Joys of Home Ownership

1025

Our new house number is 1025 and back in late December I found some steel circles with three of the four numbers cut out of them on a shelf in the garage. We wondered what happened to the #1? Thinking that these looked a lot better than the generic bought at Walmart house numbers that already adorned the place, and after an extensive search didn’t turn it up, we set out to find someone in town that could make a matching number one.

Our first stop told us that it looked like it was made using a plasma cutter and he didn’t have one. He thought for sure he could make something just like it, but it would be expensive in both time and materials. So he directed us to a place he thought could do it a lot cheaper. “Heck,” he said, “They might have even made these existing numbers.”

Stop number two was a heating and air condition business. They had a plasma cutter, plenty of material, and said they thought they could do it for on the cheap. They didn’t do the ones I had in hand, so the fellow asked if I knew what the font was. I told him no, but I bet if I searched on the Internet I could find a font that looked very similar with a little research.

I called him back the next day and gave him the names of about 4 fonts that I thought would be good enough. He told me it would a quick job to do, but it it had to come after all the other jobs on hand or that came up that profited the company a heck of a lot more that the sawbuck I was willing to pay for my #1. I told him I understood and that I’d give him a call once a week to check in.

Last Monday, after around four weeks he called and said that I could come get my number one. I’ve have painted them in the same red color as we painted our plain front door and will mount them just above the garage door on the next nice afternoon.

Garage Flooring Part 2B

I didn’t hear from RaceDeck for a full week, so I called the 1-800-NUMBER again this last Monday. When a person answered I told them I placed an order a week ago, but have yet to be contacted by a Sales Rep. She said, “Hmmm. I don’t know what happened, but I can transfer you to someone that can help you right now.” Next thing I know I’m placing my order.

This afternoon the UPS man dropped off 4 big boxes. I managed to get the second half of the floor down in a couple hours. All except for the last 4 tiles by the door into the laundry room. I will need to trim about and inch and a half off the left edge to get them down to lay down flat because of the threshold.

Because the garage entry is flat, unlike Aiken, I bought the small leading edge pieces to finish off the front of the floor. When I got through, I thought that maybe I should buy them for the other end facing the “shop area” as well, so I wouldn’t trip on 1/2″ elevation gain. What’s another thirty bucks? Not going to get finish edges for the sides as they are close enough to the walls that it isn’t really that noticeable.

New Roof, Day 3

Just 10 months ago we put a new roof on 778 Boardman Road. That process took literally one day. We knew going into buying 1025 Pacific Terrace that it needed a new roof and, well, we are now 3 days into the process with at least 2 more to go.

The difference is, that the house in Aiken had one layer of shingles to remove and nothing else before laying down shingles because we took care of that house. The previous owners of this Klamath Falls house were not so diligent, I think they never took action until there was a problem.

At inspection we were told that there were two layers of shingles on the back and one on the front, turns out it was three and two. The the top layer in back was a lot newer and not in bad shape aside from the shoddy boots surrounding all the plumbing vents pipes. The front needed replacing badly as there was hardly any mineral left on the asphalt of the shingles. The hidden base layer was the actual original shingles installed on the house in 1964 when it was built 56 years ago!

The reason it is taking so long is those half a century old shingles don’t tear off like they should, they disintegrate, requiring 3 or 4 times longer to get off than usual. Add that to the time it is taking them to cut out all of the bad plywood sheathing, it is slow going. The whole roof is stripped finally and the back, the front half and half the gable side is repaired, but there is the other gable side still left to repair. Every bottom section of the sheathing has had to be replaced because when the bottom edge drip lip was installed it was put on top of the wood, instead of underneath, which led to water accumulation…

The last gable side is the one with the chimney in it and the guys have told us that the wood all around it will need to be replaced too. So the job won’t be done until at the earliest next Thursday because the work crew has some special training they need to attend that is in Grants Pass next Tuesday and Wednesday.

Garage Flooring Part 2A

Last Friday I went to the RaceDeck website and used their floor design tool. When I was done I clicked the Submit for Quote button. Like last time I did this we have revised the design a couple of times over the weekend, playing with the check size, adding more carpet pieces, etc. By Monday I had still not heard back about the request for a quote, so I started calculating costs based on the pricing I received back 2-1/2 years ago. In the end I have decided to keep those 24 carpet tiles in between the two “designated” parking areas, it didn’t seem like it was worth and extra $90 (in 2017 pricing) to buy the blue and silver free-flow tiles to make one big checked area.

After finalizing the design for the last time, I called the 1-800-NUMBER to go ahead and place my order. Turns out this is sort of a misnomer, the person who answered the phone was just a front person. She took my information and what I wanted to buy and said she’d be passing it along to a Sales Representative and they would get back to me. Twenty-four hours later – crickets… I’m not real sure, but I think this might have been the way it went in July 2017 too.

Garage Flooring Part Two

The new house has a two-car garage compared to our old one-car back in Aiken. When we moved, I packed up the RaceDeck tiles and brought them with us. I had tossed a few of them out that I had to cut up to fit around the cabinets we had in Aiken.

Today we had a nice sunny mid-forties day, so this afternoon I backed the Mini out of the garage and installed the tiles that I brought with us for it to park on. The existing free flow tiles will help hide the water we are bringing in with us when we have been driving on the snowy roads. Because the Miata is just sitting for now, water is not a problem, yet.

Tomorrow we will order the flooring for the other half of the garage. The one side of the garage is deeper than the other because somewhere along the way a previous owner stole several feet to add a downstairs bathroom. The deeper side is even deeper than the RaceDeck flooring will go and that is where there is a workbench and shelving for tools and storage.


This is what it looks like now.

This is what it will look like finished.

Too Many Sweaters

We got around to opening the last few clothing boxes today. How many sweaters does a retired person need? A dozen? Nope, narrowed it down to five. Also kept 2 Hawaiian shirts out of 4, two button down casual shirts out of four and just 2 of 4 Lands End quarter-zip knit shirts. Some needy folks in Klamath Falls will be dressed a little nicer and warmer after we donate these.

We are down to just a dozen book boxes to open up and shelve. After that, it is figuring out where to hang the eleven-hundred framed photos, prints and completed jigsaw puzzles around the empty vertical surfaces. Sometime not long after that, they will come down again as we add color to all the beige walls.

The garage is still a mess, all the tools and what not will be needed, arranging still on the existing shelves in the back. I will also need to figure out how to store our half dozen bikes while allowing easy access to them and the two cars. Then there is reinstalling the RaceDeck tile flooring and possibly adding some more for under the Mini…

A Washer and Dryer of Our Very Own

Better 8-1/2 days late than never. But like most things we have run across in our move, it wasn’t that simple. First off we got another surprise arrival.

Back when the garage door opener was replaced we were told we would get a call telling us of their arrival about 25-30 minutes ahead of time. On that day we decided to walk the mile into town to check the mail knowing that we could cover the distance back in a half hour. So wouldn’t you know it, the guy called while we were downtown, but he was calling from our driveway! So I lied to him and told him we were on our way home (true) and would be home in 10-15 minutes (false.) We quick walked back up the hill and made it in 25 minutes.

For our appliance delivery we were told to expect them between 1:00 and 5:00 in the afternoon. So we decided to walk into town about 11:30 to check the mail figuring we had plenty of time to do that and stop to buy a couple of bagels on the way back. So wouldn’t you know it, the guy called while we were almost downtown to say he was about 20 minutes away! The bagel place closed at 1:00, meaning we didn’t have time to get home, get our delivery and make it back, so Plan B was formulated on the fly. Donna would continue with the walking mission and I would turn around to head home and meet our appliances.

At least they weren’t waiting in the driveway when I got back, but it wasn’t long before the knock came at the door. They were fast and efficient at unloading and placing our stuff in where they belong. The fridge was easy, but the snags reared their ugly heads on the lower level where the washer and dryer go. First off, they brought the “wrong” 240v dryer power cord. Whenever the house was wired for the electric dryer they used a 3 prong straight bladed socket which is now traditionally used for stoves and the cord they had was the usual dryer cord with one blade with a 90 degree bend in it. Staying with the dryer, the flex tubing they brought was enough, but because of the existing tubing location it would be hard to move a junction to connect the new to the old. To top it off, the drain hose on the washer was too short. For whatever reason, the house drain was over on the other side of the water heater, so we would need an extension to make it reach.

I checked the Home Depot website and they had the dryer/oven power cord no problem. The extensions for the washer hose and dryer duct connectors they didn’t have, I could order it and have it delivered to the store for pickup — in a week! We drove to Home Depot and returned the cord and dryer ducting for in store credit. Then on the off chance the web site was wrong we went looking for the three things we needed. Turns out the web site was wrong, they didn’t even have the power cord.

Crap, another trip or two to the local laundromat would be required, but then we remembered seeing ads on TV for a local chain of electrical and plumbing stores called Grover. Went in and explained our predicament at the service desk and within 10 minutes were out the door with all three things we needed. An hour after getting home we were washing a load of clothes.