Difficult Decisions

After considerable research and discussion, it is with heavy hearts and crushed spirits that we announce our decision against installing a heat pump or a ductless mini-split system, and instead have agreed upon the addition of...baseboard heat...

We knew there would be a time that we would need to make decisions we were not proud of in an effort to accomplish this task. We simply never anticipated that THESE words would ever cross our lips, save in jest.

And somewhere, a single tear slides down a mamma polar bear's furry cheek for her unborn baby who will not survive to adulthood.

Paddy O'Door

Just in time for the St. Patrick's Day holiday, we completed our final major framing project. Can you guess what it is? Having the new side door installed in the dining room (which will eventually lead out onto a beautiful deck in the side yard, we swear) allows us to get moving on the electric portion of this magnificent undertaking.

Sadly, we did not find a pot o' gold when ripping out the wall. It sure would have come in handy too. With the best intentions to stand against our consumerist nature, we visited our local rebuilding center, Bring. Very cool place. In fact we just donated a truck load of items to them this weekend. At Bring we found our door. Only $75, how great to save money and recycle! Deder spent the time to grind off the old paint down to the wood so that we could use the same oil finish that we put on the front door. The following weekend, we had our contractor friend, Jesse, over and he informed us that the door's unjammed condition simply would not do. So we contacted the local jammers and took the door on over. $130 later, our inexpensive patio door (now $235 for those of you who are counting + what we ended up paying our contract friend to help) was ready to install.

So we had Jesse back over and voila! Check it out.

You never get a second chance. . .

. . . to make a first impression. Or so they say. That's the idea behind the ridiculously nice front door we installed last week. It's a solid wood fir door made from locally harvested timber, cut up, sent to china, assembled, and sent back to oregon unfinished. The least they could do is finish it too. Anyhow, its wayyy better than the old one which was all glass, had no deadbolt, and was only held in place by the trim moulding around each section.

After oil-stain-sealing, installation, installation again, and the very hip/luxe door handle and lock set, this thing set us back way more than I think a door should. But, it looks great and people love it. That's just what a front door should do.

The right tool for the job.

It was becoming alarmingly clear the the old VW was just not the right work vehicle for some of the trips to the lumberyard, garbage dump, tool rental, etc., etc. So my brother in law offered up his fathers 85 F150 as long as we needed it (he needed the space, and it needed all new brakes, calipers, and rotors). This is just what we needed, too; on it's first weekend run I :dropped off scrapwood for a friend's woodstove, took the old stairs to the dump, dropped off expired paint, bought a door at the home recyclers, and picked up a friends offered recliner---all in one trip! The dog even came too! With 4 cars we are going to have vote one off the island. . .maybe two . . but I think we'll keep the truck for a while.

No longer a house divided.

"A house divided against itself cannot stand" Lincoln said. And while this house stood just fine divided, it wasn't much of a home. More like two "floors" sandwiched atop each other. Well, that has now been remedied.
Deder took another three day weekend with the contractor, Jessie, and his Dad, to 'flip the stairs'. Andrea and Baron went to Portland because dogs and pregnant ladies shouldn't HAVE to climb a ladder to go to bed.
It was not as big a deal as I thought it would be, it wasa lot of work, but with credit to Jessie and his dad, it all went pretty smoothly. Having one whole house is fantastic, especialy not having to go outside to do your laundry. Enjoy the Pics.