Home Inspection at the New Pad, 2nd Edition

Original post, 5/20/08

Aaron and I had the inspection on the new house on Wednesday afternoon. Here he is waving to me from the kitchen while I was outside shooting pictures of the backyard.



I shot 160 pictures, documenting damn near everything in it.

I originally posted pictures of the yard, bathrooms, and kitchen, but the current owners found them and have asked that I not post any pictures of the house while they still own it. Fair enough. I feel like I was extremely careful to respect their privacy by not mentioning the address, their names, or showing any of their personal belongings. But privacy is by no means an absolute concept, and different people have different thresholds.

Once we own the house (and only if we do ultimately own the house), will I restore the original posts.


Postscript, 7/31/08: Well, we own the house, so back online go my posts. I promised to take them down, and I promised I'd post them again once the damned closing was all done. So here we are. Each post from May 20 is reposted here with a postscript in this format. Once the house is ready, I'll post before-and-after images. First priority, Annika's room.

Heinous Pink Bathroom

Original post, 5/20/08:

I'm very excited about the new house, but I'm really worried about the stupid pink bathroom. I feel like I'm inside a stomach whenever I turn the light on in there. Aaron assures me that we can gut the damned thing at some point, but I'm torn between trying to make it work, and trying to figure out the exact quantity of plastic explosives it would take to obliterate the pinkness without damaging the adjacent rooms.

This room reminds me of the old adage about taking one thing off before you leave the house. Pink floors, pink walls and shower and tub, pink sink, pink toilet. W.T.F.??? Here are the "highlights", God help us.



These built-ins are really the best feature.



The sink is so old it's actually interesting, with a built-in faucet spout between the hot and cold water taps. But it's too close to the color of the walls without being close enough. Again, if it were just the sink, or just the walls, it might not be so offensive.



Bad lighting, yes, and my computer is being a douche-bag so I can't edit anything in PhotoShop. But seriously, no amount of PhotoShop could diminish the pinketude.



The fish cover on the toilet seat indicates the decor is geared more toward a kid than an adult. But if an 8 year-old girl needs to tone down the pink, there's clearly an overdose going on.



The floor is actually not so terrible, but it's got a big crack in the middle of it further into the room so it's gotta go.



A detail of the Pepto-Bismol-on-Salmon two-tone tile goodness. It's actually a very professional tile job.

That said, we might actually keep the wall tile, which extends into the shower surround as well. A white tub cover, a new white toilet, white pedestal sink, small white hexagonal tile on the floor, and some new wall color might just work. Believe it or not, I'm thinking chocolate brown. I know pink and chocolate brown are ultra-trendy right now, but seriously, if you can think of something better, I'm totally open to ideas. The advantage to doing brown paint and accents like towels or a shower curtain is that it's easily changed later. The fixtures will be neutral enough and the wall tile keeps a reference to the 1950's vintage of the house. We'll replace the light fixtures and the medicine cabinet too.


Postscript, 7/31/08: God help me, I've made the pink bathroom work. I need to snap some pix and post once it's done, but the brown is REALLY helping. Brown valances, brown shower curtain, wooden bathmat, brown towels, large natural dark wood woven trash can, etc. I think we'll hold off on brown paint, as the white is working. Just need some art on the walls and I can handle it. For now.

Cranberry and Blue Master Bathroom

Original post, 5/20/08:

Despite my misgivings about the pink bathroom, I really love the color combination of our tiny master bathroom.




The toilet may get an upgrade to a more water-efficient model at some point, but you really can't find any quarrel with the white toilet and white vanity.




We'll replace the shower fixtures, light fixtures, and medicine cabinet. I sort of wish there weren't grab bars drilled into the tile all over the place, but an elderly couple owned the house before the current owners, so it's hard to complain. You never know when they might come in handy.




It's tiny, but it's a master suite, which has been hard to find, given the ages of the houses we've looked at.



Postscript, 7/31/08: I still love the bathroom, but I have yet to use the shower. The old fixtures are too hard to turn, and it hasn't been cleaned yet since we moved in. Because Aaron and I sleep as late as is humanly possible, we've been using the pink bathroom for getting ready in the morning so as to not disturb the one still sleeping. But we'll get there, especially once we have guests. Unfortunately, this room like the others fell victim to the matchy-matchy painted trim. Pink trim in the pink bedroom, blue trim in the blue bathroom, etc. Need some white paint in this house. Oh, and those grab bars I maligned in the earlier post? They were a godsend when I hurt my back and couldn't move. I still can't move very well, but I'm much improved. Having something strong to hold on to really helped.

Indoor/Outdoor/Indoor Living Spaces: Sunroom, Deck, Mudroom, Kitchen

Original post, May 20, 2008:

One of the big selling points for me with the new house was the sunroom and the yard. The old hippie in me needs a place to walk around barefoot in the grass in the summertime, where I can plant flowers and vegetables and enjoy the warmth and sunshine outdoors. The sunroom reminds me of the porch at my grandparents' house on the lake, where we spent lots of time during the summer when I was growing up. This is a more finished version, with windows and a slate floor.

The sunroom is off the den. Here's the view when you first enter the room:




To the right is the doorway to go outside:




We also want to be able to entertain, and there's a great spot for a platform deck off the sunroom.



The doorway from which I took the picture is off the sun room. The doorway straight ahead leads to the garage. The doorway to the right is off the mudroom, which is separate from but adjacent to the kitchen.


Here's the mudroom, which may or may not get absorbed into the kitchen at some point:



There are hook-ups for a washer and dryer to the left, and a second sink AND dishwasher in the mudroom. For a woman who doesn't cook or entertain much now, these seem like extravagances. But something tells me we'll be happy to have them. It's the presence of these items that first allowed me to imagine taking down the wall and expanding the kitchen.



This is the wall that would be removed, were we to expand the kitchen. So the fridge would need a home. Here's the whole kitchen, currently. The fridge is behind the open door on the right (you can just see the door handle)




I think we could put the fridge where the stove is, and put the cooktop and ovens in an island in the middle. The kitchen really is small, and opening up the wall between the two spaces would really help that. But it's also a shallow space, so we'll see once we've spent some time there. With buying the house, getting married, and having a baby this year, a kitchen renovation is hardly at the top of the list.


Postscript 7/31/08: The Sunroom has become Aaron's studio, the deck has been postponed until next summer, the mudroom is full of empty cardboard boxes. But the kitchen is clean! Sort of. Got a few things to unpack in there, but it's looking good. Need to set up the eat-in area. We're throwing a housewarming party later in August, so we have a timeframe for getting it all together. And it's getting there.

The Yard

I cannot wait to get my hands dirty out in the yard at the new house this summer.

Here's the outside, which has a bit of grass but mostly shrubbery and garden beds:








Backyard view of the house, where the deck will go (see next post for the walk-through view from inside the house):




Here's the overgrown maple tree in the backyard that will soon be getting a bit of a trim:




Once the tree is trimmed, the yard will hopefully be a bit less shady. I'd like to see some grass grow, and I think I'll plant something along the fence here. Suggestions welcome.




There is a lovely area along the far side of the house that's already got planting and some pavers:



And a bench and what appears to be a little terraced area. I'm curious to see what's planted there:




Postscript, 7/31/08: The yard is yielding many happy surprises, like the raspberries (see below), lilies, echinacea, roses, onions, etc. Unfortunately, time and the physical limitations of my old back injury combined with my advancing pregnancy have conspired to keep me out of the yard. It's okay though. I'm happy to see how it evolves and see what's out there this season.

Hitchhiking Tick

2008-07-08 Kitchen, Raspberries, Tick 045, originally uploaded by jessica_beagan.

At least I think it's a tick. I could be better at identifying bugs. Nevertheless, we had a stowaway --- this tick was clinging to one of the raspberries I picked from out in the yard. I found him when I rinsed the berries. Ironically, right around the time I discovered, squashed, and photographed this guy, another tick found my brother while he was working and bit him. I got lucky, especially given the pregnancy. God only knows what would happen if I got Lyme Disease or some other such vectored illness at 22 weeks.

Surprise Raspberries

2008-07-08 Kitchen, Raspberries, Tick 019, originally uploaded by jessica_beagan.

The previous owners of our house planted quite a garden here. I didn't know we had a raspberry bush at the southwest corner of the sun porch until I found them ripening right after we moved in.

Raspberries, rinsed

2008-07-08 Kitchen, Raspberries, Tick 033, originally uploaded by jessica_beagan.

They never made it to the torte I wanted to make. I hurt my back that weekend and was laid up, so the berries got moldy before I was well enough to do anything with them. A shame, but the birds and squirrels enjoyed them.

Kitchen Stove with Robot

2008-07-08 Kitchen, Raspberries, Tick 007, originally uploaded by jessica_beagan.

Getting to know the new house. I liked the light from the fixture over the stove.

32 Hours Outside

My kitten, who is no longer a kitten but is still my kitten, did not fare well at first in our move. Aaron and I put the three cats in the basement at his condo while the movers took the furniture out of the first and second floors. They were nearly done and ready to move onto the basement when Aaron opened the basement door and Rococo bolted. She came tearing into the living room, but everything was gone. She then tried to go upstairs, but the movers were carrying down a dresser. She didn't try to go out the open front door, but started freaking out and tearing around the living room.

We tried to catch her, but that wasn't the best idea, clearly. Even more agitated, Rococo ran full speed for the back door, which was open to the screen door. She realized the screen was closed and jumped about four feet off the ground, hitting the door and knocking it clear off its track. The door popped forward and hit the railing, with Coco riding it the whole way down. She hit the screen with all four feet, bounced off of it, and ran around the house and out of sight.

This was at 12:15 pm. We'd been up since 4:15 am. The movers were at the house since 9:30 am and the end was nowhere in sight. We had the walkthrough for the new house at 12:45 and the closing at 1:30. A search party was mobilized and we searched for the cat until it was time to go to the walkthrough and closing.

I went back and searched a few times, gave all the neighbors my contact info and described Rococo. I had no faith that she'd return, and cried bitterly the entire way to the closing. And a few times on Saturday. I had planned everything so carefully to coordinate every detail so no issues would arise during what was a very full and hectic day. And here was the one thing I couldn't have accounted for, and the one thing I wanted to fix more than anything. And I couldn't.

The good thing about living around a bunch of older single women with cats is that they empathized. I was really touched by their willingness to help. And sure enough, when Rococo emerged at 8 pm the next night, being stalked of course by three big feral cats who hang out around the condo, Barbara called me and we came to get Rococo back.

However, getting her back wasn't easy. It took almost 45 minutes and a few deep painful scratches to finally catch her and get Rococo into her carrier. Aaron and I both were covered in dirt from trying to coax the cat out from under a porch and blood ran down my arm, but we got her back. What I didn't realize until the next day is that Rococo had badly cut the paw pads on her two front feet. That explained not only why she was so ginger on her feet, but also why she fought me so hard when I tried to hold her.

Fortunately, Rococo's feet are healing. She's no longer limping and other than managing to pick up fleas (for which we had to treat the other two cats) she seems fine. In fact, strangely, it seems like Rococo's misadventure has helped. She is so happy to be home, and the cats aren't fighting anymore like they were.

The best part is that although I unfairly blamed him for even opening the damned basement door in the first place, Aaron totally pulled through for me. We worked together to deal with an upsetting situation on a difficult day. And it worked out. Good practice, I guess.

Other Moving Fiascos

The other moving fiascos we ran into are oddly along the same theme: money, and people trying to screw us out of what is ours. Neither Aaron nor I are cheap. But we're not willing to be bilked either:

--- I'm going to be gentle, since this is a public forum and stranger things have been known to happen. However, there ended up being a three-week-long battle over an escrow. The situation was resolved today, totally in our favor, but I loathe the people who thought they could take advantage of us and I'm working on forgiving them.

--- Along those lines, I'm extending my ill will toward subcontractors who try to take advantage of homeowners. I had a very ubiquitous local plumbing outfit in to my home to find out why the central Air Conditioning unit in the basement was leaking. I was told by one person that we could service the unit, but that would cost a couple grand, and the coil was filthy, and the previous owners hadn't serviced it in forever. So it was better to just replace the whole thing. For between 7k and 10k. Yeah, go fuck yourself.

Another guy from the same outfit opined that it might not be the AC causing the leak, but a cracked floor drain. But I'd need a videocamera and a jackhammer to record where the water was seeping in from, and to determine exactly where the crack was coming from. Do I look stupid, or do they do this to everyone? I almost threw him bodily out of my house.

Then my wonderful cousin Angelo came over and determined that it was a broken condensate pump (an $80 part) and it's an easy fix. So I called Superior Comfort from Bristol, Rhode Island. I will name Superior Comfort here because I would recommend them to anyone. Two hours and $257 later, I got a new condensate pump, a freshly scrubbed coil, and a little silicone to repair a small crack in a pipe. Problem SOLVED. No more water leaking all over the floor.

--- The upshot of these two stories is that people are always trying to screw other people. So you get defensive and try to screw before you get screwed. Or at least just try to not get screwed. But seriously, it's hateful. Is it because so much money is involved in buying and selling houses that it brings out the worst in people? Is it because our homes are also invested with emotion for us? Or is the emotional connection tied up with the expense that turns it, synergistically, into something larger than just feelings and finances?

It's probably all of these things. All I know is that selling Aaron's condo and buying this house has been going on for months, during the same period in time during which I've started a new job, planned and threw a wedding weekend extravaganza, and moved --- all the while growing a baby. No sooner do we survive the actual physical move than we're dealing with this.

And I wonder why I haven't blogged in weeks.

Nearly a Month?

Last time I blogged, last time I even turned my computer on, was more than three weeks ago. It was before we moved into the new house, where it feels like we've been forever somehow. A lot goes on with a move, obviously, and all of the events of June really wore me out. The wedding was only a month and a half ago! And now that we're moved in, there is so much to do with unpacking and settling in. Oh, and I'm 25 weeks pregnant, meaning the clock is ticking. Now it's time to sort out the baby's room and all the stuff I need to get for her. I haven't a clue as to what to get, and the time and energy to do the research has been in short supply.

So that's where I've been. I hurt my back, probably due to a combination of moving and the baby growing, so I was on bed rest all of last week working from home on my laptop. It's been good to be back in the office this week, but I'm worn out as the work week is drawing to a close.

The big lesson from the past few weeks is the one I had to learn at the start of this pregnancy: my body isn't mine alone right now, and it's easily worn out. My dynamo mind hasn't stopped trying to drive me, but it's necessary to pace myself. My parents and my husband have been more than picking up the slack and helping me do what I can't do myself right now, and for that I'm grateful.

Otherwise, work is crazy and the house has endless possibilities. I've taken some pictures, but I'm not sure where the CF card reader is right now. Aaron and I tidied up the basement and put things on shelves along the walls, so there is a work space starting to emerge. Aaron's studio out in the three season room (we call it the sun porch for some reason) is turning into quite the atelier for him too.

It's good to be home.