Upstairs Hallway

I decided on an eggplant hue for the hallway and left the trim and built-ins white. The art on the walls is honestly just so I don't have to store it anywhere. We will put real thought into what to hang and where later on.

Small built-in. For a telephone?

Larger built-in. What to do with these??

Installing Geothermal Heat/cooling

I have been busy working on the house and am backed up on updates. I just had geothermal heat and air conditioning installed in our home. This involved tearing out the old oil burning furnace and digging up the back yard to lay down pipes that carry water to and from the geothermal unit. I am using the company Geonomic Development to have this done. Below are some photos.

You can see the pipes in his hand coming out from the ground.

More pipes...

Some photos of the unit:

These units are made in the US and distributed right here in Portland.

Here you can see the duct work that was done. We had to add ducts and vents to all the basement rooms.

You can see the footprint of the old giant furnace, which was placed in the middle of the room, inefficiently using space.

Geonomic Development has been really great to work with. We highly recommend contacting them for Geothermal services in Oregon.

We are now generating air conditioning with our backyard! In the Winter, we will be generating heat! I really couldn't explain how it works... I think there is a tiny wizard that lives in the unit who makes it happen. Magic.

*UPDATE 4/10/15: I learned how this happens - it is a heat pump system that brings in air from underground, which is a stable temp year round and heats or cools it to your desired temp. So if it's HOT out and you want AC, bring in the 55* air right out of the ground, instead of cooling down the 95* air from outside. No cooling needed. In the winter, bring in 55* air and heat it to 67* (or whatever) with electricity, rather than trying to heat the outside air (20*-40*) to 67*. Saves money and energy! We have experienced low bills since it was installed 2.5 years ago!

Bathroom (Main Floor)

Shower knob was missing

Unfortunately we don't really have true "before" photos from when we got the house. The bathroom was dirty and full of weird stuff. It had tacky wallpaper boarders around the top of the walls. After we removed all that, here is our progress...

Water in hot water tank was rusty

Jacob (my brother) is painting the bathroom bright red

Jacob looks pleased with the color

Shower Curtain

Door

Wall

Living Room

Just so you know, I have become the queen of craigslist deals and negotiations. :)

We started adding the furniture and the room magically begins to transform.

We got a sweet lamp to go along with the mid-century aesthetic.

Got an awesome rug. You can also see the record player in the background. Ahh... it is all coming together...

Green Tea On The Walls

I am not afraid of dark, cozy living rooms. Especially ones with a fireplace, comfy wing back chairs and hardwood floors. Add an old record player scratching away at an Echo and the Bunnymen album heard somewhere in the background, a delicious novel and a hot cup of tea... THAT is the kind of living room I envision. Hmm.. well, we are getting there.....

Updates:

• Stove circuit is fixed and stove now works!
• Fridge is still acting up... called an appliance doctor, making a house call on Tuesday to get this sorted out.
• Front room (pictured) is now all painted, ceiling, walls, and trim! Time to bring in that record player....

Kitchen First

After a brief period of feeling overwhelmed and not knowing where to start, I finally came to my senses and tackled the kitchen first. Now I am close to having it done. It actually looks safe enough to cook food in there! Unfortunately I discovered the range circuit breaker is broken, so I'll have replace that. Then when I plugged in the fridge (after letting it "settle" of course) it started shutting off (some auto-protection from overheating?). I don't know what the problem is. Tomorrow I will investigate it further.

Too bad I didn't grab any "before" photos. I am planning to remodel the kitchen in maybe a year... right now there is too much to do so I just need to get things clean and working.

Progress

I'm behind on posting, but here are some updates.

The Basement (AKA former Lower Swamp)
Carpet removed, most of the moldy sheetrock removed. Water is drying up, gutter propped up so it won't overflow onto the side of the house anymore (how the water got into the basement in the first place). Much of the garbage is removed. The water heater was not working properly but I got a new thermostat for it and have not had any problems since! Still smells like mildew, I have a ways to go.

Basement Common Room

Basement Common Room

Basement Bedroom #1

Basement Bedroom #2

Basement Bedroom #2

Main floor (AKA Tolerable with potential)
The wood floors have been scrubbed (to be refinished another time), walls washed, paint bought, wallpaper planned, stove coming in 6 days. A lot still needs to be done, but I'm officially moving in on the 1st of May so I've got about three weeks to get the upstairs livable (and to pass insurance inspections).

Front Room - Soon to be pained a light Sage Green/Green tea on the walls, with Cream trim and a white ceiling

Front Room - I also just bought two wing back chairs in a perfectly matching cream color. Yay craigslist deals!

Lots to do still!

Got the house!!

On March 16 I signed the documents. On March 21, the deed was officially recorded as mine.

Much cause for celebration! I all had a lot of doubts as to whether this transaction would actually go through. All of us involved are still surprised. It has been a year-and-a-half in the waiting but it is finally mine.

Now for the "fun" part: restoration.

Timing is everything. I had to leave on the 16th to go out of state for work for a couple weeks, so in the meantime my family stepped up to start tearing out the moldy sheet rock and soggy carpet in the basement, scrubbing the greasy cupboards and disposing of trash. I return home tomorrow to join in the fun. For your "enjoyment" here are some photos of the pretty gross situation... there's a reason this house was so cheap!

Before

After

Here's an update from my mom who jumped in to help (how awesome is that! THANKS MOM!)

Slowly but surely...
Last of the carpet removed from basement. Probably need a new hot water heater; we had a mini flood but it's better now. Worked more on the perma-grease in the kitchen - all upper cupboards are now scrubbed and disinfected even if they may not look clean. Lower cupboards should be easier as they are lined with linoleum squares.
Your father has now met neighbors behind (R and A with preschool son J) and neighbor to the right as you look at the house (D who has a small white dog that we met first.) He also met some other guy who came asking if we had found his gun holster, which we hadn't and the mail man.

That's it for now. Stay tuned...
Emily

Yes, no, yes, no, yes...?

In the past two weeks the following things happened:

• The mortgage company refused to sell me the house (they would rather foreclose it, repossess it, and sell it for less, all the while paying taxes on it, and paying for the repairs for the resale, when they have a seller approved offer in their hands RIGHT NOW??? WTF!?)
• Assuming the house was never going to go through, I looked at other properties. I found one, and put an offer in on it.
• The NEXT DAY the mortgage company (Ocwen) said they would consider approving my offer if I paid 3k of the liens on the house. Uh, oh... but now I have an offer in on another house!
• The offer on the 2nd house was rejected (there were lots of offers in on the house). Whew! Maybe I'll get the house we really want after all!

That's where it stands. I am trying to get Ocwen to put things in writing, since despite having "agreed" to accept my offer in the past, that has all been done via telephone, and they went back on their word. So, we are back in a "you might have the house in a matter of days" period, but if they "unaccept" my offer tomorrow I wouldn't be surprised. We'll see.

Until next time.

Emily