pool with a multi-level deck -- that sounds promising!

This is ten blocks from us, on the other side of the neighborhood, and it looks like a fantastic renovation. It's 1900-some square feet with four bedrooms, so I don't know how big the rooms are, but I'm definitely impressed with the thought they've put into the renovation. Hardwood floors, elegant fixtures, and neutral colors are a seller's best tools. The exterior is attractive, and the location is great.

This house is for sale for just over $200K, but to be honest, I wouldn't buy it. It's very small, and it's being sold "as is" -- always a red flag (unless you are as insane as we are, and even then this just isn't that good of an investment for the price -- look for more space if you're going to be paying that much). It's also at the very back of the neighborhood -- right across from the light rail. If you dig it, though, more power to you.

Here's a decent first-time home buy: this place is on the market for just under $220K. It's got nearly half an acre of land, which is great for the price. It's just two bedrooms and one bath, so it's probably not suited to anyone who needs a ton of space, but it's a really good value. It's towards the back of the neighborhood but not close enough to the light rail to be a problem, and it's about eight blocks away from us (laterally, anyway -- if you add in the distance from front to back of the neighborhood, it's probably another three blocks, but meh, no biggie).

This one's on our street; it's another small one, with two bedrooms and one bath, but it's got a partially finished basement and about a quarter of an acre. Probably another decent starter home.

Here's one a few blocks away; I don't have much to say about it, since I'm not sure which one it is. It's got four bedrooms but only one bathroom, and from the look of things it needs some updating. I'm not sure what the total square footage is, although the lot is almost a third of an acre. So I really don't know if it's worth $265K, although generally speaking in today's market any house with four bedrooms on a third of an acre that isn't falling down is probably worth it to some degree. When you're buying a house, you have to remember that it's not just the price you need to think about; you have to think about how much work you want to put into a house, and what you're willing to dedicate to it in terms of your time and money. If a house needs a lot of work, that list price is only the bottom of the barrel of money you're going to need to tap. So you have to strike a careful balance when you're calculating what a house is worth and whether you can afford it.

Here's another house for sale for $265K. I have a feeling this one will sell more quickly than the first, because the sellers are doing more things right here. First of all, they've put up a picture of the exterior of the house, looking cute, as houses are wont to do. Second, this house is four bedrooms and two bathrooms on a quarter of an acre. Marginally less space, but as the HGTV gurus will tell you, bathrooms sell houses. The only flag on the play here is that this house is being sold "as-is", and you have to wonder why. Incidentally, this house is just a couple of houses down from us -- not quite our next door neighbor, but nearly. And no, I don't know why it's as-is, I haven't been inside, sorry. If you check it out, let me know.

This house is two bedrooms and two baths, but it's over 1800 square feet, plus it has an unfinished basement. So it sounds like there's some room to grow there. I don't know if that really makes it worth $275K, particularly on a relatively small lot size for the area (0.14 acres), but if it's in really good condition it could be. It's over on the other side of the neighborhood, closer to Don's parents than to us.

This place is new construction, and the price shows it. Three bedrooms and two baths in just over 2000 square feet is nice and all, but I think you can get a better deal with an older house. Plus, I hate split levels. But again, there's a house out there for everyone, and if this is what you're looking for, go for it. New construction does have a few advantages, after all -- it certainly won't need updating yet!

We're getting up into the spendy-spendy range (for around here, anyway), but this place is available. It's got three stories -- most of the houses around here just have two -- and both a swimming pool and a one-car garage. It's definitely big, and on a decent-sized lot, but take note that it does not have central heating or air conditioning. If you're okay with both that and the price, have a look. But remember that that sort of thing can be a hidden expense in an already expensive house.

That's it for now. You'll note that not one of these houses was over $400K, and most were in the 200 to 300 range. The market's gone up since we bought our house a year and a half ago, but this little area is still definitely below average. The Baltimore Sun reported earlier this month that the average home price in the metropolitan Baltimore area was $310,323 -- although single family homes in residential suburbs (which is what our neighborhood is) tend to go for significantly more, since the "average" metropolitan Baltimore house is actually a townhouse or rowhome. So while this neighborhood is still an 'undiscovered gem', take the opportunity to check it out.

If you want to do your own MRIS search (or whatever), just do a zip code search for 21227 and find the houses listed as being in the Baltimore Highlands or Rosemont subdivisions. Double check to make sure they're on streets named after states, and you'll be in the right area.

a typical supply run

We give Home Depot a lot of money every week. Especially since the cost of plywood has gone up by two dollars a week for the last three weeks! Argh!

current house status

Here's what the first floor looks like right now. As you can see, the house is still being held up by the temporary wall -- Don and his dad were pretty much dead on their feet by 6 PM Saturday (they'd been working since 7 AM) so even though they had a couple of hours of daylight left they decided to go ahead and leave it at this stopping point. If you're wondering about layout, incidentally, this is the view from the kitchen (or will be, once we knock down the wall I was leaning against). The kitchen is at the back of the house. The room to the left will be the family room, the room we are in is the dining room, and the room the temporary wall is in is the living room. You can see the front door all the way in the background, and the open door on the far left leads down to the basement.


Don said this morning when I was leaving for work that he thinks they'll finish up on Saturday when they work again; as you can see, what's left to do is to build and install the new wall (a little more complicated than it might be, since we're doing the columns and built-ins), install three or four more joists (in the front hallway), and finish out the subfloor. I don't know if he's right in his assumption, but it would be awfully nice to get this over with. After this construction work is done, they need to wire a few outlets in the living room and then we're going to move all of our stuff either downstairs (the necessary stuff like bed, clothes, and computers) or out to the garage (the remainder of the boxes of stuff that are currently taking up space in the upstairs office). Then we finally get to call the HVAC guy.

PS - Local folks, don't forget about the Baltimore Blogger Happy Hour tonight! I'll be there.

how to remove, replace, or rebuild a bearing wall

The first thing, of course, is to determine whether or not your wall is a bearing wall. Helpful tip: if you can't figure it out, don't start your work until you call somebody who can (your father-in-law is often a good bet, as are any architects or general contractors you might be hiding in your closets).

The basic premise of this whole process is that you've got to hold up your damn house. It's a pretty simple concept. So, if you're going to be taking out the wall that's currently holding it up, you'd better have something else in place before that support goes away. So, you build a temporary wall.


Don and his dad put the studs on their temporary wall 24 inches apart rather than the standard 12 inches apart because a) it's temporary and b) we all have big butts. Once it was built, we had an old-fashioned barnraising!


You'll notice that they installed the temporary wall about five feet away from the wall slated for removal, to give themselves space to work but also make sure that the weight of the house is still being distributed fairly evenly.

Once they had banged the temporary wall into place, making sure that it was square, they dropped a few duplex nails into it for security's sake (believe me, that thing is wedged in so tightly that it's not going anywhere). Finally, they installed diagonal crossbars for added support.


And at last, it was time for demolition of the old wall. As you can see, Don was quite pleased.

not so structurally sound

This is what used to be holding up my house.


Yes, it is a small square of wood. The middle wall of the house was apparently held up solely by that piece of wood and this almost-completely-gone sill plate:


Fantastic!

As you might guess, the big project right now is rebuilding that wall. On the plus side, since we have to rebuild it anyway, Don has agreed to my Craftsman-style redesign, which will create a little more open space.

More on the process tomorrow. With action shots!

i'm a dork

I just added a twitter widget to AP; if you look in the top left corner you'll see it. If you have twitter, feel free to add me as a friend. If you don't, check it out, it's cute.

this is the danger of living out of boxes

Your towels? Surely you jest.

a very uncomfortable place

And not the back of a Volkswagon, either.

busy bee

Well, no work wound up getting done on the house this weekend. Various commitments on the part of various parties wound up making the scheduling impossible. Alas. Of course, that means I have very little to write about this week. Which is probably good, since my last classes of the semester are on Thursday night, meaning that I have to have a ten page paper and a final presentation piece finished by then -- all while I work frantically to finish the proposal at work that needs to be sent out by Wednesday! Whee!

Don't expect great things from me this week. Or even regular-type things. Just... you know, bide your time. Or something.

springtime: or, the time when i stop being allowed in the yard until november

I made what will probably be my last foray into the yard for quite some time last weekend, to take some pictures of the flowers that have managed to bloom despite proximity to me. Look, they're pretty:


Not so pretty? What happened to me the last time I ventured into the yard once the plants came back to life. So from now until approximately, oh, next winter, I'm not allowed in the yard. Sigh.

Hopefully once the interior is done (next year? maybe?) we'll be able to start clearing out the devil weed poison ivy and put in a real yard. That I can go into. Exciting!

but a really excited space cadet

Don is yelling at me because he wants me to post something here so he'll have something to read at work. Unfortunately, I am sort of a space cadet and for the last four days I have consistently forgotten to transfer the photos I took this past weekend off of my camera and up onto Flickr -- and I'm sort of out of filler material! I don't have time for the research that a real estate roundup would take right now, as I'm in the middle of a proposal, and likewise my time for hunting down other interesting things is limited just now. Sorry!

Anyway, the big news is that my big brother and his wife and son (he's not actually my brother but it's much too complicated to explain) are moving! From California to North Carolina! And let me tell you, North Carolina is a lot closer to here than California (also, gas = cheaper than plane tickets [for now]). So it's sort of needless to say, but I'm so! freaking! excited!

The exclamation points will probably clue you in.

historic property

At some point soon I'll do another local real estate roundup, for those of you who are interested in buying in our fairly undiscovered neighborhood (yay for below market pricing!). But while I was perusing the various Maryland listings, I came across one I am simply lusting after. This 24-acre historic estate in Monkton, MD was originally settled by Josiah Sparks (after whom I believe the town of Sparks, MD is named) in 1798. It's got this great house (six bedrooms!), a guest cottage, barn, and a whole bunch of other stuff -- and it's exactly the sort of place I'd love to own someday, where I'd have enough space to be really private, enough room for friends to come and stay whenever they wanted, a historic home to make my own, and near enough to civilization to not be totally isolated.


It's going up for auction (the previous owner has sadly passed away) on May 17th. I wish I could afford to bid.

argh!

It's times like this when I really get mad about not having a decent camera. I just got home from work, and when I pulled up into the driveway I discovered that there were dozens of birds of every different sort -- including the pair of doves that nests above our garage -- playing in the water in the pool hole. They're not nervous about people -- one robin who we've taken to calling 'Fatty' and his various equally portly descendants are downright cavalier about the whole cars-pulling-up-doors-slamming-curious-humans thing.

Once we finish the demolition in the yard and fill the hole, I plan on putting some serious birdbaths in to replace it. I love having birds in the yard.

freezeriffic

On an entirely different note, I can't wait until we can get a spare standing freezer. I saw this fantastic-looking recipe on the Food Network over the weekend, and it and a few others I have in mind are perfect for freezing. I plan to either go to the restaurant supply store (there's one down the street!) or look online and get some disposable aluminum baking dishes of various sizes with sealable lids so that I can prepare dishes and then freeze them pre-baked. Plus, I'll be able to freeze things like fresh strawberries and cubes of pesto (that may be going a little overboard, considering my general lack of aptitude for productivity). Right now, we have just a regular above-the-fridge freezer, which is crammed full all the time, so there's no room for big containers full of pre-made meals and the like.

I did try my plan out in miniature the other day, though: I was grilling chicken breasts for fajitas, and instead of the usual two, I went ahead and grilled four and stuck the extra pair in a tupperware container in the freezer (crammed it in under the ice cream, barely had room for the bagels!). Then, several days later, I came home on a busy, stressful weeknight, pulled the grilled breasts out of the freezer and defrosted them in the microwave while I boiled some pasta, then chopped them up and threw them into a baking dish with the pasta, a jar of alfredo sauce, and some shredded cheese (I keep shredded mozzarella and cheddar in giant ziploc bags in the freezer at all times, we heart cheese). Threw it in the oven for ten minutes at 400 and dinner was ready. So easy! And almost no extra dishes! I love it. I can't wait to do it on a larger scale. A couple of extra minutes on the weekend or a free day, and I'll have practically instant food for those nights (read: all of them) when we are busy, stressed out, and exhausted. And so much cheaper than going to Let's Dish (although I still think it would be fun).

Don says that once the downstairs subfloors are in and we stop throwing things through the floor into the basement, I can get my big freezer. Yay!

Got any good freezing recipes? I've found that most of what I've been coming up with are pasta dishes, although YNL's pre-marinated chicken variations are awesome.