The Foundation Saga...

...continues. 

The kitties have been acting WEIRD since we started construction on the foundation. They don't really understand all the noises and vibrations going on beneath their feet. It was pretty bad the first couple weeks but they seem to be getting slightly more accustomed to it. they act more annoyed now rather than scared. Lucky still spends most of her days in the cat tree or the closet. Mu-shu is still being kind of aggressive toward her. We'll be happy when this is all over and they can be comfortable again.

So here are some pics of the progress in the basement. There was a little drama when the guy heading the construction told another client she could come over and help herself to our bricks. she wasn't super polite about it and it really kind of bothered Jonathan and I. 

But it was all cleared up eventually and we were able to go through the bricks and pick the ones we wanted to keep. Here's the neat pile of 300+ bricks I set up in the back yard. I think I will pay the neighbor kids to clean them. I certainly don't want to do it. I would like to use them to build a little fire pit in the back yard eventually. Then we let our awesome neighbor Benny come over and grab all the bricks he needed for his driveway. THEN we told the construction company that they could do whatever they wanted with them.

Here's the back door entrance to the basement. They hadn't pulled the bricks out yet so it was kind of neat to see them there. I must admit that the mortar between the bricks seems to be very sandy and loose after 115 years. I'm sure the house would be ok in a small to medium earthquake with the slab and cap that we already had, but in a really big one we might have been in trouble. 

Here's the outside of the house. you can see the trench under the house where the bricks used to be. And there's thew supports under our bedroom. It's a little weird inside the house when Jonathan walks around a little heavy the whole place shakes just a bit. 

Last Friday we woke up and there was a Bobcat in our garage! They were hauling away dirt, bricks and concrete. I tried to get Jonathan to go out and get a pic from the front of the house but it was "too early" so he just look one from the window. ;)

Here's another image of the trench from the rear of the house. This is where the laundry and the old toilet usually live. You can see the water and sewage pipes. 

Here's a pic I took of the front of the house. Hey, it looks a little like the place Ted & Heather are buying! heehee! The guys had to remove the garage door so only big heavy plywood is keeping the place safe.... except for the part where the entire lower part of the house is missing all the way around and anyone can climb right in. Good thing we live in Alameda! Low crime!

Here's Jonathan in the basement surrounded by bricks and open trench.

So one of the things that we'll actually be able to SEE after this whole thing is finished and we've paid the big huge bill is the mud-sill. The mud-sill is the pressure treated piece of wood that lines the whole bottom part of the house and sits between the wood and the concrete. this is the old one before they pried it off.

And in this picture you can see the new mud-sill! Notice the lack of splintering and rot. 

That's all for today! They tell me it should be all wrapped up in the next couple weeks. We're soooooo glad that things will be getting back to normal. 

Foundation, Doorways and Fine China

Gwydion found this awesome little settee at a garage sale over by his place. We swooped in on it and now have a spot in the entryway for people to take their shoes off! The kitties like it a lot too. 

On Saturday we invited Dan, Irene and Natasha over for dinner. We used the wedding china and glassware for the first time! It was pretty. Not as pretty as Natasha though! I got a good couple hours of play time with her. It's so awesome living close to our friends. 

And the doorways are finished! the door from the entryway is all framed out. We did not splurge for the molding. It would have cost way too much. Maybe later when we have money again. The old front door into the living room is now covered over as well. Andrew actually made the lines in the panel by hand with a dremmel so that it matches the rest of the living room and dining room. Very straight lines. I think we can start entertaining the idea of paining in the near future. Joanthan and I have some ideas. But we have to scrape off A LOT of bad paint first. It's peeling off the wall in sheets all over the place.

And this week we started the foundation! Well, Carroll Construction started the foundation. They spent this week shoring up the house from underneath, taking the first couple layers of shingles off and pulling a few loose bricks out.

They had to take out my laundry sink. BOOO! I went to the hardware store and got a garbage can so we can still wash clothes during construction. The washer needs to drain somewhere! Then I get to take the water out back using a smaller bucket (one bucket at a time....) and dump it in the lawn. Not much fun but still serviceable. 

Critters And Cutting Grass

Jonathan found a really nifty baby tarantula on the side of our house last week! At least we THINK its a baby tarantula. We looked online to see if it was a brown recluse first. Just in case we needed to kill it. But it didn't match up to any of the pictures we found online so the little bugger got to go on his merry way. The kids across the street thought it was pretty cool! I'm slightly more inclined to let the spiders stay now since I care more about all the damaging bugs that could possibly take up residence in my beautiful new house that has ZERO pest damage.


















This pic probably isn't all that interesting since it's just a white wall with shingles on it. But its a pretty big deal to us. The second doorway leftover from the duplex is now covered up on the outside. We now officially have a single family residence! There's still some work leftover to do on the inside but it should hopefully be finished this week!


















Part of being a responsible howmowner means not letting your yard become an eyesore. Mind you I've never had to deal with this kind of thing before. We realized pretty quickly that we'd have to start mowing our grass on a regular basis if we were going to continue watering our lawn. So I picked up an electric lawn mower from Amazon. It arrived on Friday and we immediately started mowing our lawn for the first time! Jonathan is pretty unthrilled about the "stupid cord" situation. Yes there was a bit of dancing around with the cord at first but we got the hang of it after a while. Press play to watch the exciting video of Jonathan mowing the lawn! Heehee!

1 Year Anniversary!

Last weekend (May 3rd) was our 1 year wedding anniversary!

I cannot even believe we made it into a house before our anniversary! We're so lucky! And happy!

So since we're broke and already bought each other a really nice house for an anniversary gift, we decided to keep it close to home for this year. We hit the Alameda Antiques By The Bay and found these awesome little antique chairs! One of them needs new fabric but the carvings are great and the rocking chair is just my size. The kitties loved them immediately.

What's an anniversary without a little animal sacrifice?

Jonathan REALLY wanted lobster for our special dinner but there's the whole "broke" thing. So we went to the store, bought ourselves a couple sea bugs and threw them into the pot! No screams. I think it's a myth.

The unpacking continues. We're REALLY slow... The kitties are helping once again by letting us know which clothes have too much cat hair on them.... and then they rub some more on!!!

Floors are DONE! We're all moved in!

We're all moved in! The movers got us out of the apartment and into our place on Thursday. It only took a few hours. We spent all of Thursday shuffling things around. Nothing was in the right spot of course. 

Here's a pic of the floors while they were being sanded:

And here's the pics of the floors now!

Friday, we woke up in our brand new house for the first time. We were exhausted, joints were swollen and aching. We felt pretty beat up. But it was the most amazing feeling to know that it was all ours. We're sooooo lucky. 

I spent Friday putting the kitchen away. 

Saturday was more cleaning and organizing. Lucky & Mu-shu  are really settling in nicely. They seem to like all their new space. 

New Electrical and Potties!

So the last couple days have been great! My folks are still here helping out with the details. It's nice having them there, so they can be around when Jonathan is at work in case a contractor needs access to the house. They've also been getting bids on the foundation for us. 

Here's the table we're using in the kitchen to keep track of all the exciting things going on. Lists, quotes, fliers, and coffee!

Here's our favorite contractor, Uncle Ted! He's been working super hard the last couple days in very cold weather to get our switcher box updated and everything consolidated on to one meter. Everything looks great so far! 

 

 

A couple days ago, Jonathan was going on and on about the toilets in the house and how small they were. He wanted to get new ones. I didn't think it was that urgent but then when he sat down on one of them and I saw him chewing on his knees I decided to quit being a cheapskate let him have his toilets. So he went to Home Depot and got the dual flush kind. One for each bathroom! 

The plumber came out and unhooked the sink in the entryway and chopped the pipes back to the correct place. We were going to have him come back Friday and install the toilets too. Then Doug, with nothing left to do for the afternoon, dove in and installed one of the toilets! He and Jonathan will probably do the other one tomorrow, saving us a few bills. 

The floors will be refinished from Monday through Wednesday. We move in next Thursday! One week to go! 

Knocking holes in the wall

Well, one big hole really. I guess I should explain. The house is a legal duplex. It was split up approximately 60 years ago. The units are side by side and there was no connecting door between the two. What used to be the original entryway was turned into a second kitchen. Since neither Jonathan nor I are interested in being landlords and we want to have all three bedrooms at our disposal we need to turn the house back into a single family home. 

Alameda has all kinds of requirements for the electrical, plumbing and other fun things and of course they made sure to extort their $1000 for the permit out of us in no time flat. Jeez! Now I know why people do work without permits. They really nickel and dime you for everything! But we don't want to have to reconcile it 20 years down the road if we decide to sell so we just have to suck it up and shell out now. One thing we learned from our friends; in the battle between you and the city, the city always wins. 

So, with permit in hand, on Monday & Tuesday Jonathan and Doug opened up the doorway between the two units. Now we don't have to go outside to get to our bedroom, yay! Of course, everyone loves demo work. That's the fun part. Once the doorway was open they continued to tear out the second kitchen stuff. 

The vent for the stove went up into the attic so Jonathan had to climb up there and rip it all out. The cabinet around the vent needed to go too. Then the backsplash needed to 

come off the wall. 

They tried to get the sink out but the pipes are so old that even with a big ass pipe wrench they bought could not get it loose. Guess we need a plumber for that.

 

Uncle Ted is coming by tomorrow to work on the electrical for us. We have 3 meters (since it was a duplex) so he's going to knock it down to one and upgrade all the service to the house. He also needs to take out the big 210 plug that went to the oven in the extra kitchen.

By the end of Tuesday there's a whole lot more space in there and it looks like a real entryway. Doug spent some time taking the molding off the extra doorway to the outside. We'll have to bring someone in to seal that up. 

Here's our list of short term things to do. Mostly the stuff that will bring us back to "single family residence" status. We have 2 water heaters, 2 gas lines, central heat that only goes to half the house... It'll all take a while but I guess when you have a mortgage, all you have is time after that.