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Ever Wonder………..?

In the spirit of the great Andy Rooney………….

Ever wonder what happens after the interior of a home is painted?

Ever wonder what all those boxes sitting in your garage might be?

Ever wonder how you go to work in the morning and come home to such an extreme change in your home by the evening?

Wonder what I’m talking about???

It’s all about cabinets, doors, flooring, accessories, and trim work.

This past week started as expected, with the work week beginning on Monday, everything basically going as status quoa (as boring as that sounds there is some niceness to that.) Tony told me to be prepared because we were expecting a big delivery on Tuesday by about 10 AM. Although it was a little later in the day……..the huge truck, eventually, rolled up our driveway holding within it’s grasp the major components and accents that will add real beauty to our home. As the truck was unloaded, all of the wood and flooring products were brought into the house to acclamate to the indoor temperature. The porcelain, and metal type products have made the garage their temporary dwelling. So as we walked into our home on Tuesday night…this is what we saw…..

Padding and flooring materials

Carpet and bathroom/laundry room vinyl flooring rolls, and floor-board trim.

We choose a dark cherry wood finish for our cabinets. These are carried throughout the kitchen, bathrooms, and laundry room.

Adair Homes builds their cabinets in their own home layout….they actually build the cabinets into the same space as they will be installed in the new homes. We did not go with a 100% wood cabinet as we couldn’t justify the additional cost. However, we were able to do some upgrading in the kitchen and bathrooms…..but that story is for another day! 🙂

The backside of our cabinets and things.

You can see through the windows in this picture how dark it is at about 5:20 at night!! I couldn’t get really good detailed pictures of a lot of things due to lack of light (the electrical side is not yet completed.) Tony rigged a string of construction type lights throughout the house, but at this phase of the construction, they were more of a hinderance than a help so they came down. Photographing is difficult in the dark, and we basically don’t really get to see the true progress until the weekends where we can see how the colors really blend together in full light! It is, however, an added treat for the weekend to have a gift to unwrap on Saturday mornings, even though we have a preview each evening…the difference is usally quite nice.

So this Saturday, when we entered into our home for the first time seeing it in the light of day, this is what we saw……….

The view from inside the M. Bdrm looking out to the hallway (that's a linen closet on left) and into the M. Bath on right.

Looking into the M.Bathroom, down through to the walk-in closet.

I love the trim work here surrounding the front hallway closet and 1/2 bath.

The nook and closet area of our daughter's room. The nook will soon become a built-in bench seat...with an awesome view!

This shows a bit of the depth of the window framing. I know a couple of cats who are going to love that. HAHAHA just kidding Tony.

The cabinets look a little darker here...there is more of a cherry hue than is picked up in this pic.

This picture shows the dark cherry finish better. That is the island for the sink, dishwasher, and eating bar. Sorry Tony, you got into that one..hahaha.

This was a surprise.....we didn't realize the bdrm closets would have built-in inserts. Nice bonus!!

With all the excitement of the interior of the house coming together, Mother Nature decided to drop a wonderful white covering to the Pacific Northwest. The only thing better would be to be able to share it with our family and friends back….where we used to call home. I hope I can drive in this to go to work tomorrow…….

Our home in the snow!

View down to the pond.

The little bug all covered in snow 🙂

Next week promises to bring another exciting episode…..to be continued!!

Category:

Adair Homes, building a new home, moving to Oregon, Paul Nowak Construction, Warren Ewing Demolition and Excavation

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The Holidays, the In-Between, and the Future

We’re baaaaaaAAAAAAck!! After taking a bit of a hiatus over the holidays, the home- build is back in action!!!! We are so ready for this next phase of construction…..the excitement builds with each passing day.

Stepping back for a moment…over the past couple of weeks, little elves visited our home and performed some miraculous work on the interior. As suttle as it may seem in pictures, it is pretty dramatic in person. What are we talking about…….three things…..texturing, primer, and paint!! Yes I said it….”Paint!”, on the walls and on the ceiling! Our walls are painted!!!! Can I say it again………there is paint, actual color on them there walls!!!! The painting side of the contract includes 3 colors…additional paint = additional $$. We wanted 5 colors, so we paid a little more, but really, it was well worth it given the amount of time it would have taken Tami (she’s the painter of the family) to paint the extra colors.

I tried getting pictures of the texturing, but it didn’t photograph to well…..the colors also wash out a bit in the pictures, so when you look at them, keep in mind that they are a bit richer in color than what it looks like in photos.

This is the main color of our home. It is Biscuit (Sherwin Williams).

Another view of Biscuit contrasting w/the white of the tub...still a bit washed out.

The color in the M. Bdrm is Bagel (Sherwin Williams) and is carried onto 2 accent walls in the Dining Room.

Koral Kicks (Sherwin Williams) is the main color in our daughter's room.

More of the Koral Kicks. I can't quite get the right exposure on this color...it is not quite as pink as it photos.

The other wall color is Grayish (we are repainting that color because it came out to purpley), and then Dover White on all of the ceilings. Below is the one picture I have of the texturing, and it is carried throughout the house.

The texturing throughout the house looks really nice...great for those little imperfections....not that there are any of course 🙂

So the quality of these pictures tell me that I really need to invest in a new camera. They just don’t represent the richness of the colors very well. I had to do a lot of exposure enhancing to try to bring out some of the colors. Maybe with added contrast (i.e. the trim and cabinets, etc.) it will photograph better.

That takes me to the future….coming up this next week, REALLY, REALLY exciting things start to happen on the interior of our home. I can’t wait to see it…………..

In the meantime, our family wishes your’s a very blessed year for 2012. HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!

Category:

Adair Homes, building a new home, Happy New Years, moving to Oregon, Paul Nowak Construction, Warren Ewing Demolition and Excavation

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Well it has been another beautiful week up here in the Pacific Northwest!! The beginning of the week was quite cold, but by Wed. things had warmed up a bit and is actually getting into the higher 40’s. Still not much rain, but quite a bit of fog!

The ferocious pace of the build has certainly slowed down these past couple of weeks. The drywall process takes awhile, and we’re glad that they aren’t rushing things. Tony and I are big fans of letting things dry…and then dry a little bit more. Maybe the little house we knocked down gave us the “whillies” with the dry rot and mold issues, because we are so afraid of moisture. Monday the wall texturing is supposed to start….the walls have been primed and ready to go. There was a trim finish that was supposed to go around the inside of the window that wasn’t done the first time to contract, so that was also fixed this week.

So after the texturing gets done, besides interior painting….which is on our “Owner Do-List”, the house will be sitting for about two weeks…..then big things will again start. No lies…..it will be a looonnngg two weeks. Oh yeah….the next pictures we post will have something more to look at than white primed walls……stay tuned.

In the meantime….with all the extra time this week leftover from not snapping a ton of pictures….I had time to play on the computer…… 🙂

Category:

building a new home

Just a quick short note about a HUGE amount of progress….but the subject is very dry. That’s right, the dry wall is up, and the tape and putty are drying. The house is starting to really feel “homey”, and very cozy. By the end of the week, the sanding, second application of putty, sanding, and drying should be complete….next step, I believe will be painting.

Since sheetrock isn’t a very exciting medium (except maybe to those of us anxiously waiting to move out of our trailer into our home), I won’t bore you with a bunch of pictures….for now.

Category:

building a new home

Sunshine, Insulation, and….Paint

This was an AMAZING week for our home construction!! It is all about the WEATHER!! Amazingly enough, the week has been dry, SUNNY, crisp and cold, SUNNY, foggy at night, SUNNY, frosty in the morning, SUNNY, oh and did I mention that it was SUNNY!!!!! Gorgeous, gorgeous weather, which is great for things like caulking and painting.

As the week started, Tony worked on getting supports up into the areas of the framing, before the insulation guys showed up, that would do things like add extra support for window coverings, towel racks, and like a pull bar in the bathroom if ever needed. So he measured, cut, and nailed to fit things into the framing that looked like this….

The two retangular pieces of wood on the outside of the window framing are examples of window covering supports that Tony added.

These are added supports that we can tap into to secure hooks for hangers to hang-dry clothes in the laundry room.

The insulation guys were scheduled to show up on Tuesday. They were delayed at another site for a couple of days which actually worked out really well for us. Tony and our son, Will, were able to get in there and fill certain interior walls with insulation that our contracters weren’t scheduled to do. So basically, all the walls that the contracters were NOT going to insulate, Tony and Will did. We wanted this to cut down on energy costs as much as possible, and to create a little more of a sound barrier between certain rooms. Tony and Will’s areas look something like this:

A little sound buffering between the laundry room and a bedroom.

This is the product that Tony and Will used to insulate the interior walls.

Our contracters showed up on Friday and insulated the entire house (except the attic space which will be blown in after the sheet-rock is up on the ceiling.) Under the floor (from the crawlspace) insulation went in and foam was sprayed anywhere there was an opening for pipe or electrical work, etc. These guys were great, and they were very clean. This stuff can be really messy, and although our part is to vacum any small debris, it could have been so much worse.

Here's an example of the foam spray insulation.

And of course, the insulation for the exterior walls! Who knew insulation could be so exciting.

And here's an example of why we need all that insulation above, below, and to the sides...that roof is usually dark brown!!

So, as all of this is taking shape…the colors of the outside of the house are being applied. YAY!!, we didn’t have to wait until June!!! The painters were able to work everyday this week. We have never had a house painted before…literally, never. I was amazed at the range of emotions going through me, and conversations that went something like this….”Oh my gosh…we chose horrible colors!”…”I kind of like that.”….”I don’t know, Mom,…what do you think?”…”What are the neighbors going to think, they have to look at this rediculous house everytime they drive by.”….”Wait till the trim is painted, then it will look better”….. “Hey, I really like the dark door. It looks really good.”…me to the painter, “What do you think of our colors?”…Painter to me, “They are good, they are good colors.” And when it all came together, I really, really like our color scheme. We went with a bit of a different approach, and for me, I think it works. DRUM ROLL PLEASE<<<<<<<<<<<<

Here she is!!!

The dark brown ties in with our doors which are also that same dark brown color.

The dark brown doors are carried through for all exterior doors.

Well, the one vote of confidence that I have is this….at least the colors don’t scare away the deer!

Glad to know that the color scheme won't keep the deer away!

Category:

building a new home

Details, Details, Details……..

First of all, from our family to yours, we hope you had a very Happy Thanksgiving!!!

As the title suggests, the last two weeks were tied up in the details, the creative workmanship that ranges from mild to more significant changes due to fluctuations of materials……..okay, okay….M I S T A K E S that need to be corrected before the insulation and sheetrock can be installed. We had orange pointers throughout the house painted by our foreman, Kyle, indicating corrections the framers needed to make. These were items like the structure to the kitchen island not being completely verticle, studs needing to be made flush, the crawlspace opening cut too small, and things like extra supports…that sort of thing. Details, details details that make a big difference in the next phase of construction.

These two walls need help with their "plumbing." HAHAHA

Crawispace opening needing to be re-sized.

Since this phase of the construction is, well…quiet…the only thing really hopping on the build is our electric meter, and boy is it having a good time!!!! Besides the detail fixes, the other significant item needing to be completed is the thing that is exciting our meter (and the power company) so much. We are drying out the inside of the house………..

Construction air filters catch the debris we don't want going into the heating ducts.

Taking the warm air from the house and forcing it into the crawl space.

One of four fans that is constantly on, to help move the air that is constantly being heated.

So as the power company smiles, and our bank account gets lighter because the meter is so happy, the house is drying out, and insulation is scheduled for Tuesday!!!! If the rains hold off for the next few days, the outside caulking will get done, and during the next stretch of sunny days (maybe in June…HAHAHAHA) the outside of the house will be painted!!

Category:

A Roof, Adair Homes, building a new home, moving to Oregon, Warren Ewing Demolition and Excavation

Let the Rains Begin!!!!!!!!!

The past two weeks have been…..well…..WET!! The rain has definitely begun!! So here is our story about the rain……

If you remember back to the beginning of this blog, one of our greatest concerns was having the house in the “open” framed in type stage, and having the rains beating down on our exposed wooden framework. Tami (I) was having a very difficult struggle with this while we waited through most of the dry summer to get to the point that we could even knock down the old house, and start excavating. Tony kept reassuring me that everything would work out, everything would be fine. In my mind, our struggle went something like this……(playing the part of Tami is Lucy VanPelt; playing the part of Tony is Snoopy)……….

So as we watched the sunny days disappear, Tony kept the faith (and prayed like crazy), and I struggled, but tried hard to believe him. He kept saying that the rains were not going to really start until it was weatherized (roof up, sideing on, windows installed.) So as the days passed and we really only got a little rain here and there, I started to keep the faith too. I’m not saying that the Lord kept most of the northwest Oregon regions without rain because of our need for a dry house…but I am saying that He has got awesome timing!! Because one day after the roof was up, the sideing on, and the windows were installed…the sky opened up and we have gotten a pond full of rain (literally, our pond is now full to the brim.)

Here is what it sounded like one morning in our shop (it has a metal roof) as the rains poured down…that is not static, and it was a hundred times louder in person…

So, YOU decide!!

Category:

A Roof, Adair Homes, building a new home, moving to Oregon, Peanuts, Warren Ewing Demolition and Excavation

H A P P Y Anniversary!!

Last week started with our first visitors, since construction began, to our new home. Our mom/grandma (Dorothy) , brothers (Steve & Bob), sister-in-law (Sheila), and niece (Christina), oh yeah we can’t forget the four legged family (Bella & Chique) all arrived on Sunday evening for a cold, yet dry evening in front of the campfire while we ate dinner. They came up to help Tami’s mom move up to the great state of Oregon!! It was great to have them for a few days, and Mom/Grandma now for good!

I was driving up the road yesterday, and started to turn into our driveway. When I looked up on the hill, I saw a house….not a construction site, a HOUSE!! The first week of November was an incredible week……this past week, has been completely awesome!!! Okay, you’re right…the Veteran’s Day holiday on Friday was a doozie, that is for sure. Having that 3rd day off is like totally how it should be every weekend. Am I right or what?? But, all that aside, our home is to the point that from the road it really looks like a completed house (in need of a paint job) but completed none-the-less. The interior is still a skeleton with a few support walls in place, so there is still ALOT of work to be done (we’re hoping we will be able to move our things into it by early February.)

So, backing up a bit….by Monday evening, the duct work for the heating and air system was installed. It totally added character to the truss system of the roof.

The bathtubs and shower were put into place, including being filled with water to add weight to the curing.

There are some details that need to be addressed such as……

A bit of a misfit here.....

The little screen is to keep wasps from making nests in our attic.....I don't think this one is going to work!!

All of the siding and trim went up this week. One really cool thing is that we were leaning towards painting the house yellow and white….the siding is on the yellow hue, so it gave us a good idea of what it will look like painted…..so far the jury is in favor of it!! The beige area will probably be painted the same white as the trim….what do you think? I kind of like the yellow/white/beigey look…..hhmmmm.

The concrete also went in for the garage floor. Our contracter, Paul Nowak Construction, did a wonderful job. Tony had talked to him about putting in rebar into the garage floor because the specs didn’t call for the rebar reinforcement. We didn’t have the rebar on hand the day of the pour, but Paul did! He went ahead and laid it in before the pour because he remembered his conversation with Tony. It was a little extra charge, but nominal in comparison to the strength and longevity it will give the garage floor. He also asked about the use of the garage. Since the one-car garage side will be used primarily like a dog run, he gave us a smoother finish and more sealant to keep any doggie-doo from penetrating the cement. That is just an example of his professionalism and high quality work….I highly, highly recommend Paul Nowak Construction of Lebanon, OR! Great company!!

The day was cold, and the sun was giving some warmth.

Our House!!

And in honor of Tony and Tami’s 25th Wedding Anniversary on November 15th….here is a timeless classic>>>>>

Category:

A Roof, Adair Homes, building a new home, moving to Oregon, Paul Nowak Construction, Warren Ewing Demolition and Excavation

What an Incredible Week!!

It’s amazing how time flies. It has been almost 2 weeks since I updated this blog, and I can’t believe the progress that has been made. I’m going to highlight the week that I missed, then on Sunday (my regular blogging day), I’ll catch up.

A lot of work went into the house during the first week of November. All of the trusses were set into place, the interior skeleton structure of our home went up, as well as sheer walls, and……..drum roll please…………….our ROOF!! I’m not kidding…..we have a completed roof over the house! Everyday, I came home from work and BAMM!!, there was something new to see. I was so happy to see our home going up so quickly, but also, if I’m being honest, a little leary.

Tony had been out of town on business most of the week, and so many things were happening so fast. I was wishing Tony was there to check everything and make sure things were getting done correctly. I look at it and go….”wood, nails, pipes, duct work….uhhhhhhh..looks great to me!!” Tony looks at it and goes, “welll, I need to talk to Kyle about this,….” “If I were here I would have asked them about this…” Unless something is glaringly out of place, I don’t see the details he does. I was glad when he got home and was able to see everything (well…everything is still wide open inside, as it should be at this point.) He made a list…..let’s call it our DETAILS list…but that will be in my next blog : p

Oh, btw, Kyle is our Managing General Contracter working for Adair Homes. He comes out to inspect the work as it is being completed by the subcontracters. He is our go-to guy for most things…the more contractual stuff, we still talk with Charlie. This has been a really good check, double check system for us. It is really nice to know that there are more than one set of eyes on our build…..there is a whole team behind us!!

Okay…enough of me………here are some picture highlights of the week (the first week of November.)

A lattice work of trusses waiting to be put into place.

Interior walls taking shape

Sunlight through the unfinished roof.

I hope they fix that!! HAHAHA

Just a really cool picture!!

The roof is taking shape!

The boards are all in place...ready for the tar paper and shinglesIt's starting to get cold at night......It's starting to get cold at night......

The roofing material has arrived!!!

The roof is complete!!!!

Category:

A Roof, Adair Homes, building a new home, moving to Oregon, Warren Ewing Demolition and Excavation

What’s that over there…???

Happy Halloween Everyone!!!

This week was A M A Z I N G !!!!!!! Totally amazing!! We went from a lonely, ghost-like foundation, to a skeleton structure, with ceiling beams and one truss that is standing…straight up in the air…like a beacon saying, “Look at me…I’ve arrived!” And has it ever!! We had a monster crane arrive on Friday that lifted the trusses up so high into the air that a bat might have mistaken it for a hauntingly good place to land. We kept our black cat indoors as not spook the builders. The plummer threaded and hooked up our pipes in the dungeon known as our crawl space on Tuesday, and we were really able to see more clearly, though the fog was thick and gloomy, where our kitchen and bathrooms are going to be. <Have you caught onto our theme yet>

So, to be more clear….here are the pictures from this week.

A good example of the plumbing work that was done on Tuesday!The floor decking is in, and the first couple of walls.

There are even interior walls on Thursday.

The floor decking is in, and the first couple of walls.

Thursday, there is hope on the horizon….are we actually building a house??

This is from the corner of the kitchen / greatroom area into the dining room, and out to the front entrance. Tony and I are not going through that entrance until the house is finished

From the greatroom looking towards the kitchen!

By Friday evening, we had the interior walls, ceiling beams, and trusses ready to be positioned into place. We have a house!!!! I don’t even mind that there are a few leaks from the rain (HAHAHAHAHA)….We have a standing house!!

By nontime on, Thursday, the home has really taken shape!

From the interior, this is the inside of the side of the house that faces the street.

It was a good week on the build site….NO…..it was a GREAT week on the build site!!!

Happy Halloween!!

Category:

Adair Homes, building a new home, Halloween, moving to Oregon, Warren Ewing Demolition and Excavation

The Good, the Bad, and the………

A lonely foundation

Ever heard of, “All’s quiet on the Western front?” That is what our build site looked like this week. A lonely, desolate foundation sits and waits this week as the tumbleweeds blow lazily by…..there is hope on the horizon. “Do you really have tumbleweeds blowing by?”, a curious on-looker asks. No, but being in the middle of autumn, leaves are certainly starting to fill the foundation as we wait for the sub-floor and decking to arrive.

Thursday….there is a distant sound of a truck, a very LARGE truck heading up our road….is it?? YES, it is our truck….delivering our sub-flooring, right on time!!! Tomorrow the sub-floor contractor arrives to begin the work needed for the plumber and the decking.

Friday comes without a sound….you can hear the wind whistling through the trees, but there is no hammering, or signs of construction. The sub-flooring is not being installed today…but you know, that is OKAY…we’re sure they will show up on Monday. In the meantime, we decided to have some fun in what will be our backyard.

This is the view from what will be our backyard

We decided to have a campfire and ate my grandma’s enchiladas (she taught me how to make these when I was about 16. I miss her) by the fire. Then we got a little creative with Skittles….

Taste the rainbow….not this time.

So, Sunday morning we were awakened by the sound of……CONSTRUCTION!! Whoohoo!! Okay, so we’re not great big fans of Sunday morning consturction sounds, but today was the exception. The contractor didn’t want to get us or himself behind schedule, so……HOORAY!! Tomorrow or Tuesday, the plumbing contractor is scheduled to do his thing in the crawl space areas, then the decking will go on…from there…things are going to dramatically change very quickly!!

In fact….by the afternoon, we had a completed sub-floor……..you gotta love this grid!!!

Stay tuned………

Category:

Adair Homes, building a new home, moving to Oregon, Warren Ewing Demolition and Excavation

Foundation, Foundation, Foundation

I love Oregon….I love the weather…I love the beauty…I love the fresh, crisp air…I love that there is no sales tax…I love that rain doesn’t stop outdoor projeccts like setting and pouring a foundation….oh did I say that I love Oregon!!???

So the beginning of the week started with a lot of rain…we, being from California are groomed to expect that almost all outdoor work stops when it rains (other than storm prevention / troubleshooting.) When the concrete guys showed up dark and early Tuesday morning despite the rain, we were pretty happy to say the least! It rained on those guys ALL day while they constructed the forms for the foundation pour.

The next day, although in a little more broken spurts, they again were out building our foundation while the cement trucks drove up and down our driveway while it rained.

The forms came off on the third day……..WE HAD A FOUNDATION!!!

On Thursday, Warren came back to back-fill the foundation with gravel and build up the ground for the garage and driveway. We had 15 deliveries of gravel throughout the day to create a proper draining field around the house site.

The garage is filled in ready for the concrete slab pour. This is taken from the right side of the house.So you can see how the area surrounding the outside of the foundation has been back-filled with gravel, and then compressed down. It is like this all around the house.

It is incredibly important to get the water away from the house….and in Oregon, there is A LOT of water that falls from the sky!!

So in the meantime, Will has the perverbial mountain of dirt to move from one location to another……once he gets that done, there is one more. Why??? Because it’s there!!

Category:

Adair Homes, building a new home, moving to Oregon, Warren Ewing Demolition and Excavation

Six Reasons the Old House Had to Go

While we wait for a major update…..which by the way will be this week :o) ….I wanted to write a quick note about the 6 reasons we knocked down the house rather than adding-on and remodeling. Once again, the pictures tell the story best…………

#1........Great big spider web nests in the walls!!!!!

#2.......Old tools that fell out from somewhere...looks like it has been in the crawlspace for quite awhile.

#3......Massive spider / bug / mouse nests in the walls and crawlspace.

#4......Can anyone say, "Dry rott?"

#5.....Xtra-Large wasp and bumble bee nests in the attic.

#6.....Oh yeah, did I mention the skeleton in the closet?? Actually it was in the crawl space...it looks like a cat.

So this week was really productive on the aminsitration side of things. More paperwork was signed, and Charlie, our Home Ownership Counselor from Adair Homes drove out to our site (about an hour drive from his office), to get my signature on something, so that he (Charlie) could get it back to the office that afternoon. Once again, I can’t speak more highly of the assistance we have gotten so far from everyone we have dealt with from the Adair Office itself, and their contracters. The financing company, (NOT associated with Adair Homes) is a completely different story. Anyway…it looks like the forms installation for the foundation starts tomorrow….and the foundation pouring begins Wednesday. Hopefully, the rain won’t keep them away!!!!! :o/

Category:

Adair Homes, building a new home, moving to Oregon, Uncategorized, Warren Ewing Demolition and Excavation

And The Walls Come Tumbling Down!!!!!

The past two weeks have been quiet…..too quiet. Nothing was happening on the build site, no demolition, no excavation, no building, no movement on finances……..then…..Monday morning, Sept. 26th, as if out of nowhere, a HUGE beast showed up to the property, and EVERYTHING changed!!!

The mighty arm of Warren Ewing Demolition and Excavation!

Let’s back up a bit………in fact, I’ll let the pictures tell the story.

We knew Warren was coming, so we made the first hole in the wall.

Still flying!!

The Demolition Begins!

Hank was watching everything!

LOOK OUT HOUSE!!!!!Too late!

Tony watching the demolition...wishing he could get in that rig and pull the house down himself!

Warren wrapped up a bunch of the debris in the carpet, and picked it up like you would a blanket.

Work here in Oregon doesn't wait just because the sun rises later this time of year. Early A.M. demolition!!

Our daughter, Roni, watching the house fall down. It was a foggy A.M. so the camera was focusing on the fog. Pretty cool!

It looked like those pictures you see when a tornado rips through a town!

Well...there goes an entire wall!!

There goes the mudroom!!And the little, old, house.....is gone!!

Up comes the flooring. You can see how the foundation was filled in with dirt by little critters, through the years..

Nothing but a gigantic hole in the ground now...you can see how much hillside Warren is having to excavate. That's our son, Will, working with Warren to check the elevation

The site is ready now to meet with the builders on Monday!! We are FINALLY on our way!!!

As you can see, it was an incredible week!! The little, unhealthy, bug infested, smelly house is gone…..our future home is on its way.

By the way, if you ever need any demolition and/or excavation work done, run, don’t walk, pick up your phone and call Warren Ewing Demolition and Excavation! He is incredibly reliable, professional, and does an awesome job!!

Category:

Adair Homes, building a new home, moving to Oregon, Warren Ewing Demolition and Excavation

Tick, Tick, Tick, Tick………..

Ever have one of those weeks when everything is going along pretty well, and the…BAM!!…the door slams shut right in front of you? Well……this week was full of ups and downs for the build. To be expected…YES….frustrating ….YES, YES!! So here’s the good and the bad! Bad first….

Tick, tick, tick, tick……..I feel like the days of good weather are just ticking away, and nothing physical has been done on the house site! Maybe I’m over reacting….I think of Oregon and I think of rain. But I haven’t been up here for the summer into fall season, so although I have friends and coworkers telling me the real rains don’t usually start until October…..my sometimes glass half empty mind thinks, “well usually doesn’t mean always.” We found out this week that construction funding may be held up for another 3-4 weeks. AAARRGGGHHHH!!!! We feel like we’ve been strung along by the finance company….NOT ASSOCIATED WITH ADAIR HOMES….so that we wouldn’t go looking for another bank. It’s always, “There’s no problem, we’re just waiting for the underwriters”…..YET something wasn’t right. Tony called them on it and they admitted that, “Yes, everything looks good”, but “This and that.” If they would have been up front and honest with us from the beginning, we could have done things a little differently…now at this point it feels like we’re stuck….waiting, while all this great weather passes by!!!

The good!!….we got our building permit!!! No hang ups, no problems….Adair’s paperwork and plans were excellent and just what the county needed!! We can start demo’ing the old home anytime we want now, so during these next couple of weeks, the little house will be coming down…one way or another. We’ll try to get the excavation done so that once the funding goes through, our site is ready to go!!

Unfortunately, the bank really took the wind out of our sails this week. Tony and I were a little more than frustrated and (probably me more than him) took it out on each other with defensive, hurtful attitudes at times. So, I’m including this video to remind both of us (me especially) and (to appologize to Tony) that there is a reason we are doing this….and there is a reason our 25th Wedding Anniversary is coming up this November. In the midst of the frustration, this is the reason for it all…….

It’s about you and me…….and the four of us (10 of us if you count the four legged members of this family.)

Category:

Adair Homes, building a new home, I love Lucy, moving to Oregon

Getting Closer!!

Kind of a quiet week on the home-front these past 7 days. :o/ ALTHOUGH…..we did have a septic inspection!! Okay, I’m glad I didn’t have to do that! Tony talked with the guy handling our building permit at the county office, and he said that we should have the building permit in hand by the end of next week….meaning this week since I’m posting this on a Sunday. That is outrageously GREAT news! Our construction loan is taking longer than either of us had hoped. Part of this is because we have more than 10 acres, we had to go outside of Adair’s funding company. I think the new finance company is stringing things along a little until I get my first paycheck at the end of the month, to prove that, “YES,” I am employed. Having an already existing mortgage in CA doesn’t help either, but…………

OK, here’s the “but”………we entered into contract for sale on our Mountain View, CA home!!! I can’t tell you how awesome this is!! Truly this is God’s handiwork to provide us THIS buyer so quickly! Our home went on the market (in the MLS) on Monday the 22nd….we got an offer on Wednesday the 24th…., AS IS, no inspection other than what we provided (we paid for and received a home inspection and pest inspection ahead of time), they want a short close, do NOT want us to fix any of the items on the home inspection list, and……offered us a bit more than our asking price!!!! So, we are in the middle of a 7 day contingency (apparently it is usually standard to have 12 days), and close in 30 days!!!

So, with this, and my first paycheck a few days away….nothing should hold up the funding of our project! In the meantime, we hope to start some excavating work that we have to do around the building site including building a retaining wall this week.

This is the area where the grade is to high - low for excavation. We need to build a retaining wall with steps leading up to the barn.The difference in grade looks a little more prominent here. It meaures about a 5 foot difference.This is from the barn side of the top of the grade. It is a 5 ft. difference toward the house.

This one shows the grade a little better. It is from the top of the grade on the barn side looking toward the house. It turns out to be a 5 ft. difference.

Category:

Adair Homes, building a new home, moving to Oregon

Building Permit Time

ALRIGHT!!! We’ve got our plans in hand, the permits filled out and ready to submit on Monday!! I’m pretty sure that the building permit process will go pretty smoothly…..check back with me in a week or so..HAHAHA. We’ve also got a septic eval. coming up this week. Actually though, because we are county, and not city we have a few less restrictions in some of the nitty gritty stuff, and that seems to be the case with what we have had to file so far. So, let’s keep our fingers crossed, and throw up a few words to the man upstairs for a smooth process. :oD

Anyway, to put it lightly….ADAIR Homes did an AWESOME job in getting all of our plans and building permits together. They handled the whole process, handed us the whole package, and all I have to do now is submit it to the building department….along with a check, of course. That’s one huge headache that we don’t have to deal with. Charlie, is our go-to-guy who has handled things for us from the very first contact. In fact, the entire office team in Aurora has been really wonderful. I highly recommend these guys and gals.

The big question is….how are four cats, two dogs, and 3-4 grown people going to live in a trailer for the months of demolition and construction?Hmmmmm…….stay tuned for the next exciting episode!!

This big guy cracks me up!!

Category:

Adair Homes, building a new home, moving to Oregon

Getting tests back, approvals, etc.

Who would have thought that small, microscopic, tiny fibers could cause such BIG concerns…but that is exactly what they have been doing to us this past week. I’m talking about the dreaded word……..AASSSSBBBESSSTTTOSSSSS…asbestos!! Before the demo / excavator could get moving with his end of things, we had to get the little old house tested so that he would have paperwork to show the guys at the dump. Today we got the word……………….it turned out really GREAT!!! Basically, the test went something like this…..NOT DETECTED, NOT DETECTED, NOT DETECTED, NOT DETECTED……!!!! Needless to say, Tony and I are VERY HAPPY!!

We also found out today that we may need a demolition permit for the little old house. Another trip to the county planning department….sure, why not.

So items on our “to do” list are slowly ticking away…..and so are the days of sunny dry weather. I’m still stressed that we haven’t broken ground yet, but I know it will happen soon. Tony has been praying, seriously praying, for the weather to hold out until we get the walls up and roof on before we start seeing the rain…he feels pretty confident….I’m clinging to that!! :o)

Category:

Adair Homes, building a new home, moving to Oregon

A Little Background…

OK…so here it is in a nutshell!! June 30th, my daugther, Roni and I packed up the back of our Suburban with 3 cats and took off for the Pacific Northwest! We, temporarily said, “Good-bye” to our 2 dogs, 1 elderly cat, a son/brother, and husband/dad while we began our journey north. Although the house was mostly packed, the guys stayed behind to do the heavy lifting into the POD we rented for our move. BTW, if you want to move a bit more economically, while at the same time keeping your items safe and secure…we found PODS to be a really GREAT alternative to traditional moving companies. There is a bit of “sweat equity”, but it is well worth the savings!

So Roni and I moved into the trailer and created our little home for the next few months. It is like…fancy camping. I have learned a lot since being without Tony most of the time up here, and it has been quite good. I learned how to dump the galley….uuhhuumm toliet holding tank, etc. , change a breaker in the trailer’s electrical system, and how to make toast in a trailer without setting off the fire alarm….not always an easy task. :o)

Tony, Will, and the rest of the animal pack got up here a week later. Tony ran around doing everything he could to help set us up for the few days he had before leaving to go back to the Bay Area. He wouldn’t be back for a couple of weeks, and then after that about a month. It is amazing the amount of time and chores there are to moving your entire life to a new state (I really do mean entire life…Tony and I were both born and raised in the Bay Area…all of our roots were there.) I found a really good job within a month’s time that gave me an additional 3 weeks before my start date. This has been incredibly helpful. I just wonder how I’m going to fit it all in working 8 -5 everyday. There is still so much to do to get this house even started.

I get nervous because we are in August…fall/winter comes earlier up here than what we are used to, and we haven’t even broken ground yet. We need to get the physical process started. Today marks the day we got our Replacement Dwelling Permit approved (no appeals)…and now if we can get the financing end finished, we can get the building permit process going….C’MON GUYS LET’S GET MOVING!!

Category:

Adair Homes, building a new home, moving to Oregon

Are we actually going to do this??

Welcome to the first post in a the adventure of a lifetime which included moving 600 miles away from the Silicon Valley Area in California to a much more remote area in Oregon. So one day, we packed up 4 cats, 2 dogs, a home we lived in for 22 years, and the 4 of us and headed north. Well actually, it took more than one day, it takes the first step forward to make a dream a reality….so here is our story.

Born and raised in the San Francisco Bay Area, Tony and I embarked on an adventure that began 6 years ago with the purchase of 34 acres in the heart of Oregon. The home of this beautiful acreage consists of a 900 sqft, bungalow type home, built in 1949, updated in the 1970’s…and there it has sat. It is a well built home for what it is, but with concerns about possible moisture problems, a dirt filled crawl space from the critters living underneath, an old, unstable fireplace, and much more, this little house needs to come down. So, we’ve lived in it for our visits up…and finally we are at the place in our lives that actually moving is a GREAT option…not without some difficulties, but GREAT nontheless.

The “kids”, William and Roni, are out of high school and doing their own things…although…they both decided to make the move with us and continue / start their lives as adults in Oregon. What can I say….that makes Mama happy.