Major Fixer Upper - Picking a Contractor and Surprises Under the Rug!

Our riverhouse need significant work.  SIGNIFICANT.

Lemme just say, I'm super excited.  Can't wait to start using it.   Can't wait.

It is sort of falling down and has holes in it.  It has an electrical panel that was recalled in the 70's because it blew up. It is on a hill in a forest.

There are drop ceilings that squirrels live in.

Some of the work we can do ourselves, but a good bit of it is WAY beyond our abilities.   Plus, I'm 400 weeks pregnant which makes it difficult for me to be involved in tearing down asbestos ceilings and stuff.

Anyway - we have a couple contractors we've met with.

Contractor 1: He came and bid on the project when we were doing inspections.  His bid helped us decide to buy the place.  He gave a lot of free time to the project, advice, and was overall really great to work with.   Found him in the yellow pages.  References say he's expensive but does truly the best in town.  Some people said you have to chase him down a bit or be firm with him on some things.  One reference of similar work, others are medium to large remodels.

Contractor 2: Refered to us by the septic guy that everyone said was great.  Good personality, good listener, great salesman.  References love him and say he does a great job - all references were for jobs that are similar to the one we're doing.  Mostly on-time and mostly under or on budget (or over by $2,000 or so).

Contractor 3: Referred by a family friend.  Not a great listener (I felt like he was ignoring me during walk through).  References love him, but only gave references for smaller jobs than what we're doing.  Bid was 100,000 over our budget (that we gave him).  That only includes the things we NEED done - and we don't even have a real idea of the structural work that needs to be done.

So far, we only have quotes in from Contractor 3.  Contractor 1 said he'd get us a quote by today and Contractor 2 says sometime next week hopefully.

We went up this weekend to meet with a chimeny sweep and inspector to see if we could use the fireplace without burning the place down.  Long story short on that one is that we don't know yet - he said the roof seemed really unstable and had to get a smaller person to do the inspection.  We should know in the next few days.

It was 32 degrees up there this weekend.

Cold.

We prepared well though - brought a sleeping bag for the little guy, mittens, and triple layers (not that he would wear or use any of them).



We also brought his magnetic play sets (he calls them his maps), musical instruments, and a "classic" sesame street DVD.  He VERY rarely gets to watch TV, so we knew if we had to be distracted for awhile, we could trust him to stay put if we put a DVD on the computer.



It worked.

Though we did have MAJOR freakout tantrum when it was time to leave - which we have probably had three of in all of his 2.5 years.  Goes to show that TV is not good for our life.

He also ate an entire adult sized lunch once we left - so he was hungry and on big bird withdrawal.  Not a good combination.

While he was watching TV in a sunbeam, I was talking with the chimney sweep/doing nothing but being pregnant, and Bubbs was checking out under the nasty carpet in the living room.



You can see a little rectangle of dark wood there.  We were hoping that is what we'd find under the entire carpet (we had pulled up  a small area during inspections.

But, as things tend to go with this house, that was So not the case.


Telltale termite pellets  in a few boards (luckily, just a few small areas).


It appears that they painted yellow around a rug in the living room as well and didn't clean up liquid spills very quickly.


We also found some interesting linoleum tiles that had been carpeted over.
All of this "bad" floor news? This is actually good news for me.

I think if we had beautiful floors, the other partners would have wanted to refinish which to me means big buck PLUS the room would be ALL wood - floors, ceilings, and walls.  Now, we get to whitewash the floors - which will add SO much light to the room.

Aren't these pretty?

Source: theaestate.tumblr.com via Mama on Pinterest

Source: femina.dk via Mama on Pinterest

Other exciting news:

Our lemon tree is ROCKIN.


This pretty little flower was blooming away:

Pink gardenia maybe?


Plus, when you actually have chairs in a house, you can find out that the views are better than you thought.

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!

And we use our tiny urban brick patio/backyard

Last weekend was our annual magical weekend.  Hardly Strictly Bluegrass.  It is a three day free music festival in Golden Gate Park.  We skipped last year because T was only three months old and didn't quite have the hang of parenting out of the house yet.

This year, we thought we'd give it a go.

The festival started on Friday this year, so my mom invited her music friends over (these are generally different friends than her "hiking" friends and "writing" friends).

She made gumbo and bought sourdough, I made rice and beans, and we put a bunch of beer in the wedding wine tub / turner's water play bucket.

The pic above is from early in the night, but we eventually fit around 20 people snugly in the backyard.  It was fantastic and I can't wait to do it again.  The rain has come, but apparently it will be beautiful here this weekend, so hopefully we can do it again before winter sets in!

We were planning to use a space heater in the winter, but since we're a one income family, that might have to wait until next year since the good (read: safe) ones aren't cheap!

Summer has Arrived!

yes, that's my naked kid in the galvanized metal wine bucket from our wedding.



Ahh how things have changed :)