Demo Begins!

After some really frustrating experiences with contractors, we found someone we really like.

He also lives next door to the house!  Don't worry, we checked references.

We meet with the architect to help us draw up plans for the county on Saturday, but we've had him start demo on the carpet, drop ceiling, and floors so we can see what we're up against to get a better idea of budget.

This guy is great because he's really helping us stay in budget (the other two quotes we got were from guys who do amazing finish work, but were about 100,000 over our budget - this is a cabin for us, not a palace or full time home).

He sent a picture today as the work got going.

Before Demo:


After Demo:



The goal is to drywall to the cathedral ceiling and then just spray the ceilings white and keep them open like that. 

This will be a sleeping porch for kids and a sun room on days when the sun gets high enough to pass through the redwood trees. 

We're thinking of a floating engineered hardwood floor in here as well as new windows (these ones are single paned and don't exactly lock).

Hopefully lots of daybeds, board games, and lego activity will happen in this room!

Walking away from our leaking house

As this



And this


(water soaking our garage)

Were happening to our house...

We were here


Completely ignoring it.

Much like the crappy paint job the previous owners put on the inside of the house before they moved, they also did a crappy exterior paint job before we bought it.  The paint all around the house (2 years after we bought it) is cracking and pooling water under it.

We just committed to buying a portion of a falling down river house, have baby coming in four months and an au pair coming from across the world, need to build out our basement to house said au pair, and now we're looking at a full strip, calk and paint job on our house!  Whoop De Doo!  Is it horrible that I'm looking forward to picking out paint colors? 

But...as we're packed and just starting to relax a bit before our 5am flight to paradise, my husband shows me where the rain is actually leaking INTO our house.

Inside the built-ins in the dining room - in a back corner, a giant (like 4in x 4in piece of caulk popped out and behind it a stream of water - and there is more caulk behind that - and the front of the house behind that).  I suppose this is a lesson in not buying a house that used to be a rental.  The owners had no pride in ownership, didn't care about fixing things with long term solutions, etc.

But, we're here in paradise.





It is difficult to get to see my husband's family - they live all over and in difficult places to get to (expensive for three of us and at least two flights and mostly a long ass drive in places where you can't get fresh vegetables, fish, or wine on Sunday).



This is our second "holiday" trip to visit them in a tropical location.

2011 - Sanibel, Florida
2012 - Tulum, Mexico

Bubbs and I honeymooned here and loved every second of it.



And, while we aren't spending quite as much time gazing into each other's eyes, that is actually happening here - with a 2 year old.  This place is magical.

This year we are renting a HUGE house on the beach on Soliman Bay - which is amazing b/c the water is calm and warm and T can safely play at the edge, walk through the water, and be a free-range kid.

He spent the first few days weary of the "waves," the dogs, the new "beach house."

But the dude is ballsy now in a way I've never seen him.

Yesterday, he opened the front door to the house and announced, "I'm leaving for the beach."  He doesn't leave our front door at home!

He's been afraid of dogs his entire life, but is now in love with the dogs that live on the property (though I HATE them since they have woken him up every night with their barking).



He runs back and forth from the water to the sand toys up closer, takes off for "water walks," and has latched onto his auntie, uncle, and grandma, despite only seeing them twice a year at most (plus skype occasionally).




He love "walking his dog."

The place we are staying is fantastic.

Seven days is a long time for vacation, and I honestly wouldn't have loved it if I were not a parent, but I need 7 days to unwind, get into a routine, and really start enjoying myself (by day 3).




The quality time here is something we never get.

Quality time with each other, Tim's family, and our boy.

As we packed for this trip, we kept telling ourselves this was the last one for a long time due to financial obligations.

I'm having a hard time believing that at this point.

More on our trip later - for now my coffee is brewing :)

Very exciting, possibly disasterous decisions

We live in a fog bank.


How many people can say that they wore sweaters and beanies on July 5th?

Well, we've actually had a lovely June. We've had sun almost every day and a high of 70 at least one of those. But every morning there is fog. This will continue until late August, when we'll get a full 4 weeks of regular sun, mid 60's- mid 70's (maybe a day or two above 80), and then it is fall.

I love our little flat, I love our neighborhood in all of its suburban in a city qualities, but I sorely miss sun and heat (not southern heat or tropical heat, just normal California heat. Even if we lived in a different neighborhood, I'm not sure we would get what I want.

Growing up (just 40 minutes North of San Francisco in a little town called Petaluma), in the summer time there might be morning fog, but then it got hot. There was running in the sprinklers, going to the community pool, popsicles in the front yard. There were summer nights that allowed you to keep wearing shorts well into the evening.

I desperately miss the heat.

A friend of ours was playing around with buying a cheap property in the Russian River. An hour and 1/2 North and on a river, there are huge redwood trees, hiking trails, and swimming beaches. There are a ton of wineries and starting to be some groovy food options too.

We go up there pretty regularly, but on a lot of the public beaches, the crowd can get kinda rough. The area, despite a lot of its great qualities, doesn't have a real economy, so some of the people coming to the river to enjoy it, just have different values than we do. And it becomes apparent when they empty their first case of budweiser, start cussing at the kids, and laugh when their kid throws a rock at ours.

Long story short, we got excited about the potential to buy a place up there too, particularly after finding out that there are a couple neighborhoods with HOA's that grant access to private beaches!

Why not throw our money into renting a beach house a couple times a summer? We don't want to plan it months in advance, the mortgage for two months is equal to the rental for one week, and with kids, it takes a long time for them to get used to a vacation house. T likes his own bed (so does his mama), so we want a place he can go for a long long time and get used to it.

Now, we have no real money by San Francisco standards. But, in the grand scheme of things, houses up there are still pretty cheap.

So, we have an offer in on a fixer upper (in the most extreme sense) with a few partners. It is on a private community beach with a little clubhouse and snackbar - think dirty dancing, minus the dirty part (though I would have LOVED a little place like this when I was 13). It is a safe little community where bands of 13 year old girls wander the streets chatting - you can tell they all go up every summer, they chase 13 year old boys on the private beach, and sip cokes at the "bar" in the club house. Little kids, 10 years old, walk to the river with floaties, and everyone is clearly in vacation land.

Our offer was accepted, but after MASSIVE numbers coming back from a pest report (like 2/3 of purchase price, massive) and contractors, we have to renegotiate the terms of the deal.

Mama's gonna have a fantastic time pulling this house together and my pinterest boards are already brimming with ideas :)

I can't wait to close, get my grubby little hands on this disaster, and send the boys to the beach so I can start ripping up that NASTY purple, green, and brown carpet.

They say you should buy a house with good bones. This one has bones that are being eating inside out, but has amazing redwood and notty pine paneling (hidden under false wood paneling from the 70's), beautiful redwood floors (hidden under hideous dirty carpet), and amazing decks (that are about to fall off the hillside onto the neighbor's house).

But we want it anyway.

This is what I've been doing while I've been away from my blog, meeting contractors, learning about septic tanks (ours is a cesspool, by the way), propane gas, and navigating country life.

We're Trading Spaces!

No, not the show - is that still on anymore?

A few months ago we signed up for Homeexchange.com. It is essentially a website that links up homeowners. You post an ad about your house, where you want to go, and then other people contact you (or you contact them) to see if you can make a match in dates, times, and locations!

We paid about $100 to sign up and then the exchanges are free!

Right now, we're mostly interested in exchanges throughout California since flying is expensive and we don't have much vacation time.

Anyway, we made a match with a family who has a vacation home in the Russian River (ahhhhhhh)! They love coming to the city and exploring. We had already made plans for a vacation for this weekend, so our house would be empty - so we'll stay at their place later in the summer.

But - the stress.

Bubbs and I mostly only fight when we have company coming over.

Our house is mostly always only 15-20 minutes from being really well presentable (vaccuum, put away dishes, clean up toys), but when people are coming over all my insecurities come out.

We live in a 50 year old house that has had pretty close to zero upkeep until we moved in (it was a rental).

Anyway, I think I'm insecure about things most people wouldn't notice. I don't think I notice them at other people's homes, but I am sure I'll be judged. Do you notice a little paint on a doorknob? A closet door that stays open just a little bit? Trim that needs painting? A wobbly lampshade? Exterior paint that has scuffs on it?

So...we've had a long list of things to get done before the exchange happens.

So far we've:

1) Organized all the "common" closets




2) Organized the kitchen cupboards


(I didn't take pics of the food cupboards, but they are WAY better).

3) Completely re-vamped the living room and dining room


4) Wrangled the towels and toys in the bathroom



(the toys will get cleaned up before they get here)



5) Re-hug the headboard in our bedroom


6) bought new sheets for all the beds
(I bought some online that were just super thin despite the high thread count - then I went to ross and bought four sets of high threadcount white sheets that ROCK for 1/4 of the price).

What we have left to do:

1. Re-stock our paper towels
2. Clean out the fridge and freezer (the freezer is stocked to the brim but we can transfer most stuff to our chest freezer downstairs)
3. clean out our bedside drawers
4. Clean out my closet (Tim's is always neat and tidy, mine is always a mess).
5. Put away the toddler potty equiptment
6. Finish writing up our "house key" - like what to do if you get locked out, how to use the remote controls, etc.
7. Set up our "guest" station (probably on the dining room table?) with San Francisco maps, guidebooks, history, passes to the zoo and aquarium, etc.

Oh - and then, you know, pack for a three day trip/wedding :)

********

I think it helps a little bit that I was just away for the weekend at a rental house that was just fine. I was looking for those little details but we were having such a great time I didn't even notice.

We're having a housecleaner come the day before they arrive to do the scrubbing of windows and floors and showers. We'll change the sheets right before we leave the house, and cross our fingers that it all works out!

Sanibel Island with a Toddler

There's been silence here. Because I've been in paradise with my family. And. My kid has been A-Mama (ing) (like with an italian accent) me like no body's business.

A few thoughts on our trip:
The Go Go Babyz wheely travel thing was AMAZING. I don't think we could have gotten through our trip without it. Hints: leave it ON when you install the seat on the plane and ask for a seatbelt extender the minute you get on.

Bringing a cooler with food was also fantastic. We had T's soymilk with us along with cheese and other goodies which saved us when things got crazy.

Airlines and Aiports for Toddlers:
San Francisco (SFO) and Southwest were amazingly easy child-friendly experiences. Continental and Ft. Meyer's airport was not. At all. I guess I missed the memo when Continental and United merged, but I specifically bought Continental tickets because I have vowed I will NEVER buy United again after multiple horrible experiences AND bad customer service (or NO customer service) - and then we get to the airport and we're getting on a United plane. LAME.

The way there he was an angel. It was exhausting for us, but he was great as long as he had one of our undivided attention.

The way back coincided with his bedtime and went about three hours past it. So he was horrible. He was tired and couldn't get comfy and then vomited all over everything - including the Ergo, so I had no way to hold him without my arms DYING. Plus, we had a really scary bathroom experience where I had to grip my kid and the walls to ensure we didn't go flying across the plane when major turbulence hit. I have never been more scared in my life. And guilty. NEVER get up - even with a major diarrhea explosion diaper - if the fasten seatbelt sign is on.

Anyway, back to paradise:



We were in Sanibel Island, Florida with my in-laws. We rented the Zyreep (like syrup with a Z) beach house at the Island Inn.

The entire place was fantastic. The roads are flat with separate bike lanes so you can cycle anywhere you need to go. We rented a bike with a baby seat for the week and T LOVED to ride.

It is lush and clean.

And it was 80 degrees. Even when it was a little cloudy or overcast, or those days it sprinkled, it was totally fine.

Thank goodness we got a house, though. I'm not sure T could have handled a hotel room at this point. The kitchen was stocked really poorly (no can opener or salad bowl), but overall good decision.

Amazingly they had all of our favorite grass fed, organic stuff at the local grocery store. Even un-sweeteened organic soy milk (which can be hard to find even in San Francisco). I was able to call ahead and have groceries delivered INTO our house - next time I'll order even more stuff.

Some strange things about Florida:
A lot of people are super bossy. Old ladies telling me what to do with my son. Telling me that I'm playing with him wrong or right. Telling us what bags we have to check. Just generally all up in our business!

I had to let it go and thank GOODNESS they were old or I might have actually put some in their place.

The worst was on the plane after he threw up and we were both still covered in barf. One women comes up with a plastic alligator and says that she thinks maybe he just needs to play with something. The darts of evil must have come out of my head. Like I didn't bring toys for my kid?

Apparently, hippy San Francisco parenting is not appreciated. At one point, I let T go wading in a little water when we were waiting for the touch tank aquarium tour to start (which by the way he was way too young for since he just wanted to splash in it).



I took off his pants and the looks we got were pretty telling that that was taboo. When we were getting out and I was going to re-dress him - a very nervous fast talking man made it VERY clear that we were to use the bathroom to change his diaper (even before any diaper changing started). He must have thought we were all going to get naked or something.

There appeared to be a lot of judgement there, and when I finally talked about this with my in-laws (and bubbs) they explained that much of the South is that way.

I was sure to be aware of other people's feelings and tried to keep him dressed when we were out of our little rental house. Plus, I realize that we probably judge here too, just not over the same things.

Getting to the point: my son would prefer to be naked over dressed. All the time. Floridians would prefer he be fully dressed, socks, shoes, even in 80 degree weather.

Isn't his beach hair amazing?


We slept family style on the very comfy king sized bed...


Bringing the monitor was key and we sat in the yard, eating cheese and drinking Riesling while reading the Times while the baby slept. Which we NEVER get to do.


The amazing skies from our front yard (we had a house within an inn with a few different types of accommodations).


Dude regressed a bit when it came to a bottle - he was kinda obsessed with his bottle and we let him be, since we figured he was in a strange place with new people. He drank it in the sun by the pool.


Why is this picture hilarious to me?


These colors, turquoise and magenta, are all over Sanibel. They are also the colors we're going for in our backyard. Meant to be?


The nature that just washes up on shore was interesting even to me. And usually, I kinda could care less about shells.






Grandma taught T about picking up shells and throwing them in the water on day one. But he would get sad when they would go away and want US to go find them again.


Despite the fact that he hadn't seen her since he was a year old (and such a different baby), upon seeing his Grandma, T ran to her and pretty much didn't let her go the entire time. He would call her name from bed when he woke up in the morning. Well, he would call, "AANNNNMA!"


We made Cioppino - which is a treat in itself - but then my brother in law made home made garlic bread - which was EVEN more amazing. We had homemade bread the entire trip.





Pizza dough from scratch.




I am seriously in mourning for the sunshine and beaches...it was so easy to just bring the boy outside and let him run when he got whiny.


Bubbs rented a paddleboard for an afternoon and T hated when he would go out, but loved to carry the paddle.


How amazing are these beaches?


I was totally floored that bromeliads grow wild here (you know, plants that don't need soil) - in SF they only grow in these cool hangers and at plant shows, but in this "hiding place" they were covering the trees.






Fashion Police: I swear I used to think these hats were child abuse. I know it is horrifying. But my kid wears it and it protects him from the sun.







The pool was his obsession. The best game was blowing bubbles and stealing mama's sunglasses and throwing them into the water. We were all perma-prunes by the end of the vacation.