Frusterations and Permits

So, Alan got up to the house at 10:00am to find a little note waiting for us. "Thou must get a permit for your siding." Well not in those exact words but close enough. The siding is practically done, why now? They've been driving by all the time the last 2 weeks and haven't said anything. Money! It's all about ripping people off. Permits are one of those things in life I don't get. I mean, it's your property you shouldn't have to get permission to change your house. You own it, not the city- Don't even get me started on property taxes! That's a whole nother issue I think is wrong.

Alan was hoping our contractor would be working since it was such a nice day. He waited and waited for him to show and of course no show. What's up with that!! Excuses, excuses. "Oh, I thought it was going to rain." "I'm getting over a cold." All I know is we're on his tail now. We want this job done. We'll see what he can complete tomorrow. He promises to get the whole job done, deck and all by the end of next week. We'll see...

Anyway, just a little venting. Things are coming together, however, I think we're mentally ready to get this house on the market. It's time to sell! Soon, I keep reminding myself, soon.

Alan's hard work today

The transformation has begun!

The transformation has begun. You will see in the next few pictures that the house is looking dramatically different! These pictures are a little outdated because they were taken Friday and Saturday. There has been a lot that has changed already since then. I hope to gets some more recent pictures on Thursday when Alan is back up there working on the landscaping. My kitchen knobs from Target came in the mail yesterday- all 40 of them. I've got some knobbing work cut out for me. It's a cheap and yet a needed feature in the kitchen. A little thing like that can really bring a room together.

Chris, my brother, is getting ready to hack up the stones the fire place is on with a crow bar.

Granite tile going in. I think it's done now so I'll get a finished picture soon.

Our machinery to get the siding up!

Alan spent a day just getting 1/2 the yard tilled and seeded for grass. Today he worked on the other 1/2. The yard is so big and unusual in shape. We are trying to get creative by creating some kind of curb appeal. The yard has been my biggest creative challenge yet with the house.


The rocks that were put in so poorly below the fireplace and now gone. We are going to put in brick and a different design to open the room up so more. We decided against relocating the fireplace because we think there a permit regulations about putting it in the corner. We can also make it work where it is by reformed the platform the stove sits on

Alan and Chris realized that a jackhammer would work much better than a crow bar.

Woodland weeks 3 & 4

Let see what we've done these past few weeks. We got all the doors, frames and kitchen cabinets painted! We had to prime and paint at least 2 coats of white on everything to get rid of the old dark wood. Now everything is looking fresh and clean. It's time to add a little color now that we've nullified the yucky brown color. Alan finished putting the new hardware on the inside doors and one of the outside doors. We had a locksmith come and change the outside locks; but when he changed one of them he missed putting a piece in so now we have to figure out what piece is missing and get it back before we install/change the last outside lock. Todd, our contractor is going to kick it in full gear next week. He's going to get the outside moisture wrapped, re-sided and painted. It's a bummer we've had a late winter this year with all the rain, but next week looks like it's going to be nice all week.

Yesterday some friends Kim and Megan came out to help finish up the kitchen. They were a huge help. Thanks, ladies! In fact, when Megan came in she thought we had put in new windows because they looked so good. That was very good news to hear from a fresh pair of eyes looking at the house.

Don't the doors look so pretty? They'll even look better when we add the new hardware. Can you believe a company was going to charge $7000 for refurbishing and painting the cabinets? Man, I must be in the wrong profession. :) We saved some major bucks doing it ourselves.

Those counter tops are next on our hit list! They've got to go! Michael (picture posted earlier) is going to put in granite tile for us. It's going to look sweet!

Kim was a huge help. She also is great at decorating. That will be the really fun part, decorating this place so it'll sell. Kim, got any ideas?

Paintbrushes in hand, ready to get to work.

Thank you Megan for all your help! I like your color choices for the bathrooms. I think we might go with them.

We had 36 drawers and doors to paint for this kitchen! There sure is a lot of storage in the kitchen.

See the fireplace in the middle of the room? We're going to fix that up soon too- we may even relocate it to the corner of the room which would be a better place for it. We'll either surround it with nice bricks or slate. We'll post more when we get to it.

Well, the transformation stage is about to begin. I'm thinking from now on out we'll see major changes. We're still mulling around with what we should do with the huge hill in the front of the house. It needs so major curb appeal. I pulled up a lot of the brush this week and found a huge termite ( I think they were termites) mound in the hill. We'll be getting rid of those nasty critters real quick, fortunately there has been no major termite damage on the house. What was there was already taken care of by the previous owner. Anyone with ideas for the hill? We're open to hearing any?

Trip to SLO & Monterey

We finally got to get away for a quick vacation. First we started driving on Tuesday and took our time stopping here and there in different places on the way up to San Luis Obisipo. It was raining the whole way up which made all the hills look very green and pretty. We stayed at the Apple Farm Inn in San Luis Tuesday night. We highly recommend it to anyone. It was way cute. It reminded me of the "Dragon Fly Inn" on the show Gilmore Girls. Wednesday we ate breakfast at the Inn and left San Luis for Hearst Castle. The drive was gorgeous up highway 1 except that it was pouring down rain. Hearst Castle was amazing and beautiful. I didn't know alot about William Randolf Hearst and really enjoyed learning about him. I felt like a kid doing a report on him because of all the interesting details we picked up from our tour of the castle. Fortunately for us, it stopped raining on the bus ride up to the castle and didn't rain again for the rest of the trip. It wouldn't of been much fun on the tour if it had been raining since most of the tour was outside.

After leaving Hearst Castle, we headed up to Salinas to see Scott, Lisa and Jack. Highway 1 was closed due to a rock slide so we back tracked a little and took the 101 up. We got to meet Jack for the first time and see Scott and Lisa's new house. We stayed with them Wednesday and Thursday night.

Thursday, we went to the Monterey Aquarium and drove the 17 mile drive in Pebble Beach. My favorite part in the aquarium was the otter habitat. They were so fun to watch. One otter layed on his back basking in the sun massaging his face the whole time we were there. It wasn't too crowed so we were able to see everything pretty quickly. After the aquarium we drove to one of the prettiest places in California, the 17 mile drive. It was so gorgeous and reminded us of God's workmanship and greatness through nature. We saw the "Lone Cyprus," famous golf courses and other attractions on this drive. It was beautiful! Another highly recommended place to travel if ever given the chance. Thursday evening we went out to dinner with Scott, Lisa and Jack to Baja Cantina. Yummy Mexican restuarant.

Friday we met some friends from work Carrie, Neal and their son, Ari, for breakfast in Carmel. Carrie's dad lives in Carmel so they were visiting him during the time off work. It was great to catch up with them. After breakfast we hit the 101 for the trip home. Is was so nice to get away and enjoy beautiful California in the Spring. All the hills were covered in green which only lasts a few months and then they turn into our famous golden hills. Did you know that's why we are called to Golden State? It's not because of the Gold Rush, instead it's because of the rolling golden hills we have 3 of the seasons out of the year. Just a little bit of information I learned at Hearst Castle.

Overall, it was a great trip. I can't wait to see Jack soon since he's growing up so quickly. Renae, one of my sisters, and I plan to go see him soon. I'm posting a bunch of pictures from the trip. They are in no order since I can't seem to figure out how to put them in order. Nonetheless, they're there.

For those who are curious about Woodland House, we're working alot this week on it so I'll post some pics soon.

SLO & Monterey Pictures

SLO & Monterey pictures

Woodland Week 2

A lot was done this week!

Alan went up to the Woodland house to work this past Wednesday and Friday. He finished putting in outlets and outlet plates. He put the first coat of white paint over the primer on the door and window frames. He also got started on painting the cupboards in the kitchen.

Saturday we both went up and put the final coat of white paint on the window and door frames. They are looking pretty good now. The old seventies wood is gone and it looks fresh and clean. All we have left on those are small touch- ups. Michael and Emily came over and helped out too. Michael helped rip up flooring in the kitchen and install a ceiling fan. Emily helped me paint the doors. Alan also started to install new door knobs. It was a long day, we didn't leave until midnight. Next we are going to tackle painting all the kitchen cabinets.

On Monday our contractor is expected to start on the exterior of the house. That's when things will really start to look different. But until then I have a few pictures. It's hard to get good pictures inside.

These pictures are in random order of us working and some of the work we've done. The one of the kitchen shows the difference between the old wood and the freshly painted white wood. All the frames are like that too.

Emily helping me paint the doors. Thanks Emily!

The kitchen cabinets after painted white. You can see one of the windows in the back. We still have most of the kitchen to paint.

Michael starting the install the ceiling fan. Thanks, Michael!

Me, painting the front door.

Alan, finishing painting the banister.